2020 KIDS Initiative Video:
KIDS Initiative Inc. has been focusing on enriching the lives of children through facilitating sustainable solutions in developing communities for over 10 years!
We would like to extend our sincerest thanks to you for choosing KIDS Initiative, for understanding and adopting our mission in enriching the lives of children, and for choosing to be a global citizen and impact the lives of others.
Now, more than ever, is a time to collaborate, educate, and live more!
A message from our Founder/President:
KIDS Initiative Inc. has been focusing on enriching the lives of children through facilitating sustainable solutions in developing communities for over 10 years, and I can honestly say that we have not yet experienced a year as the one we’re presently faced with.
While the coronavirus (COVID-19) touched down in our country and the country of those we work with, we were faced with uncertainty and an immediate need to measure everyone’s safety and our ability to become as adaptable as possible.
While protestors scoured the globe to speak up against systemic racism, we saw great pain, violence, and our communities shaken to the core. As global citizen’s, we chose to listen, learn, and educate.
And while we continue to review the 2030 agenda for sustainable development adopted by the UN in 2015, we recognize that we have a lot of work to do.
As our vision states, we want a world where everyone lives more and suffers less, and we do this through bettering the lives of children by helping to alleviate poverty, facilitating sustainable food and water solutions, advancing education, and improving health – all aligning with some of the major sustainable development goals. This past year may have presented us with some challenges we could not anticipate, however, we continued to keep our heads up, our hearts open, and were determined as ever to enrich the lives of children!
We saw our Lemolo IDP (Internally Displaced Peoples) Camp Borehole Project come to completion and were so very excited to announce the retirement of this program due to sustainable status being met. When KIDS began supporting this community, individuals were still developing shelter out of government subsidized tarps and wood, as well as trying to meet even the most basic needs of food and water. Over the years we have supported this community through school equipment, water tanks and tapping, a harvest irrigation project to support the schools feeding programs, an agriculture and food security project enabling an income generating business to every family in the community, and finally the water borehole project allowing for the sustainability of their crops during times of drought and safe clean water for drinking, cooking, and cleaning.
We were also able to support our Kieni Fighters of HIV/AIDS (KFHA) program by renovating their space to allow for proper structure, lighting, electricity, and security. We also supported the women and families of KFHA through a donation of food for those struggling with a steady income during the unprecedented pandemic.
Last, we pitched a project for the Kieni Fighters of HIV/AIDS Resource Centre for Women & Girls. This program will both enhance current services and address significant gaps in service and support. Specifically, a preventative program to holistically address the behavioural, biomedical, and structural risks of HIV/AIDS infection in Kieni, Kenya will be formally implemented. This program will provide educational workshops, HIV/AIDS testing, and treatment along with incentives to increase access and completion of education. The Centre aims at addressing the feminization of HIV/AIDS in Kieni, Kenya. This is all thanks to the Fund for Innovation and Transformation (FIT), a program of the Inter-Council Network of Provincial and Regional Councils (ICN) made possible through funding from Global Affairs Canada and administered by the Manitoba Council for International Cooperation (MCIC). In January 2022, should this project render itself successful, we will retire this program mand look at adopting further programming in other developing communities worldwide!
On behalf of the entire team, I want to extend our sincerest thanks to you for choosing KIDS Initiative. For understanding and adopting our mission in enriching the lives of children. For choosing to be a global citizen and impact the lives of others.
Now is a time to collaborate, educate, and live more!!!
Cat Ross
