In April, Katharina Weiland-Zejewski, head of the widow project, Anne-Kristin Henker, programme manager, and Nicholas Koech, former godchild, travelled to the board of Dentists for Africa (DFA) together with their families to Kenya. As volunteers, their goal was the Widow Cooperative St. Monica Village in Nyabondo in the west of the country, which also houses the DFA sponsorship office. They worked here for a week: when new projects were started, in the issuance of donation goods and with their own supporting projects.
Read here Part 1 and Part 2 of the report by Katharina Weiland-Zejewski
Project manager Anne-Kristin Henker distributing school supplies.
Tuesday, 15 April 2025 – today, the sponsored children are receiving their prizes from the Christmas raffle. A little late, you might think, but it’s the first holiday after Christmas and many children can’t leave school before then. The first ones have been waiting since 8 o’clock in the morning and have organised a small programme of entertainment: they sing songs, recite poems and perform dances. While we sweat on our chairs in the sun, lacking any shade, they perform their acts, somewhat intimidated but full of pride. We feel honoured to be able to present them with their prizes, and the children also help with the distribution. School bags, mattresses, shoes and school uniforms are handed out to the most needy of the sponsored children. These are things that will help them to attend school and learn well. The joy is evident on their faces, and we strike up conversations with some of them. ‘Getting this pair of shoes is the best thing ever,’ says one boy happily. ‘Many of us wear broken shoes or ones that don’t fit.’
Paint boxes for the kindergarten
In the morning, we also hand over donated paint boxes and brushes, as well as pictures brought along by schoolchildren, to the kindergarten children of the cooperative. Together we try out the paints – for many of the girls and boys, this is the first time they have held a paintbrush in their hands. They are still a little unsure as they make their first attempts, but when they see our children working purposefully with brushes and paint boxes, they simply copy them – and so colourful pictures are created, which in turn will find their way to Germany as a greeting.
Somehow, it always goes on – completion of the tyre project
Then we get to work. Tyres are washed and painted, and wood is sawn. Unfortunately, the tools there are nowhere near as good as our standard ones, which is why the work takes longer than we would like. But that’s all part of our travel experience. 
It is also fascinating that a solution is always found in the end. In this case, our now grown-up godchild Amos sent us his toolbox by motorbike taxi from Kisumu, 45 minutes away. To our surprise, he also had a jigsaw – he had seen this tool for the first time in 2014 during our last visit, when Marco had brought his own jigsaw with him. By the end of the week, we will have built seesaws, a water play area and planters. We will also have built two riding animals, one for each nursery group. The widows are so enthusiastic about the giraffe and zebra that they now want to rename the classes the giraffe class and the zebra class.
(Continued: In part 4, Katharina reports on moving life stories of HIV-positive widows and meeting her now adult godchild.)