GUA Africa currently supports eighteen young people studying in Kenya and Uganda, who have all survived against unimaginable odds. Some were forced to fight as child soldiers in Southern Sudan, two survived the genocide in Rwanda which claimed the rest of their family, and all trekked hundreds of miles as children to seek safety in the UN refugee camp at Kakuma, NW Kenya. Most of them are orphaned, and have no homes they can return to or extended family to support them.

GUA has linked each of them with individual sponsors who pay their school fees, and all of them are studying hard to catch up on the years of education they missed. Because they have missed so much schooling, they are often learning alongside children much younger, but they have such a thirst for education that this does not deter them. They know that if they can finish their schooling they stand the best chance of either making a new life for themselves in Kenya or returning to their homeland with the skills to help rebuild their former communities. Some of the group have even begun proceeding onto university, with one due to graduate this November as a fully qualified Doctor.

Paying for their education is only part of the story however, and GUA Africa needs your support to help pay for their housing, food, clothing and other basic living expenses.

There is no welfare system or free medical care in Kenya, so they are totally dependent on GUA Africa to support them in every way, and if we fail to do so adequately all our and their efforts will have been in vain. With your donations we are able to rent a house for them in a safe part of Nairobi, from where many of them are able to travel to school, college or university. Our aim is to guide them into young adulthood not just through education but by helping them acquire the life skills needed to forge new relationships and find means of supporting themselves.

Any donation, no matter how small, will make a real difference to the future lives of these young people. For those of you who commit to a regular donation, we will happily supply regular updates on the group's progress and facilitate communication with them if you would like.

On the next pages you can read testimonies from two of the group, plus appeals for sponsorship from people we would next like to help.

For more information please contact
ruth@gua-africa.org