Our Second Annual Yard Sale was a Success!

On September 12, 2015, Kuamini held its second annual garage sale in Burford, Ontario! This was a huge success and we thank everyone who brought pre-loved items to be sold and who stopped by our sale. At the end of the day, we raised over $1500, which was more than last year.

We were wondering what the weather would be like, since the weather reports were calling for rain all weekend. But other than a few moments of drizzle, we had a rain-free day, which contributed to making the day much more enjoyable and successful!

In addition to selling used items, we also had a small bake sale with items brought in from our volunteers. Our president, Jackson, also made Kenyan doughnuts called mandazi, which were a huge hit! We will upload a recipe in our next post for you adventurous chefs to try! If you make some, send us a photo and show us how they turned out!

Kenyan Mandazi (Doughnuts)

As well, we featured some beautiful artisanal crafts brought back from Kenya. The artisans there make beautiful bead jewellery, artwork and figurines. We still have a few pieces left over, so look for them at our next fundraising event!

Our Kenyan Artisanal Crafts

Not all of our yard sale items were sold at our sale, but they did not go to waste. Everything that was left was donated to another local charity, Pennies for Freedom, who are dedicated to fighting human trafficking.

Finally, we would like to thank all of the volunteers that make Kuamini a possibility. We have a dedicated team that worked tirelessly on collecting items, transporting them and setting up for the sale. They are the driving force behind our organization!

Jaclyn, Jackson and Jennifer

Jackson telling customers about Kuamini’s projects

Clothing Drive

After a HUGE effort on the parts of our Board members, our fabulous volunteers and an amazing amount of donors; our clothing drive for Kuamini was a HUGE success! We are talking 16, 851 pounds of success as that is what we were able to collect. This large amount of clothing and household items has yielded us a cheque of just over $2200! This money will go a long way to help us achieve our goals in Kenya. We are currently building a latrine, running a food program and running an awesome education program as well. We have so much to be proud of!

Here are a few photos from the clothing drive and also a few photos from the team Kenya, showing our new latrine!

We are currently running an online trunk sale of beautiful Stella and Dot accessories as our most current fundraiser. You can shop online from the comfort of your own home by following the link on our Facebook page. A portion of the sales will be going to Kuamini.

We are also in the planning stages of a golf tournament fundraiser. This will be a fun event in Brant County. A truly wonderful way to spend time on the golf course and raise money for a wonderful cause.

If you haven’t started to follow us on Facebook yet now would be the perfect time. There are lots of photos and updates to let you know what Kuamini is up to!

Garage Sale Fundraiser

On Saturday we held very first fundraiser…a garage sale. It was a great success! Thanks to the donations within the community, the hard work of our volunteers and of course to our “customers” who purchased items at the sale. We managed to generate enough funds to build our very first latrine in Kenya! It feels really good to see our first event become a success. It just goes to prove that when we set our minds to something and we all help…great things happen!

Garage Sale Fundraiser

Our board members had a meeting on Monday and I find myself really inspired by the people on “Team Kuamini”. A really positive, fun and compassionate group of people. One of us will get an idea and from it, sparks ten more ideas from all of our creative minds.

One of the major topics of discussion that we tackled in the board meeting was fundraising. It’s really  the next step that we need to make in order to progress with getting the word out about Kuamini and starting to do the work we need to do in Kenya.

We brainstormed many fundraising ideas and we are going to be starting these initiatives in just a few weeks! The first thing we are doing is a garage sale in Paris Ontario. We are going to sell good, used items and also delicious baked goods. The funds that we raise at the sale will go towards renting a booth at another event which will give us the chance to get the word out about Kuamini and also to raise more funds so that we can purchase mosquito nets and possibly construct latrines in Kenya.

If you live in Brant county and would like to either donate goods, volunteer at the sale or shop at the sale we’d love to hear from you!! You can leave a message here or contact us on facebook.