Big dreams and small footsteps

It's that time again.

I am preparing for another trip to Kisumu. I feel a mixture of anticipation and excitement at seeing old friends again and sadness that I will be away from home for a couple of weeks.

It's always good to see Moses and I am really looking forward to meeting up with him. 2011 has been a hard year for him. We always struggle in January and February.

We have so many children who need an education, whose hopes for the future rest on getting through primary and hopefully secondary school.

But the fees are crippling. I don't know how ordinary Kenyans manage.

It costs about £350 to put a child into secondary school, and then you have to buy uniforms and books and shoes and all sorts of things on top.

We have more than 30 children in secondary school this year, children we believe are the Isaiah Trust's family. In return for support, love and care we expect the children to work hard and make the most of the opportunity they have. For some this is easy, but others struggle with the discipline required to study and with sitting in classes with children much younger.

There isn't an easy answer, I guess if there was then many of the problems that have beset the continent, let alone just this country that I have grown to love, would be solved by better men than I.

It's just that, when we are trying so hard to get our children into schools and to give them the best that we can give, the schools don't seem to want to help.

They have become really petty in checking all the equipment is correct. One child was sent home from secondary school where they had reported because they didn't have the correct tupperware plate, another may have been missing a jumper. Not a reason, I don't believe, to deny them classes at the start of the school year. Not when we are running around trying to get lots of different children into lots of different schools.

How is a country going to get out of poverty when it sends its children home from school for stupid reasons.

I have felt really sorry for Moses and Paul James. Normal parents have 2 or 3 children to sort out, but every January they have nearly 100. I don't know where we would be without their faithfulness and their love for the children.

So I am going to spend 10 days in Kisumu. I plan to visit schools and meet with some of the headteachers, encourage the children to do well in their exams. This is the fruit of the hard work that Moses puts in.

As for the children, I will carry good wishes from England, encourage them in the studies and try to give them a picture of hope for their futures.

Big dreams start from small footsteps