Support My Volunteer Trip to Mbita, Kenya

Vanesa Nikolova Start Date: Dec 1, 2024 - End Date: Mar 31, 2025
  • Mbita, Kenya

My Travel Story

by: Vanesa Nikolova Start Date: Dec 1, 2024 - End Date: Mar 31, 2025
Hello... family, friends, acquaitances and complete strangers, who will happen to come accross this fundraiser <3

My name is Vanesa, a 24-year-old graduate in Journalism, polyglot speaking 8 languages (and on her way to learn number 9 and 10), born in the Southeastern part of Europe, but currently doing a seasonal job in Finnish Lapland. As you may already suspect, I do call myself a citizen of the world. Besides learning foreign languages and traveling, I love writing and reading, astrophysics, watching sports and listening to music. The genre is of no particular importance as I enjoy anything from classical and movie soundtracks to kpop and metal...

And last but not least, I find exceptional satisfaction in the act of helping others and making them feel seen and heard. It may be because I was once someone who needed a helping hand, battling a severe stage of a restrictive eating disorder back in high school. Shortly after my recovery journey came to an end I realized I wanted to help other people escape the devilish grip of this mental disorder and that's exactly what I've been doing for the past 6-7 years. So... this thirst for helping people in need finally led me to the decision of pursuing a volunteering experience in Africa, which has been on my agenda ever since middle school.

Now let me tell you more about the place that I'd chosen for my volunteer trip. NISSII Christian Academy is a community educational initiative founded by Dr. Jacob Ogweno in the small Kenyan town of Mbita in 2004 to promote educational objectives and related services with a view of creating hope and inspiration to orphans and vulnerable children of ages 3-14 years from the local community and immediate neighborhoods of Kisui village. Some of the challenges that the children in the region are currently facing (among many others) include: child labor, early commercial sexual practices to get income for their families, physical abuse and bullying, domestic violence, etc. The motto of NISSII Christian Academy is as follows: Creative education for self-responsibility. As it goes for its core values, they are stated as honesty, integrity, accountability and transparency. 

The school offers different types of volunteering activities and my goal is to participate in any of them that are urgent at the moment of my trip, e.g: teaching, childcare, content creation, etc. I plan to stay for a period of 2-4 weeks.

Currently the school is running several different projects that require additional funding and working hands. For example: daily operational funds (500 Euro monthly for the purchase of stationary, learning materials, electricity bills, etc.); staff salaries (around 3122 Euro per month), nutrition programme fund (1000 Euro per month), etc. For additional information on the projects and NISSII Christian Academy itself, email nissiichristianacademy@gmail.com or visit their social media pages or website. You can also dive into the volunteering journey of a fellow Bulgarian at her Instagram page - @dessy_travels, where she has a bunch of videos and stories that will lead you through her stay in Mbita earlier this year.

I am organizing everything about the volunteering trip on my own, I won't be going with the mediation  of any big agency, and the money I am fundraising will be used for:
  • purchasing round trip flight tickets to Kenya
  • vaccinations
  • visa&passport expenses
  • daily fee charged by NISSII Christian Academy (5$ per day)
  • travel insurance
  • other transportation expenses (e.g. reaching Mbita from the airport in Nairobi)
The money, if any, that are left unspent on any of the upper stated things, will be used for buying school supplies for the kids studying at NISSII Christian Academy or as direct donations to the school.

Big thanks to every single one of you who took their time to read this and possibly support me and the kids of Mbita <3
  • Mbita, Kenya

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