Banquet 2020 Update

Cherie Catron — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 02:43:33 +0000

In response to current circumstances this year, we are changing our banquet to an online format. We look forward to gathering together in person in the future.

We still need your help as hosts to encourage your friends and family to tune in. We will be updating this blog as the date gets closer.

#1 Be a Virtual Host

Date: Thursday, October 17, 2020 7pm
Your role as a Virtual Host is to introduce people within your circle of influence to get involved and support Foothold International.
Because this will be online, the location is flexible.
If this date and time does not work for you and your friends, we have a plan for alternative dates-times, so let us know as soon as possible.
When planning, please consider CDC guidelines as they are updated frequently.

#2 Technology

We are still planning our mode of technology and will update you as soon as we have it finalized. If you need any help and would like for us to meet with you or come to your home for a trial run, we are more than happy to do so.
We will be holding a Supporter’s Update Event 4 weeks prior which is a good time to hear updates on the ministry, but also to test run the technology prior to the event.

#3 Invite

It’s best to invite via personal contact: right now by phone call is safest. (Other mediums such as text, email or Facebook are good for reminders).
Invitations are also included in the packet if you would like to mail invitations.
Be strategic–Consider those who may become:
- financial supporters
- prayer warriors
- people who may have ministry connections

#4 Complete Table Guest information form

Form can be emailed to you (link will be available here for an online version)

#5 Remind & Confirm Guests

Remind them a few days before
If you have cancellations, please invite others to join if possible and encourage them to login from another location. We will be recording the event, so as the date gets closer, we will have information on how to access the recording.
Consider using multiple mediums (email, phone call, personal contact, Facebook, Instagram, text…) to remind & confirm they will attend.

RSVP Here!

April 2020 Update

Cherie Catron — Sat, 30 May 2020 02:10:18 +0000

Our Covid Response Update: April 2020

Foothold faced a new challenge threatening our ongoing projects in rural Kenya. In late March, Kenyan schools shut down in response to Covid-19. Our three groups in Kenya making soap for their public schools with support from Pacha Soap Co. contacted us right away to ask how they should respond.

Honestly, our focus was on the immediate food crisis on the ground, so we told them to pause for a few days for us to contact Pacha Soap Co. and formulate a thoughtful response as we gathered information on the ground.

Within a few days, we received word that local school leaders reached out to all three groups to request we assist them in providing soap.

Teachers, administrators and community leaders stepped up to help deliver soap, concerned their students were at home and more than ever needed soap to help prevent the spread of Covid-19

As part of our soap partnership, the community agreed to protect the school soap. Our groups make the school soap a distinct purple color that if seen in someone’s home gets reported to local officials to address. However, under the circumstances because we were so encouraged by their desire to help and volunteer their time, it was an easy decision to make an exception and pivot our outreach to their homes.

Each of our groups jumped into action, working with school and community leaders to deliver the soap in the homes and at water sources. Foothold took this as an opportunity to provide washable menstrual pads, handmade masks, and food staples that were desperately needed.

An added benefit to this community response was that soap was provided to young Maasai boys who have not been allowed to attend school. One of those boys, Saidimu Lekimani, is pictured. He attended our adult education program we launched in January of this year because he has to tend cattle for his family during the day, but he wanted to learn to read and write.

Because of our work with the Maasai community in the area, Maasai men were also eager to receive the handmade masks and to learn about hand washing hygiene. Reaching these largely illiterate Maasai men to help sensitize and educate them is one of Foothold’s most challenging goals.

Jennifer Moses, one of our young leaders of the women’s group in Njoro took the initiative to meet children at the local spring, instructing them on hand washing hygiene.

We are incredibly grateful for our ongoing partnership with Pacha Soap Co. that has just proven more critical during this time.

Covid-19 Response – Foothold International