From wanderlust to wandering...help us get to Kenya!

After our 2023 Gala on October 5th, we still have 25% of our goal to raise. That last 25% will pay for Brad & Cherie's airfare for the coming year! So, we're asking you to Give to help us Go for this Giving Tuesday.

How can you help?

Donate
Buy items from our online auction
Create a fundraising team. You don't have to set a fundraising goal, but you can help us increase engagement and creative fundraising which helps us have a chance to win a Giving Tuesday Grant.
Share our page on social media.
Contact us for your own creative ideas. We love to hear them.

We have so many inspiring stories to share, stories of young women who do incredible work with just a little education.

Meet Jennifer. When we met her, she was 19 years old, a single mother of twin girls. She shared with us a horrific trauma story. She dropped out of school when she started her period. She asked us to support her younger sisters who were still in school with menstrual pads so that they would not face the same trauma that she had. She saw her future as bleak, but she wanted us to make sure her sisters had a chance to finish school. She said it was too late for her.

We listened to her story. We helped her sisters, but we refused to believe it was too late for Jennifer to finish school and have a brighter future. Foothold sponsored her to take night school classes and to sit for her diploma. Jennnifer proved to be a bright and hard-working young women. She devoted herself to her studies all the while volunteering with Foothold. She helped our local women's group make pads. She helped deliver them, and then she began telling her own trauma story to young women. The students, the teachers were enthralled with her testimony, her courage, her communication skills. Soon, schools all over the region were asking her to visit them, to share her story.

Now Jennifer is a full-time staff of Foothold. She oversees the production of the washable menstral pads. She delivers them, tells her story and provides menstrual hygiene education.

Check out our video on Youtube & Tiktok by Dray Stewart

We have been so blessed to get to know Dray Stewart who generously put together these videos. We are inspired by his intense creativity and his compassionate heart for young women in Kenya. Check out his facebook to see the amazing things his is up to. https://www.facebook.com/dray.stewart.14/

Creative people like Dray make such a difference in our work. Several years ago, photographer, Jamie English followed us for a week. We are so grateful for her talent and for helping us capture and document the incredible people we work with and for. Find Jamie's photography here: https://jamieenglish.com

A big part of our work is going behind the scenes, meeting people in their homes and places of worship to follow up and build relationships.

Photographer, Jamie English followed us and helped us document the stories of our work. Much of our time in Kenya is spent doing just this, following up with recipients and stakeholders, so it was incredible to have such a talented woman along to capture these moments. Dorcus is HIV positive and received one of our Biosand Filters as part of our strategy to place these filters in a small rural Kenyan community in homes that had a family member with HIV.

She was married and living in this small home that she and her husband built with their own hands. You can see the handmade bricks behind her. Her home was small, but well-organized with kindling for cooking and pots. You can also see the dark bricks behind Brad where she cooks her meals in the same room where she sleeps. The space actually provided some beautiful natural lighting for this interview.

What we remember about Dorcus was how meticulously she took care of her filter and how much she was so excited to share with us how it helped her manage her HIV medications and improved her health dramatically. But what we will never forget about her was the profound sense of hope she had for the future and how confidently she stood in the midst of such challenging circumstances.

Help us this Giving Tuesday continue to support powerful women like Jennifer, Dorcus, and so many others.

BEHIND THE STORIES

Friends of Foothold,

I hope all is well with you.

The interview scene above is what you would see if you were with me that day nearly 10 years ago as I sat with Dorcas for an interview in the tiny town of Chala, Kenya.

Unless you were with me during this interview, you may look a this picture and surmise it is just Brad speaking with some woman in a mud house, yet the story behind this picture is so so much more nuanced than that.

You see, this is what Cherie and I do when we go to Kenya. Beyond visitng our projects, we sit, we laugh, we sing, we dance, we embrace, and we listen more than we speak. We have a cup of tea, we weep, we pray for healing, but most of all...we strive to do what Jesus tells us to do - that is to long-suffer with those He calls us to reach. Not always perfect, but we do our best.

Your prayers, wisdom, encouragement, and support over the last 20 years means the world to Cherie and me, as well as our friends in Kenya. Your partnership keeps us going in the good times, and when times get tough. We may not always see a way out, yet because of you standing with us we see a way through.

On this Giving Tuesday, help us meet our year-end financial goal. Today is the day you can help us finish 2023 strong, and enter 2024 financially confident.

We still need $5,000 to meet our year-end financial goal. Follow this link to donate to our GIVE 2 Go campaign.

With gratitude,

Brad Catron

Cofounder

Foothold International

Give To Go

Help send Brad & Cherie back to Kenya