Our story · 2001–2026
“What was it that led a wee girl from Ballysallagh to Kenya?”
That is the question Janet Wilson, GIFT’s co-founder and chair, asks in her talk Full Circle. Her answer begins with a house full of books and early fundraising for Barnardo’s. In 2001 it took her to Kenya.
2001–2006
Beginnings
Two volunteers, a teacher-training workshop, and the start of a lasting commitment to Kenya.
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2001
Janet Wilson and Catherine Gleave travel to Kenya as self-funded volunteers to run environmental education workshops. More than 30 teachers and educators take part.
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2001
First partnership, with KICOSHEP in Kibera, Nairobi: desks, chairs and science equipment, and a day at Nairobi National Park for the children.
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Early years
On their first visit to the Maasai Mara, the founders meet community elders and help fund a school building, which later grows into Enkereri school.
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2001–2006
Regular return visits. Further classrooms, a trained local teacher, and textbooks in the local language.
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2006
The first supporters’ trip. Supporters take on fundraising challenges and meet the communities their money supports.
2007–2014
A registered charity
“A leap of faith”: GIFT International is born, and the work grows into beekeeping, crafts, cattle and tree nurseries.
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2007
Janet and Catherine apply for charitable status and GIFT International is born. Supporters can now Gift Aid their donations.
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2009
Supporters’ trip: from the coast up the Rift Valley to see progress at Enkereri School, ending at the MAGSA women’s cattle project near Ngong.
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2011
Supporters’ trip in August. Back home, a Black Tie New Year’s Eve fundraiser is run in GIFT’s support by Randalstown & District Beekeepers.
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2007–2014
Old-site projects: Ujumula crafts, beekeeping, women’s cattle projects, trench gardens, tree nurseries, CPD for teachers and a pilot university scholarship with A Rocha Kenya.
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2012–2014
Fundraisers across Northern Ireland: a table quiz, a blues night at the Errigle Inn, a honey cookery masterclass and a film evening.
2015–2019
Steady work
Projects continue quietly in Kenya while supporters at home keep the fundraising going.
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2015
A barbecue masterclass, cooking with honey, hosted by supporters in Knockloughrim.
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2018
Blues evenings with Scott Ainslie at Clandeboye and Garrison, and an afternoon tea in Knockloughrim.
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December 2019
The last project visit before the pandemic.
2020–2022
Pandemic
Events stop and borders close, but because GIFT budgets a year ahead, the projects keep going.
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2020
Lockdown, locusts and floods in Kenya. One community reports that the measures put in place over the years are helping them through.
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2020
The Mother & Baby project begins as a pilot in Transmara.
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2020
The cleft palate fund opens, but the surgery has to wait.
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2021–2022
Projects are kept going remotely through trusted contacts. In years of drought, GIFT sometimes steps in with food. New woodlots are planted at Gede.
2023–2026
Return & renewal
Back in Kenya, with new enterprises, the first cleft surgeries, clean cooking, water and a project handed over to its community.
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2023
Smart Gift Fashion Studio opens, giving work to deaf school leavers.
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November 2023
The first visit since Covid. The Honey Centre is nearly complete, and more than 70 people come to a Mother & Baby gathering.
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October 2024
Supporters’ trip with visitors from Canberra and Ireland. The Mara community votes to fund maternity care through cattle.
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December 2024
GIFT funds its first cleft palate operation.
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2025
Gas cookers for 90 Maasai households, water for Laikipia, a mangrove apiary, two more cleft operations, and Mother & Baby moves into community hands.
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2026
25 years since the first trip. GIFT sponsors the Ilamaiyo Bee Run in Laikipia.
The next chapter
Twenty-five years on, the work continues, and so does our need for support.