As many of you probably know, Peter Mwashi Litonde is the beginning of Smiles Africa. He himself grew up in the Slum Korogocho in Kenya and initiates projects since his youth. Always driven by his ideology, his mind always comes up with partially extraordinary project-ideas, that improve the life of people in Korogocho and steers their future into a brighter direction. This enthusiasm gets you and it sticks. You get an idea of the impact you can have with just so little tools you’re given. One of the people Peter affected with his mindset was the student and volunteer Ravi. He promised Peter, to spread his message after he returns to Germany and kept his word. Through Ravis connection to the catholic University of Mainz a presentation was organized. Peter talkes about social development in the Slum, by changes from the inside.

We want to use this opportunity to give you a better insight about the overall situation in Kenya, our work as well as about all the projects your donations supported us, that made a huge impact on the children´s life.

To be honest, to organize Peters stay in Germany was pretty difficult. The amount of organization cannot be compared to a German citizen trying to visit Kenya.

Starting with all the documents you need request in Germany, to all the signatures and obligations you are tight to. You also need an official invitation, which we as the organization and the university could announce. To proof that our visitor will leave the country after his stay is a lot of work thanks to the German bureaucracy. With this step done, it was still uncertain if all the original documents would make back safe through the Kenyan postal service. But that wasn´t even the biggest challenge.  At that time, the German embassy in Kenya seems to be responsible for a few other neighboring countries as well. Thereby people that live under life threatening situation and apply to a visa naturally are preferred when it comes to appointments. Due to our lack of time, we needed a plan to speed up the process. The many phone calls, contacting old friends that somehow might have connections to the embassy were very time and power consuming. But sometimes you just need a little luck. Peter discovered a canceled appointment during his hourly checks in the embassy´s online register and took the chance.

Note to us: Start much earlier for missions like these.

So thanks to all the hard work by our members, you can listen to Peters exciting stories nearby. So join us and experience more about the work in Korogocho.