[yellowdog-announce] Terra Soft Requests Funds for Kenyan Orphanage -- 25 January 2008

[Announce List for all Terra Soft products (moderated)]

\KENYAN ORPHANAGE RECEIVES 30 CHILDREN; NEEDS SUPPLIES

NAKURU, Kenya - 25 January 2008 - Following the controversial Presidential 
elections in December, Kenya is experiencing violence that has left an 
estimated quarter million people uprooted or homeless and several hundred 
dead.

This week the Pistis Academy & Orphanage has received 30 new children whose 
parents have been killed or homes destroyed. While the Red Cross is working 
to sustain an estimated 2,000 people now given shelter in a ball park in 
Nakuru center, no additional funding has been offered by the Kenyan 
government to help support those new children at Pistis.

In August of 2007, Terra Soft CEO Kai Staats traveled to Kenya through Student 
Project Africa Network (SPAN) to Nakuru, 3 hours northwest of Nairobi, where 
he lived and worked with the children and faculty of the Pistis to improve 
the water supply, electricity, and food storage systems.

"My host family, the Wekesas, have been keeping me informed of the situation, 
sometimes every few hours. It has been both incredible and very difficult for 
me to receive these communications for I cannot know what it is like to see 
the world around me unravel as they have. A questionable election invoked a 
frustrated violence which has now fallen to general lawlessness, gangs of 
young boys burning homes, gun shots by day and night. While Nakuru was 
relatively quiet in comparison to Nairobi and other hot-spots, a recent 
series of emails and phone calls from my friends have made it clear this 
remains a very scary time," offers Staats.

        To read text messages & emails sent from Pistis:
        http://blogs.ydl.net/kai/category/out-of-africa/

Staats continues, "While I do not know how to reduce the violence, I do know I 
have the power to channel funds to the orphanage where I worked, to support 
the children I came to know and those whom have just arrived. I ask that you 
consider a donation to Pistis to help purchase blankets, soap, clothing, and 
food at a time when the prices have risen five-fold and supplies are 
increasingly hard to obtain due to interrupted distribution channels. This is 
a critical time for Pistis. We must move to assist them now."

All donations will be routed through SPAN to Cameron Dunkin, an executive 
board member of SPAN who is in Nakuru now, working with Pistis to help 
accommodate the new arrivals. SPAN will move 95% of all funds received 
directly to Pistis where its dispersal will be overseen by Cameron, ensuring 
the full effectiveness of your donation.

        To provide a donation to Pistis:
        http://studentprojectafricanetwork.org/forms/donation/


About Student Project Africa Network
Student Project Africa Network (SPAN), founded by Truman Scholar Rebecca 
Mitchell, offers a conduit between volunteers and Pistis to further the 
construction of facilities, improve the foundation for education, and give 
the children hope for something beyond their immediate needs.

For more information, visit www.studentprojectafricanetwork.org


About Terra Soft Solutions, Inc.
As the recognized leader in Linux for Power since 1999, Terra Soft provides 
Yellow Dog Linux board support for Power architecture chip vendors and OEMs; 
turn-key, integrated solutions built upon IBM, Mercury, and Sony systems, 
including the PS3; and cross-architecture Linux applications for high 
performance computing, including Y-HPC Cluster Construction Suite and the 
Y-Film Asset Management System. 

Terra Soft recently completed the design of a new website for SPAN, 
implementing a complete server-side communication and project management 
system to enable SPAN to effectively expand its reach with limited increase 
in resource expenditure.

For more information, visit www.terrasoftsolutions.com


PS3 is a registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Power is a 
trademark of IBM. YDL, Y-HPC, and Y-Film are registered trademarks of Terra 
Soft Solutions. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Additional 
product and company names mentioned may be trademarks and/or registered 
trademarks of their respective holders.