About the organisation
Tushinde Children's Trust works to provide family strengthening and support in two informal settlements in Nairobi Kenya. Established by a British nurse, Megan Wright, in 2010, our targeted programmes and dedicated social workers provide tailored family care and access to education for the poorest families. We help families strengthen and stay together. We provide families with a path from crisis to independence. We support families to help children thrive.
The programmes include support for children to attend school, a fostering programme, and day care support so that parents and caregivers in the community are able to work and improve their life opportunities. Success for Tushinde has seen an increasing number of families graduate from the programme to go on to positive lives, with new families in need taking their place.
Most people in the communities we serve are under 30. More than half of the children are thought to experience malnutrition at some point in their lives, and unemployment is estimated to be around 80%. The informal settlements consist of roughly constructed mud, tin or wooden one-roomed huts with no electricity and no sewage system. Access to water is usually from a single shared tap, typically serving 100 dwellings. The average population per hut is eight persons.
When we take a child on to our books, the life of that child is in turmoil. He or she might be mourning the death of a parent and living with extended family or perhaps the whole family has been evicted and have nowhere to sleep that night.These children have multiple problems. It won’t just be HIV in the family; over 70% of the families we work with are affected by HIV/AIDS, and there will be other issues such as malnutrition, mental health problems and dangerous levels of debt. Very often the caregiver is an aunt, grandmother or even a neighbour who has taken in children who have lost both their parents. 18% of the children we work with are double orphans and 70% live in a single-headed household.
We help these families during their crisis and then we work with them to create a long safe, nurturing and stable environment for the children
About the role
We're seeking a new chair of Trustees for the Tushinde UK Board, following the resignation after five years of our previous Chair, Ian Stanlake. The key elements of the role are to chair meetings of the UK Trustee Board, attend Kenyan Board meetings, and to act as a point of contact for the UK Country Director. These one-to-one meetings may be relatively brief, but typically take place every week. The Chair also plays a lead role in overseeing transfers of money to Kenya to pay for our work and services, and ensuring that there is sufficient income to guarantee the charity's long term financial health. For this reason we are looking to appoint someone with a wide range of financial accument and enable the board to make sound decision.
There will be occasional meetings needed with the chair of our Kenyan Board and with the Kenyan country director.
You'll provide elements of leadership, governance and oversight to our work, bringing out the best of the skills and competencies of the UK Board, and ensure that decisions made are in the best interests of our families and their communities. There will be modest preparation required before each Board meeting, primarily in liaising with the UK and Kenyan Country Directors. Board meetings range over many topics, but we typically will always table reports on finance and fundraising, and hear an update from the Kenyan Country Director on all elements of our support programmes.
We typically have four (virtual) Board meetings per year, with occasional ad hoc meetings if they are required. We estimate the time required as being around 8-10 hours per month. The UK Board has a strong range of skills and experiences in finance, fundraising and education, and is a constructive and welcoming group.
The UK Board plays a key role in fundraising, so ensuring that plans are in place to engage, ask and thank donors at all levels is an important element of the work. This is a time of financial pressure for Tushinde, primarily because of rising costs of employment in Kenya, and in response we have recently made the decision to hire a fundraiser in the UK for the first time. That new appointee will report to the UK Country Director.
Our ideal candidate
Our ideal candidate would connect strongly with the aims and values of Tushinde; they would want to see families who have grown up in very difficult circumstances have the opportunity to flourish and live successful independent lives. Our Chair will combione strong organisational skills with empathy and a commitment to our core aims of improving the life chances of children and families in Mathare and Kiambiu.
It would be very helpful to have had some experience of running successful Board meetings and ensuring that every member of the Board feels consulted and supported. Previous Trustee or Chair experience would be very desirable in the role, but please do not feel inhibited about applying if you do not have this. We are aiming to recruit at least one new Trustee at the same time as the chair, and you might be an ideal fit for that opportunity.
Financial acumen and qualifications are a must, with a strong accounting background.
Other helpful skills and experiences to have would include an understanding and knowledge of the international development landscape, experience of having lived in or traveled to Africa, experience of social work or child protection issues, communications and social media expertise and experience of measures to evaluate success. Although fundraising is a key component of the work of the UK Board and would be a valuable asset, we have experienced fundraising trustees and there is an agreed fundraising strategy in place.
What’s in it for you
For most of our Trustees, the primary motivation and benefit is to see the families that we serve succeed in their lives (Tushinde means 'we are succeeding' in Kiswahili). Some of our Trustees have visited our centres in Mathare and Kiambiu and have found the visits humbling - and that their own lives are different as a result. Relatively small sums of money make a huge difference among communities and families whose lives have been blighted by poverty. The difference made if we can successfully connect funders to the work that they make possible is transformational. One of the things that makes Tushinde really distinctive is that what we do starts with the child, rather than providing a specific service. That has meant that our programme has evolved according to what is most needed - the relatively recent foster care programme, supported by a visionary funding partner, is an example. Tushinde is leading the development of a supportive and caring fostering environment and a move away from dependence on poorly funded institutional orphanages. All our Trustees therefore gain an insight into multiple different aspects of child and family support and success.
The role of the Chair is also a great opportunity - for skills development, networking, gaining an understanding of a new field of international development work and understanding the inner workings and success factors in a small charity.
The UK Trustees are a very friendly and constructive group. We try and meet in person for drinks or a meal occasionally, and the group has a real mix of age, experience and background.
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