Marcus won! This is a letter from the man himself:
This is for you, a letter to my amazing family, friends & KCC supporters.
People from NZ, Australia, Canada, USA, Columbia, Brazil, Chile, Scotland, England, Wales, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam, South Africa, Uganda and Kenya. Plus so many more that I don’t even know about. You emailed, shared, wrote blogs, sent tweets, gathered your work mates, friends, families, neighbourhoods, social networks, all around my campaign for International Volunteer HQ Volunteer of the Year 2013…and I won 1st place! This award is in its first year and I took first place because of your relentless petitions and appeals to mobilise people to vote and vote again! I simply could not have done this without you. It went beyond my own network and I have been blown away by the level of support. I cant even begin to mention names, as there are just so many and I would miss someone out, you know who you are and I am incredibly grateful for the love and support. I’ve even had people come up on our streets in Naivasha, who don’t know me, say they saw it on the Kenyan circles on Facebook, and just voted.
Taking this award means an awful lot to me. When I first came here in 2009, I really had no idea of what may unfold. All I knew was, I wanted to learn, grow and help people. It has taken a huge amount of personal sacrifice and forgoing a lot. But I made a decision to stay, to help build a new kind of charity, one which people would feel good about giving, would be built from the grassroots up and eventually become self-sufficient.
There have been so many people who have supported my mission and I could not have done this without their support. One of those people is an amazing friend and KCC Co-founder Catherine Mukami Kabita-Kingori . Without her strong and consitant support and leadership KCC simply would not exist. The support also from IVHQ and Daniel Radcliffe at numerous times has given me great confidence. Our Board in Kenya, with their huge belief in KCC. Joe Gichuki and everyone at NVS. IVHQ volunteers. Experts in development and my personal support from close friends and my family in NZ and the UK – you all have given me wings at times you will never even know about. There are just so many people to thank, and I just want to say thank you from the depth of bones and with all the love I can muster.
Look out for a video on Monday from KCC and the kids. IVHQ will be making the announcement on Monday.
Big love,
Marcus