In many ways footsteps started with an idea for a cyber cafe. We always knew that we wanted to help communities to help themselves but we didn't have too much faith in charity. We have all read the stories of charities that spend more in administration costs than in helping others.

Our friend, James, approached us on one of our visits to Kenya with a business plan to launch a cyber cafe. We were immediately interested because of our background in telecoms and new media and could see for ourselves the explosion in internet services being offered in Nairobi. To us this looked like the opportunity to combine our talents for running a business with our desire to channel these efforts to the benefit of others.

In March 2004 footsteps cyber cafe opened its doors for business. With a team of keen people managed by James we were able to overcome all kinds of difficulty including terrible corruption in Kenyan bureaucracy. The first year of operation was spent making the business run on its own two feet. The second year of operation has been about making a profit for investment in development programmes. We are delighted that the cyber cafe has been able to support the magunga rebuilding project.

The cyber cafe is a ltd company registered in Kenya which allocates part of its profits to the Footsteps projects. It operates separately from the charity and is funded by its shareholders and not by the charity.