Mouths to feed

Asibitat to the left. One of many small children in Triza’s mother’s family. Triza’s mother is a remarkable woman!
Jeremiah, to the right. His mother was abandoned by her husband and started having mental problems, unable to care for her little son. Now it’s Triza’s sister Pricilla who is looking after little Jeremiah.

We’ve told you the story about Triza before, one of the students in our Mapendo Student Support program and who is now studying law thanks to sponsorship from generous friends in Sweden. Her goal is to get an education which will enable her to work among her people and in particular for the rights of women and children. A wonderful investment into a community which still has a long way to go in many areas.

When we visited Triza’s family some weeks ago we called Triza on the cellphone and let her mother speak to the daughter.

Her whole face shone and then she sent somebody who came dragging with a small goat.
– We want to thank you for supporting my daughter!

An angel

Moses Losikiria is another one of our students who graduated from high school last year. A gentle young man whose dream is to become a medical doctor. Apart from helping me in the workshop with desk manufacturing he has also been like an angel to Losike for the last few months.

Lodike, who most likely has suffered from polio and cannot walk, returned from a visit to a center for disabled and had terrible bedsores, even into the bone on one of his hips! And also severe anemia as a result. We asked Moses to accompany Losike and his mother to Lodwar in order to get proper treatment. After couple of weeks they were back with a smiling Losike who was on the mend.

Five kilometers just for dressing of wounds

Losike’s mother and Moses have taken turns in carrying the boy to the nearby hospital, a 5 km walk round trip. Then finally we got somebody to sponsor a motorcycle taxi and by now the boy is completely healed and we thank Moses and the mother for love and care for the little boy!

Westward

We had only been a day in Nairobi following our return from Sweden in September before we set out to Western Kenya and the Kisii district together with our dear friends Nancy and Joseph.

Mission: To visit the Child Care Center which has received support from Birgitta’s brothers and other friends for a number of years. As we’re quite used to driving on roads full of pot-holes where we work in Kenya, the road trip rather became a pleasant aha-experience as we could hardly find a single pot-hole, for the 300 some kilometers over the Kenyan savannah where we also passed a road sign indicating the turn-off to one of Kenya’s most popular tourist attraction – the Masaai Mara. Another interesting road sign was this:

Segera Child Care Center

A center with 44 orphans  – most of them victims of HIV/AIDS. In daytime there are another 30 children joining the classes at the center’s school. It’s all run on a very meager budget but nevertheless, the children look happy and healthy. Some farming initiatives in the neighborhood also complements the need for food for children and staff who are 13 in all. The staff is paid anything from 50 USD down to 20 USD per month!

We saw the new building which had recently been put up in replacement for the old one which collapsed in a storm earlier this year. We also took ample time to probe into finances and management of support in order to be able to report back to the Swedish sponsors.

On our way home we spent the night at the Tanwek Mission Hospital. This started as a small bush clinic back int the 1930-ieth. Today it’s one of Kenya’s most modern hospitals where medical staff from many parts of Africa are getting their specialization. Just one more example of what Christian mission has achieved in this part of the world!

Transparency – Participation – Dignity – Sustainability – Learning

Starting at the new year we will be co-workers of Barnmissionen or Children’s Mission as it is called in English as we continue our involvement with the projects in Loki. We’re very thankful for this new partner as our contracts with MAF have now come to an end. It’s wonderful to be adopted by a professional organisation which has focused on helping to transform societies and circumstances for of some of the most vulnerable children and youth around the world.

And our hope and trust is that we will continue to have you our prayer partners and sponsors come along side with us as we continue this exciting but also challenging work her in Turkana!

For support and gifts, please write to us and we will advice you what to do!

And of course, we would like to encourage you to continue supporting MAF, which is our lifeline for supplies and necessary travel!

We will soon be back with more up-dates!

Yours – KeA & Birgitta

Some pictures from the last 6-7 weeks in Kenya

And more talking eyes…