This blog is a little late, but better late than never! Its entirely my fault that it is late, but it is well worth a read....
Tuesday 07th July 2009
Visit To St. Lukes Parish, ACK, Manyatta, Kisumu, Kenya.
This morning I visited St. Lukes Church, Manyatta, where I was shown around the Parish & his Archdeaconary by the Pastor Canon Shadrick Jackim Owour.This was quite an eye opening experience as the Parish is in quite an impoverished slum area of Kisumu. Canon Owour s Parish was close to the epicentre of post election uprising of 2007. Only 100 yards from his church are the destroyed ruins of homes occupied by members of the Kikuyu Tribe.Despite the trouble church services still took place during that time of unrest. Many people could not get to church due to road blocks. At the same time time the Vicar could not always get out of the Vicarage to visit his parishoners for the same reason. When I interviewed Canon Owour later that morning it was quite horrifying what he saw and many experienced during that time of unrest. He and his wife kindly put people up in the vicarage who had lost their homes for their own safety as well as providing them with a place of shelter.
Outreach Projects.
Many of the roads around Kisumu are dirt tracks so Canon Owour showed me around the Parish in his much needed 4X4 vehicle. A lot of the communitities are not in the most accessible places and cannot afford transport to the main church at St. Lukes. As a result they have a number of Mission Areas where they are building churches accessible to the local community they intend to serve. I was shown 2 of these projects.
Herald Church.
This church when completed is in a rural area on the outskirts of Kisumu, close to where the post election violence took place. It is uncertain when the project will be completed due to funding. The churchs current structure consists of wooden uprights that supports a corrugated metal roof.
Riat. ACK Church.
This church is situated on higher ground with a scenic view of Lake Victoria in the distance. We were met by the Church Warden who lives nearby. He showed us the ambitious architects plans for a new church building on this site. Due to many factors including funding this project will be ongoing and will probably not come to fruition in many of our lifetimes. It appears to be a long term project. The existing church is a mud hut with a corrugated metal roof, which although functional is not ideal in the long term.I get the impression that people like churches, particularly in many of these rural areas as they bring small communities together. It doesnt matter what their religious beliefs are they often look upon the church as a source of help and support as well as being the focal point of that small community.
Howard Marshall.
Tuesday 14 July 2009
Wednesday 8 July 2009
The Rotary Relief Fund Kisumu
Yesterday afternoon, Alice, Aby and I met up with some people from the Rotary Club in Kisumu...
Tuesday 7th July
It was another busy day today, we met in town before heading over to see an old friend of our very own Dennis Mitchell, Sat Jobanputra at his beautiful home in Kisumu town centre. He moved into this house when it was built in 1937. He told me how the city had changed dramatically in the proceeding years. Kisumu sprang into existence in 1901 when the British completed the Mombassa – Nairobi – Kisumu railway, built to link the Indian Ocean to Africa’s biggest water body, Lake Victoria. The Lake is the origin of the great River Nile and Kisumu is on its coast. Mr. Jobanputra was born here and told me that during his lifetime the population has risen tenfold from 50,000 to 500,000. He has watched it spread outwards as more and more people arrive here from the surrounding rural areas in search of work. What they find is a difficult life, over 50% of the people live in slums or shanty towns, some of the poorest in Africa. Although the city centre, at the moment, is coping with the volume of vehicles here, it is surely only a matter of time before it becomes as gridlocked as Nairobi (or London!)
Mr. Jobanputra, now retired, used to be an active member of the Rotary Club in Kisumu. We wanted to know what the Rotary Club had done here in response to the Post Election Violence in late 2007. He took us to meet an American couple Dan and Patty Schmelzer at their home in Kisumu town centre. Dan and Patty are heavily involved with the Rotary Club here and were instrumental in the Rotary relief project that was launched in the wake of the post election violence. The relief project is ongoing and utilises the US $20,000 fund they accumulated from around 20 different organisations, of which Global Footsteps was one. Dan reported to us what they have achieved. They spent the money in three key areas. 1. Emergency food relief, 2. Provision of medical services, 3. A peace initiative.
1. Food: Four local volunteers went into the slum areas to uncover individuals and families who were badly effected and were on the brink of starvation. They helped around 1,200 people to stave off hunger
2. Medicine: Two medical camps were set up in the rural areas to help people needing basic treatment for illnesses and injuries. On top of this they funded life saving operations for people who were very badly injured during the violence.
3. Peace: A headline grabbing and very effective initiative was set up by Rotary to promote peace in the city. They wanted to spread a message of peace and settled on an innovative way of doing it. Rather than spending money on billboards they decided to approach the local 'boda boda' bike taxis. A boda boda is a push bike with a seat on the back for a passenger who pays around 30 pence to travel a distance of around 2-3 kms in the city centre. Rotary decided that they would make t-shirts with the slogan 'Peace begins with me' and they distributed them gradually to 1000 boda boda cyclists who wore them as they travelled around town carrying passengers. This made the cyclists themselves committed to the peace movement and their enthusiasm rubbed off on the other residents of the city. Rotary gave the cyclists small financial incentives to keep wearing the t-shirts which facilitated the good will between them.
As an extension to the boda boda peace initiative Rotary helped the wives of the cyclists to set up businesses. They did this through a micro-finance initiative as a Small Micro Enterprise Programme (SMEP). This has been very successful and continues to grow as women take out and pay back loans of increasing size to grow their businesses from side of the road shacks to down town shops.
Rotary has spent $10,000 of the $20,000 originally donated, the focus has now shifted to sustainable long term development. Through the SMEP they are helping environmentally and socially sound businesses to start up and grow.
Dan has promised to send us an interim report, when he does I will ask permission from him to publish it on our main website.
Dan and Patty also run Capstone Ministries Child and Family Restoration Outreach in Kisumu, please visit their website: http://www.capstoneministries.org/
Tuesday 7th July
It was another busy day today, we met in town before heading over to see an old friend of our very own Dennis Mitchell, Sat Jobanputra at his beautiful home in Kisumu town centre. He moved into this house when it was built in 1937. He told me how the city had changed dramatically in the proceeding years. Kisumu sprang into existence in 1901 when the British completed the Mombassa – Nairobi – Kisumu railway, built to link the Indian Ocean to Africa’s biggest water body, Lake Victoria. The Lake is the origin of the great River Nile and Kisumu is on its coast. Mr. Jobanputra was born here and told me that during his lifetime the population has risen tenfold from 50,000 to 500,000. He has watched it spread outwards as more and more people arrive here from the surrounding rural areas in search of work. What they find is a difficult life, over 50% of the people live in slums or shanty towns, some of the poorest in Africa. Although the city centre, at the moment, is coping with the volume of vehicles here, it is surely only a matter of time before it becomes as gridlocked as Nairobi (or London!)
Mr. Jobanputra, now retired, used to be an active member of the Rotary Club in Kisumu. We wanted to know what the Rotary Club had done here in response to the Post Election Violence in late 2007. He took us to meet an American couple Dan and Patty Schmelzer at their home in Kisumu town centre. Dan and Patty are heavily involved with the Rotary Club here and were instrumental in the Rotary relief project that was launched in the wake of the post election violence. The relief project is ongoing and utilises the US $20,000 fund they accumulated from around 20 different organisations, of which Global Footsteps was one. Dan reported to us what they have achieved. They spent the money in three key areas. 1. Emergency food relief, 2. Provision of medical services, 3. A peace initiative.
1. Food: Four local volunteers went into the slum areas to uncover individuals and families who were badly effected and were on the brink of starvation. They helped around 1,200 people to stave off hunger
2. Medicine: Two medical camps were set up in the rural areas to help people needing basic treatment for illnesses and injuries. On top of this they funded life saving operations for people who were very badly injured during the violence.
3. Peace: A headline grabbing and very effective initiative was set up by Rotary to promote peace in the city. They wanted to spread a message of peace and settled on an innovative way of doing it. Rather than spending money on billboards they decided to approach the local 'boda boda' bike taxis. A boda boda is a push bike with a seat on the back for a passenger who pays around 30 pence to travel a distance of around 2-3 kms in the city centre. Rotary decided that they would make t-shirts with the slogan 'Peace begins with me' and they distributed them gradually to 1000 boda boda cyclists who wore them as they travelled around town carrying passengers. This made the cyclists themselves committed to the peace movement and their enthusiasm rubbed off on the other residents of the city. Rotary gave the cyclists small financial incentives to keep wearing the t-shirts which facilitated the good will between them.
As an extension to the boda boda peace initiative Rotary helped the wives of the cyclists to set up businesses. They did this through a micro-finance initiative as a Small Micro Enterprise Programme (SMEP). This has been very successful and continues to grow as women take out and pay back loans of increasing size to grow their businesses from side of the road shacks to down town shops.
Rotary has spent $10,000 of the $20,000 originally donated, the focus has now shifted to sustainable long term development. Through the SMEP they are helping environmentally and socially sound businesses to start up and grow.
Dan has promised to send us an interim report, when he does I will ask permission from him to publish it on our main website.
Dan and Patty also run Capstone Ministries Child and Family Restoration Outreach in Kisumu, please visit their website: http://www.capstoneministries.org/
The Tungari Youth Project
On Tuesday morning we visited a volunteer run mobile HIV testing service on the fringes of one of Kisumu's slum's.
Tuesday 7th July - Morning
On Tuesday morning we went off to meet my host, Shamsia Nuru, who volunteers for a HIV testing organisation. The Tungari Youth Project is a mobile HIV testing service. Each day 6 stations are set up on the fringes of Kisumu’s slum areas and people voluntarily arrive to be tested. Shamsia told us how it was often difficult to encourage people to come to be testing, a combination of fear, shame and lack of awareness means that the testers (there are around 5 at each station) usually fail to meet their target of 10 tests a day. Shamsia and her colleagues are all volunteers, they are trained on how to use basic testing kits and how to counsel those who test positive and give information to those who test negative on how to stay infection free. The results are almost instantaneous and those who test positive are referred to a doctor immediately so that they can begin treatment as soon as possible. The testing kits are very expensive, it costs over 1000 Kenyan Shillings (about £10) to test each person. The money is raised by a charity in Atlanta in the USA.
At present around 300 people are tested each day across the 6 stations, so far they have tested around 35% of the population, they aim to increase this to 80% by the end of 2010, they need more money. HIV is a huge problem here, it spreads rapidly because of prostitution, the tendency for men and women to have polygamous marriages, the lack of awareness about whether one is infected or not, the reluctance of men to use condoms and the generally low levels of personal hygiene. There is a campaign at the moment for males to be circumscribed as this reduces the chance that they can contract and pass on the infection, it is a difficult campaign because men do not like to do it. The traditional methods of circumcision sound brutal, they involve a machete, a big stone and a lot of blood. These methods are still in practice in some rural areas around Kisumu but men are now given the opportunity to have the operation using modern hygienic methods.
Last week Shamsia and her colleagues has been on a course to train them in how to go door to door in the slums to try to encourage people to take tests in the privacy of their own homes. I'm sure this will make a big difference to the amount of tests they can get done. It is sure, however, to be much harder work for the volunteers, but they seem to be a determined and committed team so I am hopeful they will succeed and make a big impact on the lives of the people of Kisumu.
Tuesday 7th July - Morning
On Tuesday morning we went off to meet my host, Shamsia Nuru, who volunteers for a HIV testing organisation. The Tungari Youth Project is a mobile HIV testing service. Each day 6 stations are set up on the fringes of Kisumu’s slum areas and people voluntarily arrive to be tested. Shamsia told us how it was often difficult to encourage people to come to be testing, a combination of fear, shame and lack of awareness means that the testers (there are around 5 at each station) usually fail to meet their target of 10 tests a day. Shamsia and her colleagues are all volunteers, they are trained on how to use basic testing kits and how to counsel those who test positive and give information to those who test negative on how to stay infection free. The results are almost instantaneous and those who test positive are referred to a doctor immediately so that they can begin treatment as soon as possible. The testing kits are very expensive, it costs over 1000 Kenyan Shillings (about £10) to test each person. The money is raised by a charity in Atlanta in the USA.
At present around 300 people are tested each day across the 6 stations, so far they have tested around 35% of the population, they aim to increase this to 80% by the end of 2010, they need more money. HIV is a huge problem here, it spreads rapidly because of prostitution, the tendency for men and women to have polygamous marriages, the lack of awareness about whether one is infected or not, the reluctance of men to use condoms and the generally low levels of personal hygiene. There is a campaign at the moment for males to be circumscribed as this reduces the chance that they can contract and pass on the infection, it is a difficult campaign because men do not like to do it. The traditional methods of circumcision sound brutal, they involve a machete, a big stone and a lot of blood. These methods are still in practice in some rural areas around Kisumu but men are now given the opportunity to have the operation using modern hygienic methods.
Last week Shamsia and her colleagues has been on a course to train them in how to go door to door in the slums to try to encourage people to take tests in the privacy of their own homes. I'm sure this will make a big difference to the amount of tests they can get done. It is sure, however, to be much harder work for the volunteers, but they seem to be a determined and committed team so I am hopeful they will succeed and make a big impact on the lives of the people of Kisumu.
Monday in Kisumu
We spent the whole of Monday in Kisumu meeting various people, below is a report
Monday 6th July
The first appointment on Monday was a meeting with the Mayor of Kisumu at the town hall. Howard had collected letters from the Mayor of Cheltenham, Lord Surgener and Lord Nigel Jones and we passed them to the Mayor. He very graciously received them and presented us with a Kisumu plaque for us to pass onto his counterpart in Cheltenham. He was encouraged by the letters we had delivered and told us how happy he was to see people connecting at a grass roots level. He did, however, tell us that he was disappointed that Cheltenham seems to have fallen behind its other linked cities in Germany, Sweden and the USA. He hoped that the links between Kisumu and Cheltenham will be revitalised at a Civic level in the future and will write to the Mayor of Cheltenham to express this optimism.
After our meeting with the Mayor we headed in an old seven- seater Peugot matatu to Kisumu airport. We had an appointment with the Meteorological department. We were hoping to get some insider opinion on the impacts that climate change is having in this region. We spoke with the Deputy Provincial Director for Meteorology – Berike Arera. He was very cagey not allowing us to record the conversation, he explained that he was only willing (or allowed) to discuss the data collected in Kisumu. He could not talk about climate change or long term trends and even though we pushed him quite hard he would not speculate on what the weather might do in the next few years. They are not involved in prediction.
He did explain to us however the traditional pattern in the weather here. Kisumu is almost on the equator, but this does not mean the weather is the same all year round. The weather here is affected by weather patterns in other parts of the world as these effect the winds converging or not at the equator, winds that bring in moisture from the Indian Ocean. Kisumu usually has a Long Rains season during April, May and June during which it can expect to receive around 50-70mm / day of rainfall. It then has a Short rains season in October and November. The temperature drops a little during these periods, at all other times it is hot and dry. Arera told us that in recent years there has a dramatic reduction in rainfall during both of the rainy seasons, he said that last year was below average and this year was lower again. This is a big concern as this is not a part of the world that copes well with drought conditions. When there is little rainfall crops fail and people get hungry, it is as simple as that. All around Kisumu we have seen evidence of this, there are fields full of failed Maize crops and the news is full of stories about predicted shortfalls in other crops.
Our day on Monday ended with a dramatic thunderstorm which lasted for around 2 hours bringing much needed rain. The wise residents here collect rainfall from their roofs when it falls. They use this ‘grey’ water to flush toilets and water any plants they may have in their compounds. Aby’s host, Michael, uses this water for his paper making business. This was the first serious rainfall we have experienced since we have been in Kenya, it was certainly very refreshing.
Monday 6th July
The first appointment on Monday was a meeting with the Mayor of Kisumu at the town hall. Howard had collected letters from the Mayor of Cheltenham, Lord Surgener and Lord Nigel Jones and we passed them to the Mayor. He very graciously received them and presented us with a Kisumu plaque for us to pass onto his counterpart in Cheltenham. He was encouraged by the letters we had delivered and told us how happy he was to see people connecting at a grass roots level. He did, however, tell us that he was disappointed that Cheltenham seems to have fallen behind its other linked cities in Germany, Sweden and the USA. He hoped that the links between Kisumu and Cheltenham will be revitalised at a Civic level in the future and will write to the Mayor of Cheltenham to express this optimism.
After our meeting with the Mayor we headed in an old seven- seater Peugot matatu to Kisumu airport. We had an appointment with the Meteorological department. We were hoping to get some insider opinion on the impacts that climate change is having in this region. We spoke with the Deputy Provincial Director for Meteorology – Berike Arera. He was very cagey not allowing us to record the conversation, he explained that he was only willing (or allowed) to discuss the data collected in Kisumu. He could not talk about climate change or long term trends and even though we pushed him quite hard he would not speculate on what the weather might do in the next few years. They are not involved in prediction.
He did explain to us however the traditional pattern in the weather here. Kisumu is almost on the equator, but this does not mean the weather is the same all year round. The weather here is affected by weather patterns in other parts of the world as these effect the winds converging or not at the equator, winds that bring in moisture from the Indian Ocean. Kisumu usually has a Long Rains season during April, May and June during which it can expect to receive around 50-70mm / day of rainfall. It then has a Short rains season in October and November. The temperature drops a little during these periods, at all other times it is hot and dry. Arera told us that in recent years there has a dramatic reduction in rainfall during both of the rainy seasons, he said that last year was below average and this year was lower again. This is a big concern as this is not a part of the world that copes well with drought conditions. When there is little rainfall crops fail and people get hungry, it is as simple as that. All around Kisumu we have seen evidence of this, there are fields full of failed Maize crops and the news is full of stories about predicted shortfalls in other crops.
Our day on Monday ended with a dramatic thunderstorm which lasted for around 2 hours bringing much needed rain. The wise residents here collect rainfall from their roofs when it falls. They use this ‘grey’ water to flush toilets and water any plants they may have in their compounds. Aby’s host, Michael, uses this water for his paper making business. This was the first serious rainfall we have experienced since we have been in Kenya, it was certainly very refreshing.
Monday 6 July 2009
Churches
Yesterday Howard and I experienced Christian Church services here in Kisumu. Howard attended St.Lukes (which is twinned with his own St. Lukes church back in Cheltenham) and I accompanied Edwin Ochieng (Chairman of Kisumu Links and sister cities) at St. Stephens Cathedral in Kisumu town centre. Both churches were very well attended, there were around 400 people at St Stephens, several sat or stood outside listening to the service via loud speaker!The services here are much longer than back home, both of them lasting over 3 hours! As guests of the church we were both invited to say a few words to the congregation. I was only made aware of this the night before (just before going out for a few social drinks) but I had a feeling it might happen so had been giving it some thought. I have been reading Barack Obama's first book: 'Dreams from my father' (his father is from this region of Kenya) and there is a part in it (pages 292-293) which I thought would be worth drawing on. I thought I'd type up what I said here as it definitely captures how I feel about Kisumu and Kenya.
Hope
I want to talk about an inspiring man and a passage from his inspiring book: "Dreams from my father" by Barack Obama. In this passage he talks about hope. He is reflecting on a sermon he heard when he was working as a community organiser in one of Chicago's most deprived neighbourhoods. He writes this:
The title of Reverend Wright's sermon that morning was "The Audacity of Hope." He began with a passage from the book of Samuel - the story of Hannah, who, barren and taunted by her rivals, had wept and shaken in prayer before her God. The story reminded him, he said, of a sermon a fellow pastor had preached at a conference some years before, in which the pastor described going to a museum and being confronted by a painting titled 'Hope'.
"The painting depicts a harpist," Reverend Wright explained, "a woman who at first glanceappears to be sitting atop a great mountain. Until you take a closer look and see that the woman is bruised and bloodied, dressed in tattered rags, the harp reduced to a single frayed string. Your eye is then drawn down to the scene below, down to the valley below, where everywhere are the ravages of famine, the drumbeat of war, a world groaning under strife and deprivation.
Obama continues to quote the Reverend as he relates the story to the troubled Chicago neighbourhood Port-Au-Prince:
"It is this world, a world where cruise ships throw away more food in a day than most residents of Port-Au-Prince see in a year, where white folks' greed runs a world in need, apartheid in one hemisphere, apathy in another hemisphere... That's the world! On which hope sits!"
What Obama is saying is that despite the problems we might face: hunger, deprivation, depression, pain, poverty, hardship and the greed of others; despite all these things we can always hope. The Reverend Wright ended by talking again about the painting:
"And yet consider once again the painting before us. Hope! Like Hannah, that harpist is looking upwards, a few faint notes floating upwards towards the heavens. She dares to hope... She has the audacity... to make music... and praise God... on the one string... she has left!"
Kenya is so very different to the UK. Kisumu is so very different to Cheltenham. Kenyans need to find that audacity Obama is talking about, the audacity of hope. They need to stand above all of the difficulties they face, big and small and hope and believe that they can overcome them. I've been here for two weeks and seen many, ma ny problems, from accidents that happen to cyclists because they have no reflective clothing, lights or helmets to major problems caused by the changing climate and global warming. If I was a leader, at any level, here in Kenya I think I would be overwhelmed by this and not know which problems to address first.
What I do know is that I, like President Obama, would be optimistic, I would hope. There are enough people in this wonderful country who are committed to postive change, enough people who look outward rather than in, enough people to have the audacity to hope.
I am only the leader of a small charity, Global Footsteps. We are based in Cheltenham in the UK, but we have members all across the world, some of them are here today. We exist to link communities and people together to promote intercultural understanding and environmental education. We do this through holding international youth conferences every other year and by linking schools, charities, community organisations and churches. I hope that we can link this church with one of a similar size in Cheltenham. And I hope that by doing this both Churches will benefit as they learn from and help each other.
Hope
I want to talk about an inspiring man and a passage from his inspiring book: "Dreams from my father" by Barack Obama. In this passage he talks about hope. He is reflecting on a sermon he heard when he was working as a community organiser in one of Chicago's most deprived neighbourhoods. He writes this:
The title of Reverend Wright's sermon that morning was "The Audacity of Hope." He began with a passage from the book of Samuel - the story of Hannah, who, barren and taunted by her rivals, had wept and shaken in prayer before her God. The story reminded him, he said, of a sermon a fellow pastor had preached at a conference some years before, in which the pastor described going to a museum and being confronted by a painting titled 'Hope'.
"The painting depicts a harpist," Reverend Wright explained, "a woman who at first glanceappears to be sitting atop a great mountain. Until you take a closer look and see that the woman is bruised and bloodied, dressed in tattered rags, the harp reduced to a single frayed string. Your eye is then drawn down to the scene below, down to the valley below, where everywhere are the ravages of famine, the drumbeat of war, a world groaning under strife and deprivation.
Obama continues to quote the Reverend as he relates the story to the troubled Chicago neighbourhood Port-Au-Prince:
"It is this world, a world where cruise ships throw away more food in a day than most residents of Port-Au-Prince see in a year, where white folks' greed runs a world in need, apartheid in one hemisphere, apathy in another hemisphere... That's the world! On which hope sits!"
What Obama is saying is that despite the problems we might face: hunger, deprivation, depression, pain, poverty, hardship and the greed of others; despite all these things we can always hope. The Reverend Wright ended by talking again about the painting:
"And yet consider once again the painting before us. Hope! Like Hannah, that harpist is looking upwards, a few faint notes floating upwards towards the heavens. She dares to hope... She has the audacity... to make music... and praise God... on the one string... she has left!"
Kenya is so very different to the UK. Kisumu is so very different to Cheltenham. Kenyans need to find that audacity Obama is talking about, the audacity of hope. They need to stand above all of the difficulties they face, big and small and hope and believe that they can overcome them. I've been here for two weeks and seen many, ma ny problems, from accidents that happen to cyclists because they have no reflective clothing, lights or helmets to major problems caused by the changing climate and global warming. If I was a leader, at any level, here in Kenya I think I would be overwhelmed by this and not know which problems to address first.
What I do know is that I, like President Obama, would be optimistic, I would hope. There are enough people in this wonderful country who are committed to postive change, enough people who look outward rather than in, enough people to have the audacity to hope.
I am only the leader of a small charity, Global Footsteps. We are based in Cheltenham in the UK, but we have members all across the world, some of them are here today. We exist to link communities and people together to promote intercultural understanding and environmental education. We do this through holding international youth conferences every other year and by linking schools, charities, community organisations and churches. I hope that we can link this church with one of a similar size in Cheltenham. And I hope that by doing this both Churches will benefit as they learn from and help each other.
Friday 3 July 2009
The equator
Below is an update by Aby Morley on a varied and enjoyable day that we spent in the company of Kisumu Rural CDF....
Thursday 2nd July
A surprising visit to the equator on our travels today! A novelty that we all enjoyed, taking snapshots crossing the north/south divide. The sun seemed to move quickly above our heads and the temperature seemed to rise as we stood there. Edwin then took us back to a school that we visited on Monday so that we culd meet the other classes, the younger years. They seemed apprehensive at first as we intoduced ourselves; but we donated a footbll to the school as well as Cheltenham Town pencils, which they seemed to thoroughly enjoy as they ran out of class to the field to play. They were kind enough to give us their hand-made ball, constructed out of string and plastic bags!
Our convoy then moved out to a more rural area where we visited a group of women who hand make traditional pots in which they carry on their heads carrying water. They have adapted them to include taps! They formed the group to help raise money for those in their community that need it, they have been able to provide uniforms for some students. After this Margaret took us to the rural area in which she lives, it is the home of her Father in law; but also the home of the Kosimbo project that she co-ordinates. The group was formed after Margarets husband died and she realised that more had to be done for the widows and orphans in her community. They have set up a medical centre that operates twice a week, treating 500 people, many of them children. For 20 Kenyan shillings they can access this vital treatment. They also helped to provide clean water for the community, charging 1shilling for 20 litres of water; before this the people were drinking from the local river which caused problems with cholera. The Kosimbo also help with education and providing unifroms, as well as caring for the elderly widows. Altough as they greet us they seem full of energy, everywhere we walk they join us singing and dancing, and getting us to join in of course!
Edwin, Morgan and Howard help to plant trees in the garden at the medical centre, whilst Alice and I entertain the children.
A short walk from the centre and we arive at Kirindo Primary School where we are recieved outside by the teachers and children. A group of young girls perform a traditional dance for us, telling the story of a girl growing up; it is beautiful although we do not understand the language. We all joined in at certain points which the children whought was hilarious. Poetry and drama is also performed. It is wonderful to see the work that Kosimbo do in progress as some of the children wear uniforms provided by the tailoring Morgan plays football with some of them, whilst the others are interested in touching our white skin! We have to escape the throung of pupils to head back to our seperate houses! All of us really enjoyed the day and were able to learn a lot from the way in which they have been developing their communities.
Thursday 2nd July
A surprising visit to the equator on our travels today! A novelty that we all enjoyed, taking snapshots crossing the north/south divide. The sun seemed to move quickly above our heads and the temperature seemed to rise as we stood there. Edwin then took us back to a school that we visited on Monday so that we culd meet the other classes, the younger years. They seemed apprehensive at first as we intoduced ourselves; but we donated a footbll to the school as well as Cheltenham Town pencils, which they seemed to thoroughly enjoy as they ran out of class to the field to play. They were kind enough to give us their hand-made ball, constructed out of string and plastic bags!
Our convoy then moved out to a more rural area where we visited a group of women who hand make traditional pots in which they carry on their heads carrying water. They have adapted them to include taps! They formed the group to help raise money for those in their community that need it, they have been able to provide uniforms for some students. After this Margaret took us to the rural area in which she lives, it is the home of her Father in law; but also the home of the Kosimbo project that she co-ordinates. The group was formed after Margarets husband died and she realised that more had to be done for the widows and orphans in her community. They have set up a medical centre that operates twice a week, treating 500 people, many of them children. For 20 Kenyan shillings they can access this vital treatment. They also helped to provide clean water for the community, charging 1shilling for 20 litres of water; before this the people were drinking from the local river which caused problems with cholera. The Kosimbo also help with education and providing unifroms, as well as caring for the elderly widows. Altough as they greet us they seem full of energy, everywhere we walk they join us singing and dancing, and getting us to join in of course!
Edwin, Morgan and Howard help to plant trees in the garden at the medical centre, whilst Alice and I entertain the children.
A short walk from the centre and we arive at Kirindo Primary School where we are recieved outside by the teachers and children. A group of young girls perform a traditional dance for us, telling the story of a girl growing up; it is beautiful although we do not understand the language. We all joined in at certain points which the children whought was hilarious. Poetry and drama is also performed. It is wonderful to see the work that Kosimbo do in progress as some of the children wear uniforms provided by the tailoring Morgan plays football with some of them, whilst the others are interested in touching our white skin! We have to escape the throung of pupils to head back to our seperate houses! All of us really enjoyed the day and were able to learn a lot from the way in which they have been developing their communities.
CADIF Kenya
This update is only two days old, so not bad by our standards! CADIF is a fantastic project and I hope we will be able to form strong links with them. Please read on:
Wednesday 1st July
Before heading to Kenya I connected with CADIF Kenya a community capacity building project based here in Kisumu. We spent today with them and although the situation within which they operate is desperately difficult, what CADIF (Community Aid Development Fund International) are doing is truly inspirational. I’ve been sat here for 1 hour trying to write about what we saw, learned and heard today. It is incredibly difficult to do it justice. Instead I will hold back until I have worked through the audio and video footage, written materials and photos we gathered today. We will make a short film about it and strengthen our links online and hopefully in person. For those of you aware of the project we are involved in in Bangladesh (Curry With Love/ HRA Foundation) I can tell you that we now have a link with a similar project here. CADIF are helping to rebuild a community on the margins of Kisumu and people who are truly on the margins of life. The community they work with is a slum on the very edge of Lake Victoria, in fact when floods come it is in the lake. Nylenda They are not doing it solely by raising money to provide short term aid; they are working WITH the community to create long lasting change by training people. They close the gap between education and the knowledge and practical skills needed to run businesses and this helps people to work their way out of one of the worst slums, Nylenda, in Africa. They train people in urban agriculture and agri-business. We were shown a training centre they had built with mud, straw and timber in which they train people how to recycle rice straw to grow mushrooms. They spread awareness of safe sex to help bring down the prevalence of HIV in Nylenda (24% of people there have HIV, much of it as a result of prostitution). They go far beyond simply promoting abstinence and the use of condoms, one of their volunteers, John, is trained in psychotherapy, he helps women who have contracted the HIV virus to deal with it psychologically. At their centre a few hundred metres from Nylenda they provide ICT training and simple business planning advice to encourage young people to be entrepreneurs while crucially helping them to gain the practical skills and knowledge needed to start and run their own business.
The last two hours of our time with CADIF were spent at The Oasis of Hope Secondary School. The Oasis was set up by a friend of Steven Otieno (Founder of CADIF) who wanted to help orphaned children to get an education, CADIF was instrumental in making it happen. The school is situated on a flood plain right next to the main sewerage pipe serving Kisumu. When the rains eventually come the school is under 2 or 3 metres of dirty water, the land there was very cheap to buy. The Oasis has 250 pupils some of whom walk 15km a day to attend. Because there is so much to learn pupils are expected to arrive at 7am and do not return home until 5.30pm. The school has no electricity, no running water and no sewerage system. Classes of over 50 pupils are housed in corrugated iron buildings with no glass windows, a mud floor and a teacher armed with only a piece of chalk and a blackboard. For the children who can afford it lunch is cooked on site and cost 10 Kenyan Shillings. 10 Kenyan shillings is equal to about 9 British pence. Many of the children cannot afford this, they therefore go the whole day without eating hoping that whoever they go home to (remember they have no parents) will have something for them to eat in the evening. Steven told me that many do not even have breakfast. The situation becomes even worse when Kisumu suffers a dry period. When it is dry the supply of food drops meaning the price of it rises, this is when hunger becomes a huge problem. Kenya as a whole is suffering longer and more intense dry periods as a result of global changes to the climate.
I’ve now been sat here for one and a half hours and I need to get some sleep. There is so much more to tell about CADIF and I promise to expand on this as our link grows. Lastly I want to make the point that CADIF has only been running for 3 years, it has achieved an incredible amount on funds that have been raised by its volunteer staff through their own hard work. It has struggled to raise money from government and large corporate sources due to its small scale, we plan to help it to raise money and hopefully to raise money for it. I left 1000 Kenyan Shillings (about £8) of my own money with the director of the school, it will buy 100 lunches, it is not enough and I wish I could give more. The more money CADIF can raise the better it will do, we are aiming to provide opportunities for volunteers from across our network to volunteer their skills to CADIF to help it grow. Global Footsteps can make this happen and volunteers will be able to donate not only their time and skills, but hopefully also some money.
Wednesday 1st July
Before heading to Kenya I connected with CADIF Kenya a community capacity building project based here in Kisumu. We spent today with them and although the situation within which they operate is desperately difficult, what CADIF (Community Aid Development Fund International) are doing is truly inspirational. I’ve been sat here for 1 hour trying to write about what we saw, learned and heard today. It is incredibly difficult to do it justice. Instead I will hold back until I have worked through the audio and video footage, written materials and photos we gathered today. We will make a short film about it and strengthen our links online and hopefully in person. For those of you aware of the project we are involved in in Bangladesh (Curry With Love/ HRA Foundation) I can tell you that we now have a link with a similar project here. CADIF are helping to rebuild a community on the margins of Kisumu and people who are truly on the margins of life. The community they work with is a slum on the very edge of Lake Victoria, in fact when floods come it is in the lake. Nylenda They are not doing it solely by raising money to provide short term aid; they are working WITH the community to create long lasting change by training people. They close the gap between education and the knowledge and practical skills needed to run businesses and this helps people to work their way out of one of the worst slums, Nylenda, in Africa. They train people in urban agriculture and agri-business. We were shown a training centre they had built with mud, straw and timber in which they train people how to recycle rice straw to grow mushrooms. They spread awareness of safe sex to help bring down the prevalence of HIV in Nylenda (24% of people there have HIV, much of it as a result of prostitution). They go far beyond simply promoting abstinence and the use of condoms, one of their volunteers, John, is trained in psychotherapy, he helps women who have contracted the HIV virus to deal with it psychologically. At their centre a few hundred metres from Nylenda they provide ICT training and simple business planning advice to encourage young people to be entrepreneurs while crucially helping them to gain the practical skills and knowledge needed to start and run their own business.
The last two hours of our time with CADIF were spent at The Oasis of Hope Secondary School. The Oasis was set up by a friend of Steven Otieno (Founder of CADIF) who wanted to help orphaned children to get an education, CADIF was instrumental in making it happen. The school is situated on a flood plain right next to the main sewerage pipe serving Kisumu. When the rains eventually come the school is under 2 or 3 metres of dirty water, the land there was very cheap to buy. The Oasis has 250 pupils some of whom walk 15km a day to attend. Because there is so much to learn pupils are expected to arrive at 7am and do not return home until 5.30pm. The school has no electricity, no running water and no sewerage system. Classes of over 50 pupils are housed in corrugated iron buildings with no glass windows, a mud floor and a teacher armed with only a piece of chalk and a blackboard. For the children who can afford it lunch is cooked on site and cost 10 Kenyan Shillings. 10 Kenyan shillings is equal to about 9 British pence. Many of the children cannot afford this, they therefore go the whole day without eating hoping that whoever they go home to (remember they have no parents) will have something for them to eat in the evening. Steven told me that many do not even have breakfast. The situation becomes even worse when Kisumu suffers a dry period. When it is dry the supply of food drops meaning the price of it rises, this is when hunger becomes a huge problem. Kenya as a whole is suffering longer and more intense dry periods as a result of global changes to the climate.
I’ve now been sat here for one and a half hours and I need to get some sleep. There is so much more to tell about CADIF and I promise to expand on this as our link grows. Lastly I want to make the point that CADIF has only been running for 3 years, it has achieved an incredible amount on funds that have been raised by its volunteer staff through their own hard work. It has struggled to raise money from government and large corporate sources due to its small scale, we plan to help it to raise money and hopefully to raise money for it. I left 1000 Kenyan Shillings (about £8) of my own money with the director of the school, it will buy 100 lunches, it is not enough and I wish I could give more. The more money CADIF can raise the better it will do, we are aiming to provide opportunities for volunteers from across our network to volunteer their skills to CADIF to help it grow. Global Footsteps can make this happen and volunteers will be able to donate not only their time and skills, but hopefully also some money.
Wednesday 1 July 2009
Greeting from Kisumu
Greetings from a hot Kisumu. We have been here since late on Sunday night and have packed so much in already, I will hopefully be able to get some of it up on here when I get another chance to get online. Today we are with CADIF a volunteer run community capacity building program that we hope to form some useful links with. They are doing a fantastic job in some of the most deprived parts of Kisumu. Everyone here is well, we have had a great welcome and are safely in the hands of our various host families. Below is a report from an eventful day spent at Lake Naivasha and on the road to Kisumu!
Sunday 28th June
What should have been a fairly incident free day turned out to be anything but. We woke up at Elsamere for the last time this morning and decided it would be worthwhile visiting the neighbouring township ‘Kamere’. Howard and I had visited the night before in search of a beer but Aby and
HIV Aids is also a threat here, awareness raising into the dangers of having sex is evident. Given that it is unrealistic that condoms are either accessible or affordable the advice is abstinence. We saw many wearing awareness raising t-shirts.
After our last lunch, prepared and served to perfection as ever by Kennedy and his team, we packed and awaited the arrival of Edwin Ochieng from Kisumu. Edwin is our main host in Kisumu and a long time member of Global Footsteps. We were expecting him at 2pm, he arrived at 5.30pm, we’d had regular updates from him explaining that he had been delayed drastically due to the condition of the road between Kisumu and Nakuru. We were soon to experience this road, but shortly before departing we were lucky (if that is the right word) to witness nature as red tooth and claw on our doorstep. Cliff received a message to say that a python had killed a goat in the grounds of Elsamere. We rushed over to find two local rangers carrying a thoroughly cheesed off twelve foot python who had missed out on a very big meal. That very big meal, a pregnant goat was being carried by its legs by two young locals, who in all likelihood would now eat the goat themselves!
We left Elsamere at around 5.45pm, and made good progress to Nakuru where we dropped Cliff off who was going home to his wife and children after a busy week with us. I am so happy to have met Cliff, we share many interests in the world of Environmental Education. I told him before I left how impressed I’d been with what he is doing as the Education Officer at Elsamere. He is clearly passionate about the subject and passionate about developing his own skills and knowledge of it. He is way ahead of many of the environmental educators I come across in the
True to prediction the road between Nakuru and Kisumu was in a terrible condition, for well over 100km it runs adjacent to the developing new road, this temporary road resembles a farm track. Edwin had to slow to a crawl over and over again to negotiate the oncoming traffic, the potholes and the police checks. We eventually reached the
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