News from Kosimbo

We have just received some positive news from one of our linked projects 'Kosimbo' in our linked community of Kisumu in Kenya.

Margaret Kawala founder of Kosimbo will be representing Kisumu at the forthcoming Footstep 12 conference in Cadca Slovakia, in an email to us she tells us:

'Kosimbo projects are changing the faces and the mindset of our community. They know that a woman can do wonders when given a chance.'

The Kosimbo Women's and Orphans project was set up in the rural area of Kirindo on the shores of Lake Victoria. Its major aim is to provide basic primary healthcare for people in this marginalised community. This healthcare is currently given a few times a week from a temporary structure. Promised funds to allow the construction of a more permanent community dispensary and some permanent staff have yet to materialise from the Local Government pot. Kosimbo, is however making significant progress in other areas and Margaret remains positive:

Other doors are opening and people are getting treated in our temporary structure. We initiated an adult education class and it was very pleasant to see old and young women involved in different sporting activities during our district sports day held on 8th april.

We are partnering with the national library and at the end of this month we shall be given two hundred books to keep and we'll manage them so that people can get fair access to the books.This is a great achievement as more people and students will get a chance to read.

As more people understand that our work is actually benefiting a lot of people, they are beginning to offer their services, I believe that the library will really be of benefit to our people.

I'm really praying for more networks so that Kirindo moves from being a fishing village with girls getting married at 14 years and boys also going fishing at the same age to a community where our next doctors will come from.

I'm also happy to report that Plan Kenya wants to work with the youth and our youth department is soon to be registered.

Global Footsteps offers opportunities for individuals to travel to projects situated across our network of linked communities. Volunteers who choose to travel on Global Ventures have a unique experience, learn about the community they visit at a grass roots level, develop their professional skills and make a significant difference to the project they work with. There are many opportunities at Kosimbo from health and education through to construction and social work. In her latest email Margaret has expressed a particular interest in finding a volunteer child counsellor. If you think you could spare two weeks, two months or more to help make a difference in this beautiful but marginalised part of the world please get in touch with Global Footsteps co-ordinator Morgan Phillips via info@global-footsteps.org

[This of Global Footsteps member Aby Morley interviewing Margaret Kawala of Kosimbo was taken in summer 2009 during a Global Venture to Kenya, which you can read more about on earlier posts to this blog. If you would like to hear the interview in full please follow this link: Kosimbo Interview 2009]

Rites of Passage

Here is another post from Howard following the latest Global Venture:

Death is reflected in different ways depending on the cultural & religious practices unique to that community.

In Kenya funerals of the Christian religions take place on Saturdays.

Priests both Roman Catholic & Anglican travel the length of the country to bury their dead in the place of birth or their home town on a Saturday.

When interviewing priests of both the Catholic & Anglican faiths the concept of cremation & burial in municipal cemeteries is usually unheard of. They couldn’t understand why funerals in Europe take place on weekdays. To them Saturdays is the most convenient day as people are less likely to be working on a Saturday. They were also very disapproving of cremation that is standard practice in most parts of Europe.

Apart from the Sikh & Hindu community cremation is unique to them and not normally practised by other religions including Christianity.
The Kenyan people have a very matter of fact approach to death & there way of dealing with it is very different to that of European traditions.

The death of a loved one is very much a fragmented (DIY) Do it yourself arrangement. Unlike in the United Kingdom where a funeral director takes care of all the arrangements.

On weekdays in the local market you will see carpenters making coffins along the roadside. A practice unheard of in many parts of the western world.

On Fridays the municipal mortuaries are open to the public to collect their loved ones. However there is a restriction. If the family don’t have the money to pay the mortuary fees they are charged rent for each successive day the deceased remains in the mortuary. This often means they cannot be buried the following Saturday as planned.

Having overcome the obstacle of mortuary fees and your loved one being released from municipal refrigeration the process is still very complicated.

Whilst in Kisumu I witnessed many systems of primitive carriage for the conveyance of a coffin. Two of these included balancing a coffin on the crossbar of a bicycle or using a beer crate trolley. One of the priests I spoke to said it was not unusual to put the deceased on the roof rack of a car. For those that can afford it a hearse may be hired. An African hearse is not the same as we are accustomed to in Europe. Very practical they will use a Ford transit van. The seats are removed on one side to accommodate the coffin with the family sitting in what remaining seating space is available alongside.

Death is always a very emotional time for those intimately involved. It is very important that this taken into consideration by those directly & indirectly taking part. My experience in Kisumu was that the selling of a coffin was no different to the person on the next market stall who may be selling fruit & vegetables.

However in a country that is very poor materially they remain very strong in their Christian Faith. The African people approach death in a way that most Europeans couldn’t cope with. This is to their credit and shows how much we take for granted in the Western World.

Despite them being poor we have a lot to learn from them in a very materialistic world. What is important is that they never give up on their faith. They are very strong people both physically & spiritually.

Howard Marshall. Kisumu, Kenya. June/July 2009.