Moving Forward

2009-09-30T15:05:00.000-04:00

A little girl should never walk through a river of sewage. Yet there she was, wading in her dirt covered dress through the slush. Instead of playing princess, she wandered aimlessly through the largest slum in Africa, Kibera. Seeing her broke our hearts, but it also called us once again into action. This summer was not Annie and my first time in Kibera, but now when we walked down its dirt streets it was with purpose. God put us on a mission, but he did not ask us to walk the streets alone. In our months abroad God joined us together with people across America, England, New Zealand, South Africa, and Zimbabwe; all for the purpose of helping children, like the one we watched

in the stream, get out of the slums as we work to

provide them with a Christian education.

God has been opening doors for us to build a Christian high school for these children so desperately in need. A high school education offers the pathway to jobs, and the opportunity to escape their world of child prostitution, forced labor, and drugs. We were grateful for your prayers and support that undergirded us as we met with Kenyan principals, the Kenyan Ministry of Education, landowners, contractors, and educators from multiple areas of Africa. We are confident God led us to the right partners: a construction group highly experienced in the building of schools, someone with curriculum building experience, and possible members of a school board.

Daily God brings us closer to providing a school for the children of Kibera. We hope that you will continue to walk beside us with your prayers and financial support as we follow God’s freedom call for Kenyan children together.

Lifted from the Dust

2009-07-27T22:29:00.000-04:00

Dancing. Laughter. Drum Beating. Swahili songs of worship. All at once the entire Jakazi IDP camp, 840 people, celebrated God's outrageous love with all their might. Why? After tribal wars destroyed their families these survivors banned together to make a new home, and today marked the one year anniversary of living on this new land.

These people were a riddle. They had nothing, but were filled with joy. Experience had showed them how crewel life can be, yet their lives were filled with hope. As we picked up hammers and nails we joined the Jakazi residents in building new homes for those who had spent the year sleeping on the ground in outdated tents.

As we worked their stories of faith filled our ears. "God has lifted us from the dust," one woman proclaimed. She was right. This year they had watched as God provided food and water for the entire community even without a single person being able to work in the local ostracizing town. Today, on their one year anniversary, God made it possible for the community to obtain the supplies necessary to build the last 52 homes needed.

Jakazi is a nothing short of a modern day Israel. God was with them when their lives were ripped from them, and he leading the charge to bring about a new life. The small woman was right when she proclaimed that God has lifted them from the dust. "He has put his dwelling place among them, he is walking with them, and he is their God who has broken the bars of their yoke and enabled them to walk with heads held high (Lev. 26:11 paraphrase).

Today was a day of celebration. It was a day of worship.

Tribal Warfare- IDP Camp

2009-07-19T17:19:00.000-04:00

Our hearts broke. Can you imagine? As a result of last years Presidential election in Kenya tribal warfare broke out across the nation. Homes were burned, family members were murdered, and 10,000 of the tribe’s people were forced to flee for safety.

And here we were…talking to the very people who were trying desperately to piece their lives back together. They had experienced such pain, but as we sat around their homes talking they acted so normal.

Where did they flee? Most came to a small plot of land in central Kenya that the government provided for the people to squat on. These people are called Internally Displaced People (IDP).

As we sat under a tin roofed hut this community of survivors explained to us their story. This IDP camp had broken off from the 10,000 other refugees, and they were certainly unique. When the government gave each family $125 to compensate for their struggles, instead of carelessly spending the money, this group of 840 entrepreneurs decided to join together as a community and purchase land. Now they are able to grow crops as they work towards building homes, finding food, water, and education for their children.

Looking around the camp felt like glancing around an unfinished construction site. While roughly fifty mud walled homes had been erected another fifty-two homes were yet to be built. For the past year these families have been living out of leaky tents waiting for the community to be able to afford to build more homes.

As our conversations continued we found ourselves shocked to hear the fate of their young teenagers. Daily the high school students walk down a major highway 3 miles to a little town where they can attend school. Seeing children in need the truckers have started taking advantage of the desperate girls. Knowing the children go days between meals the truckers offer to give money in exchange for the only thing the girls can offer, Sex. What began as children walking to school has now become a popular child prostitution location.

It was difficult to hear the fate of these people. There are so many needs. Where do we begin? Next week we will join Global Connections as they help build 52 homes, and to temporarily provide food and water until their crops can grow.

The biggest immediate problem left is what will happen to these high school girls. How can we help? There is no temporary solution to this problem. What steps must we take to eliminate this problem?

Once again the cry of this communities desperation showed us how necessary it is to provide Christian education. They need a high school. They need hope.

Fingers in the Dirt

2009-07-09T14:10:00.000-04:00

Hanging on the edge of the 1,000 foot Rift Valley cliff wall is one of the most popular tourist stops in Central Kenya. Over Christmas we joined the hundreds of tourist who daily stop to buy over priced Maasai weapons, sheep skins, and cold cokes. What we did not realize was that within view stood three mud shacks that 400 children call their school.

Just imagine... at the base of the massive Rift Valley wall three teachers use every means possible to educate the children of their Maasai community. They have no chalkboards, desks, or books. What they do have they use well...dirt. To learn to read and write these children cram into a small mud-walled room and imitate their teacher as she carves letters into the dirt. While their education can only go so far with such few resources they come to school daily to learn their next lesson.

Within seconds of arriving we found ourselves surrounded by laughing children who wanted to touch the white people. Can you imagine? All we could see were hands and smiles. All we could hear were peals of laughter.

We only spent an hour at the school, but during that time we played soccer with a ball made from trash-bags, chased the children around in an endless game of tag, and sang songs until the dust filled the air in their one roomed church.

Even though this school is only 2 kilometers from the main road, daily tourist, like us, go about their time in Kenya without ever seeing the need that is so close. The only reason we found the school is that we stumbled across it as we searched for land to purchase down a long dirt road.

Once again God is showing us the dramatic need that there is to change the lives of these children by giving them a Christian education.

Its all about relationships

2009-07-07T13:46:00.001-04:00

Q: How do you build a school in a third world country? A: You first build relationships.

Whether we were looking for contractors, talking to existing schools, or working with the Kenyan government at the Ministry of Education, we have learned that nothing moves forward in this country without first forming relationships.

Ministry of Education:

It was nothing more than a two room shack overflowing with clunky desks, chairs, and filing cabinets. Yet somehow in this tin hut, the Ministry of Education office, we were supposed to learn all the regulations that the Kenyan government requires for its schools. As we struggled to maneuver into a comfortable position between our chairs and the furniture, getting down to business would not take place until we were able to take the necessary time needed to get to know the director we were speaking with. Once the relationship was established we then were able to move forward.

While the Ministry could not offer any official documents to show what the government requires for their schools they did offer the advice, help in understanding the necessary process of registering a school, and the willingness to walk along side the school, once built, to ensure all is being done to their "standard".

Heading to Kibera

2009-06-27T09:49:00.000-04:00

It was the machete knives and blood covered Kenyans that signaled we were not where we wanted to be. As we bumped down the pothole covered dirt road toward the slum we hoped to build a Christian high school in, we soon found our tattered SUV following a train of cars forced to detour into a small village. What caught our attention first was not that our Honda was winding further and further from any familiar roads, but rather that the hundreds of people that stood on both sides of the vehicle were wearing white coats covered in blood. Before long we learned that instead of this bloody village being a tremendous threat to our lives, it was actually the heart of Kenya’s animal butchery market. By dinner we found ourselves gratefully thanking those bloody butchers for the meat that we were about to sink our teeth into, and even more gratefully thanking God that we did not get a flat tire in the village.

Some of Our Favorite Links

2009-06-11T23:11:00.000-04:00

Global Connections - our partners on the ground in Kenya
Photo Essay on Kibera, from The Paris Review
Kibera Info
Kibera at Wikipedia
Slum Survivors - Documentary on Kibera (trailer)
Slum Survivors - Documentary on Kibera (film)
Flying Toilets - Funny + gross; made by a Global Connections intern

Donate

2009-06-11T22:23:00.001-04:00

How did we get where we are?

2009-04-06T14:54:00.003-04:00

In January of 2009 we traveled to Kenya with an organization called Global Connections. While there we stepped into the second largest slum in the World, Kibera, where around 1,000,000 people live within a square mile. It was in Kibera that we began to understand how the lack of education tragically affects the low income children of Kenya.

The Problem

As we walked through the streets of Kibera we saw every plague known to poverty- disease, endemic HIV/Aids, drug use, orphans, child prostitution, abuse, rape, and even open latrines. It did not take long to see that like so many other low income Kenyan communities the children carry much of the burden for the community. Many children suffer with inherited HIV aids, others are forced by their parents into prostitution, and others are even sold out as child laborers. Talking to the locals we began to understand that Kibera exists because the Kenyan government has turned its back on the community. Although they provided squatting-land for the 1 million+ and some basic education for primary students, they offer no clean water, food, or healthcare.

When leaving Kibera that day our hearts were torn. How could we help? What was the real need? Looking back on our time living in Uganda, and talking to the locals we soon pinpointed where we wanted to begin our efforts to fight for the children in Kibera.

The Solution

Education. The children in Kibera, like other children across Kenya, find themselves in a downward cycle. They cannot get jobs because they do not have enough education, but they cannot pay the expensive cost for high school education because they cannot find quality jobs. If we can help provide education to low income children, then they will have opportunities to find employment. As children are educated they will bring back into their communities businesses and impetus for projects to provide clean water and healthcare that will improve the lives of those in the community. Leaving Kenya in January of 2009 we had a dream, to build a high school for the children of Kibera. This was a dream that we would soon discover to be too small.

In June of 2009, Annie and I returned to Kenya to learn how to build high schools for the children of Kibera. The question that would carry us through the rest of the summer is how do we form and build these schools. Over the next six weeks we were regularly able to meet with Kenyan principles, the Ministry of Education, landowners, contractors, and even a group who has built over 50 schools. During our time in Kenya our relationships with those who wished to join us in the building of high schools spanned from America, England, Kenya, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. As people began to catch onto our dream we began to see that our goal of building one school was too small. We were learning the ropes and we were seeing more and more communities in need.

Stepping into the Kibera slum lit a spark. While our hearts were first tugged in Kibera, our vision has expanded to looking for ways that we can fight for children all over Kenya. We are beginning with education, because with it we have found a focused need that will make a lasting impact in the generations to come. In time we may expand the route we choose to help these communities, but for now we are focused on providing an education for children who may not have the opportunity to attend high school otherwise.

Get in touch!

2009-04-06T11:00:00.000-04:00

There are two ways to contact us quickly:

1) Email us at schoolsforhope@gmail.com

2) Leave a post below