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Category Archives: Hope for Life Kenya

Male dominated tribal groups learn to value women

18 Friday Mar 2016

Posted by judge525 in AIDS in Africa, Hope for Life Kenya, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

My dear friend Josephine K. is a brave and courageous woman who lives in a small town near Nakuru, Kenya. She has been in my life since our church began a partnership in which she remains a key leader for the last 16 years ago. God continues to use her in miraculous ways. She doesn’t settle for less.

As I have shared before, Josephine oversees Hope for Life, a community based program for children at risk in her own neighborhood where HIV/AIDS ravages childrens’ lives. Many of you sponsor her high schoolers. Josephine could remain at the center mentoring these 125 children, feeding and discipling them as she does so well, without stepping outside her community. But that is not her way. She is compelled to teach and empower people to their full potential as they understand from God’s word that they are God’s image bearers.  .

kellylemonphotography_KENYA2015-251

A number of years ago she was mentored by an incredible American missionary woman in community development principles. She was trained to teach a fantastic curriculum in Transformational Development principles and methods that she now uses and teaches wherever she is invited around Kenya. She receives many invitations to teach womens’ community groups, church groups, and often in communities where no one else seems to want to go. It has been difficult to believe anything progressive can happen among some of these tribes.

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one of the many women’s groups that are changing their communities

I am going to share an unbelievable story I received recently from Josephine.  My church helped sponsor this training event a few weeks ago and we received this report upon her return. I have asked her permission to share it on my blog. I know you will be blessed and even more so,  you will be amazed at how God used this time in February to change lives.  (I will mark in bold the statements that demonstrate strong development principles.)

“We arrived in Eldoret at 8 p.m. on Monday, the 1st of February. At 8.30 p.m. the first group of 30 arrived from Northern Kenya. The next group of 30 arrived at 7.30 a.m. on Tuesday. We started the training at 8.30 a.m. with 74 participants. (These individuals would be facilitators of new methods upon returning home.) It is tradition in some areas that women must be escorted by husbands and other leaders from their community. We embraced this as a good opportunity to involve these men in group discussions together with women.

Initially, it was very difficult for the men to allow women to speak in their midst. So as a method of teaching, we used a ball and tossed it to both men and women to answer open-ended questions. Men realized that women were sharp and were giving better opinions and ideas. At the end of the second day the men formed discussion groups to critically analyze resources (or assets) within their locality—untapped resources that could be utilized to improve their livelihood and quality life. We were surprised when they said how much women have been untapped wealthy resources in their communities.

There were five groups represented from different regions of Kenya: some near Eldoret including some well known groups like Turkana and Pokot. There were 76 women in all and 14 men. Realizing how much other people are gifted in creating ideas of different projects and how important it is to respect others by accommodating their ideas without discrimination or prejudice, facilitators were then asked to revisit their culture and analyze the good and also the harm it has done as pertains to women and development. They realized as facilitators that they are donors to development projects in the manner of mobilization, sensitization, planning, and assignment of different roles to willing people.

 

There were those present who could only communicate in the vernacular. We were amazed at how members from the two groups from Northern Kenya volunteered to interpret to their groups. Women translated while men sat and listened, something previously unheard of. One man who came representing a peace forum in his locality stood and said, “What I like about this seminar is women empowerment.” I asked why. He said, “This training is uncovering what we men have been covering for so long—not regarding women as God’s image bearers. When we go back to our place in the Chief’s meeting, we shall allow women to give ideas just like we do.”

This forum group wrote the following resolutions:

  1. No more marriages of young girls 14 years old.
  2. No more training boys to be raiders, because our girls are left as widows at an early age.
  3. There is no need for inheriting widows because they are capable of taking care of their families. They even have more money from the income generating groups of theirs and they manage families better.
  4. Those women who refused to be inherited are better than men.
  5. Our attitudes towards women must change from now to create space for improved livelihood.
  6. Abandoning the practice of ‘Disco Matanga’ a dance done a day before a funeral where people do sex with any partner in belief to replace the dead but which spreads HIV/AIDS, they resolved to do rational and appropriate projects.
  7. Raiding and killing of neighbors during raiding results in many children left as orphans and very young women as widows. So no more raiding. Social projects would immediately start for both women and men, as women will train men on initiating income generating projects.
  8. Women decided that they will present poems in public forums, teaching how important women are and, given a chance, they can sustain families.

There arose a question about intermarriages. One member of Turkana said that their girls get married to Pokots 80%, but Pokots give only 10% to  Turkana. One woman quickly stood up and said, “When we Pokots get married to your boys, once the women get to old age after giving birth, according to your culture, you kill them, so this is why we don’t get married to you.” The room was deadly silent.

I called upon one of the old men who was a moran (warrior) escort to tell us the way forward. He said, “That was the only good we knew before we came here. It has dawned on us that you women are just like us and even better because several of you take care of families after the death of husbands. You still bear with us when we take you like our wealth of cows and goats. You bear with us when we marry many of you in a homestead and leave you without taking care of you and your children. Now that we have known how valuable you could have been and having learned what we have learned, we shall revisit our culture and discard those parts that overlook and demean you women. It is important that when we leave here we call a forum to put things in order.” Everybody shouted with joy. It was very impressive to see women come forward to tell what they have done to keep the lives of their children moving. 

There was one who some years ago after the first training started an Early Childhood Development School. Partnering with her husband who is one of our facilitators, a pastor and now appointed as an assistant chief, the school has grown to a secondary school.  She was kicked out when the school grew, but she vowed to start another school the same way. She said, “Women are donors of brains and visions but men have refused to accept.” The male representatives of different groups stood and said, “From now on, we are partners, and even in any public meeting, we shall listen when you share your ideas.” The women sang and sang.

When we came to the close of the seminar, one moran (young warrior) stood and boldly came forward. He said, “’No more guns, no more killing, but the Bible.” He came and knelt down and lifted his hands up ready to get saved. All the rest did the same and women sang praises. He got saved and 10 others confessed they want “the Bible way”. They do not know salvation. They said, ‘You Mum (Josephine), you have regarded us with respect even if we are dirty. You always ask whether we have had enough food and you don’t eat until we have eaten. You have taught us about a God who is very different from our gods of the sun, moon, mountains, lakes and the rivers. All our gods have been created by your God,. We want this God who is not as evil as us who have oppressed our women. Tell your God to accept us and we shall liberate these women of ours.” It was so touching.

I called upon one of the reverends who had come to join us to close the training officially and he prayed for them. They conducted a song in their vernacular and wrapped a green sheet on me and three of our facilitators as a sign that they have discarded all the evil they have been doing to women and girls. They promised to change and utilize every untapped resource to do development with women. One elder said that every one of his girls that will be married in his locality shall be given land to plow just like he would do to his sons.

I had ordered a cake for them to cut for the women as a sign of faithfulness to their vows. Both communities cut the cake and fed the women. They fed me, too, and it was great.

The funding done for such forums is God-planned because such a training was the first of its kind and the attitude towards women totally changed. The women felt so empowered that they sang songs of liberation and deliverance. They will now go to facilitate those interior areas that have women still downtrodden.”

I belive we have been privileged to read an account of God doing a miracle among some of the hardest African tribal people to reach with the gospel.  It has been done through Transformational Development teaching. I know you are praising God for being allowed to read this testimony of what He has done. To God be the glory.

I will add that if you feel so moved to help Josephine in her many endeavors to teach in her community, you can visit this website to help support her. 

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They’re just kids wanting to go to school

02 Friday Oct 2015

Posted by judge525 in AIDS in Africa, Hope for Life Kenya, Orphans

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Throwback Thursday: They’re just kids

In 2004, I began to develop a heart for those suffering from HIV/AIDS. I am reminded of that fact in two ways today. I am thinking of some teenagers at Hope for Life- Kenya who are AIDS orphans and I am wondering if they all had the funds to start school this fall as school started for them, as it does here.

hish school students at Hope for Life

What would it be like to not have parents who can support you as you head into your teens… and your future… with no means to go to high school? The fees are high, but all these kids have tested well and qualify. These kids know what that insecurity is like. My heart breaks for those who have such an unsure future. We can do something to help. Are you able to help one of these kids?

The other reminder about how God developed my heart for those affected by AIDS in Africa comes from my dear friend and former boss at Willow Creek, Steve Haas published a piece for World Vision, where he now works as Chief Catalyst. He traces his own journey with AIDS in sub-Sahara Africa. In the early years of this millenium when mission agencies and relief organizations were first waking up to the pandemic that was infecting and affecting about 30% of all folks in sub-Sahara Africa, the church in America was barely awake. In the next eleven years, that fact changed. And the face of AIDS is changing every day. There is so much more hope.

Steve puts it this way.

Rather than attempting to charge up the mountain of Christian ignorance and stigma head-on, a sure recipe for short discussions and abbreviated advocacy engagement, we plotted a course that took the Church on a journey: passing along the story of the AIDS affected and infected children and the young families we serve. In private conversations and public presentations, and with aggressive invitations we opened up the Scripture to what has always been our call to reach out to the vulnerable and in solidarity place ourselves underneath their burden. –

Reading this article made me recall how hard it was for me, a new missions pastor at Wheaton Bible Church, to take on this challenge. We started down the information track by telling our church the facts and people listened and God opened their hearts.

There was good news by 2005 as the church gave generously and blessed our new Heart for AIDS ministry. We created a new partnership with a fledgling group of pastors and orphan care workers in Nakuru, Kenya. I could go on and on about what happened there. Revisit some former posts.  Some of you know personally as you have been there with one of the teams we have taken. Hope for Life-Kenya is still one of the healthiest ministries I know…working on behalf of its impoverished community and seeing great strides in caring for orphans, widow, and in community development.

But the good news is that, though we haven’t done it like World Vision through child sponsorships, we actually started teen school sponsorships….as of last summer, we have found 15 sponsors for kids’ high school fees. There are 15 others who need your help. Click here to learn how. 

We have taken a holistic approach to the needs of orphans and widows since 2004. And the children who came to the center we built to host after school programs and lunch time meal programs in 2006 are now teenagers doing well in school. Year after year, Hope for Life is launching committed followers for Jesus Christ into the communities who know responsibility, who know how to minister to others, who take care of their younger siblings, and who serve in their churches and communities. They are learning about God’s ways and life skills at Hope for Life that give them the courage to make good decisions and refrain from risky behavior. They are loved and cared for by adults who are committed to them. But they need our financial assistance. Please consider supporting one of these kids by clicking here. Tell a friend about supporting one of these kids. Read their stories in past pages on this blog.

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On this Mother’s Day let’s remember motherless children

08 Friday May 2015

It’s way overdue. I promised to introduce you to some high school kids from Hope for Life Kenya. On this Mother’s Day weekend, I have been thinking about these kids. So many of them have lost their mothers to HIV and AIDS. Many fathers have either died or have foresaken the difficulties of family life plagued with illness and have left. They may or may not come back, but often don’t return until children are past school age, when the kids can take care of him. It’s a common story.

Children never stop needing a mother. God has blessed these 125 children at Hope for Life with a surrogate mother, as only God could do. The director of Hope for Life (HFL) Josephine, has become “mother” to over a hundred kids. Along with her staff helpers, she chose these kids from the neighborhood because of their dire need. She keeps track of them, visits their homes (where many have grandmothers taking care of them), makes sure they have uniforms for school. She oversees their daily food needs and their health needs. She pours her life into them. She teaches them the Bible and how to live a Christ-centered life…all with a great sense of humor and calm. She loves them deeply….all in Jesus’ name. Most come to faith in Christ personally at a very young age. Her mothering and nurturing skills are amazing. hopeforlife.juliandkellyphotos-12 The kids flock to her for a hug or ask her for counsel about life issues. They need her like every kid needs a mom. Josephine is their mom, their hero. She is my hero. I want to help her help these kids. They need our help to stay in school…no they don’t have behavior problems, but they have financial problems….you see they have to pay some hefty shillings (dollars) to go to high school…they have to pass exams and apply to high schools like we do for college.  Because of Josephine and her value of education, 31 kids studied hard and have qualified for high school.

There is a simple way to help by clicking this link to Faith and Learning International.

Anyway… let me introduce you to some of the high schoolers. Most of these interviews were taken in January by the GO Team from Wheaton Bible Church and are spoken in their own words:

Kezia has been a part of Hope for Life for nearly 10 years. Since she was a little girl she feels that getting a good hot meal every day has been very impactful on her life. As she has gotten older the other huge blessing is getting help with her school fees. Now that she is in boarding school, she comes to Hope For Life on weekends and plays piano and sings at church. She hopes to be a musician when she grows up.

Kezia

Kezia

At home Kezia helps with cooking, especially loves to make chapatis and ugali. She cares for the cows and really loves animals. At HFL she works in the garden on occasion and mostly helps in the kitchen. When asked if the girls always cook and the boys work in the garden, she laughed and said the girls try to mix it up, but the boys aren’t very good in the kitchen. She has learned to knit and dress hair at HFL and now shaves the boys heads during her vocational skill training on Saturdays.

kellylemonphotography.interviews.michael-1

Michael

Michael is 17 years old and has been a part of the Hope for Life family since he was 8. His 16 year old sister Kezia is also at HFL. He is in his second year of high school and likes school a lot, especially Chemistry and Math.  Someday he would like to be a cashier, as he is very good with numbers. On the weekends, Michael takes computer classes and electrical skills classes at HFL. He also helps with the children, but his greatest love and talent is in music playing at church either on the keyboard or drums. He loves to sing and is in the gospel dance troop at church as well. Michael and Kezia’s mother is HIV+ and there are 4 in the family. His mother ran away when the kids were young but has returned and reconciled with the grandmother. Once Michael was sent away from school for lack of school fees and he ran away and became a shepherd, but life was so difficult that he returned. He is back in school and growing into a very responsible and teachable young man.

kellylemonphotography.interviews.daniel-1

Daniel “Mbugua”

Mbugua’s  mother died when he was 4 years old and his younger sister Virginia was 2. At that time he was very sick, suffering from a severe skin problem.  After the mother died, the four children joined Hope For Life. Josephine helped with his medication to heal his skin problem. But after 6 years the father of the first 2 siblings showed up and said he wanted to take his children. He was HIV+. His older sister ran away.

Mbugua was terribly affected when his older siblings were gone and he and Virginia were left behind to live with the grandparents. Although he struggles in school because of the stressful environment at home, he graduated from 8th grade and has made it to high school. He plays the keyboard in church, sings and composes music. He is also a good dancer in church worship dance group.  Mbugua wants to be an airplane mechanic.

Josephine and Virginia

Josephine and Virginia

His sister Virginia has “adopted” Josephine as her mother and frequently leaves her grandparents to stay with Josephine. I have known Virginia since she was 4 and she has grown into a wonderful teenager with a bright and godly spirit.

God has rescued these motherless children by sending Josephine to their neighborhood. Now they are adopted into His family forever. To be adopted as sons of Jesus Christ is a concept that will take us until eternity to fully comprehend. The truth is that when I am around the children from Hope for Life Kenya, I get a glimpse of spiritual adoption from many angles. God cares about these children like the father that He is.

Galatians 4:5-7 ESV 

To redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

Matthew 18:5 ESV 

“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me,…”

   

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Posted by judge525 | Filed under AIDS in Africa, Hope for Life Kenya, Orphans

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Life at Hope for Life Kenya

13 Friday Mar 2015

Posted by judge525 in Hope for Life Kenya

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AIDS orphans

I want to introduce you to some of the 31 high school kids who have been nurtured and mentored at Hope for Life (HFL) Kenya. This Orphan Care ministry, (now a US not-for-profit under Faith and Learning and an NGO in Kenya) takes care of 150 kids. This ministry has grown since my church became involved in 2004 and I would say that Hope for Life has virtually raised this particular group of teenagers since they were elementary children.

DSC_5670Here are some of the small children in 2007.

It’s amazing what these children have lived through in their short lives. I’d like you to understand a bit about their situations. They have had to grow up very fast as they have come from homes where their mom or dad has passed away during their young years from HIV/AIDS. As most people are aware the AIDS crisis continues to devastate Africa.

Let me share a few common facts about HIV/AIDS and how it affects a family. HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is a sexually transmitted infection. Promiscuity is a problem in Africa as it is everywhere. Yet the disease can also be spread by contact with infected blood or from mother to child during pregnancy, childbirth or breast-feeding. It can take years before HIV weakens the immune system to the point that one develops AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome), which is a chronic and often life-threatening condition in Africa.  Opportunistic diseases attack the HIV+ person’s weakened immune system. Soon the person is very sick from the virus. Though Antiretroviral (ARV) medicines and a healthy diet can stem the progress of the disease, they are often out of reach in Africa.

So the children I will introduce you to have experienced a family life like none we have known in our culture in the US. The stresses of parents constantly being sick and unable to hold a job or care for/make meals for their children is the least of it. There are so many other stresses as people die, and extended families squabbling over a new knowledge of someone being diagnosed with HIV.  The shame, stigma, and in-fighting makes day to day life miserable and often dangerous.  I can say that this is a common experience with most of our Hope for Life kids.

Child being raised by grandparents

Child being raised by grandparents

The HFL director, Josephine Kiarii intervenes in these circumstances and tries to make sure that the kids are in safe homes with new guardians or with extended family members. Josephine does not put them into an orphanage, as very few exist in Africa as there are a million AIDS orphans in Kenya. The commonly held “best practice” for care for AIDS orphans is a center like Hope for Life, often associated with a church or NGO.

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She brings these children into the center that was created just for them. The loving care, the meals, the after-school tutoring, playground, music, and biblical teaching all come with the center. All of this nurturing has born huge benefits as most of the children have met Christ as their Savior and friend..

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Now, 11 years later we have high schoolers, who came in their early grade school years, and are now responsible teenagers, old before their time, in many cases, who follow Christ and take spiritual leadership of the younger kids. They have done well in school, have been tutored in a vocation or a trade, and have been mentored by Josephine, her staff, and area pastors. They have now been accepted into high school in early 2015 as they qualified by their school exam scores.

All of these kids need our help.  You can learn how to sponsor one of these kids for his/her high school years. I hope that you may find the compassion to consider $30 a month or more to support a high school student this year. The sum of $97 a month would sponsor one teen for the next two terms through December 2015. Click here to learn more and support a student.

Let me introduce you to some of these kids over these next weeks. If you would like more information about any of them or would like to pray specifically for a student, please contact me.

Meet Joseph T. 

kellylemonphotography.interviews.joseph-1 Joseph “Jose” and his 5 siblings are in the Hope for Life (HFL) program. He is the “glue” in his family and his home life is not easy, as they often live in crisis. He is a strong servant leader both at Hope for Life and church. He initiates teaching Scripture to the boys at HFL. He particularly loves drama and poetry. Besides being the commander of the church young boy’s battalion, he enjoys “Gospel” dancing, a common Sunday morning program at Africa Inland Churches and he pitches in with church set up.  He is grateful to HFL for helping with his reading skills and the gifts of clothing through the years. He has started high school and his favorite subject is science. He wants to be a journalist and dreams of traveling to India someday.

Look for more introductions to these great kids coming soon.  They all are worthy of your support and prayer. Below : Alice, Anthony, Joel and Daniel

Photos compliments of Juli Watt Photography & Kelly Lemon Photography

View the blog of this photographer for beautiful pictures of Hope for Life taken in January 2015.

kellylemonphotography.interviews.alice-1kellylemonphotography.interviews.anthony-2

hopeforlife.juliandkellyphotos-20kellylemonphotography.interviews.daniel-1

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