Kenya Report

This Sunday, 16 March, the focus of our Circuit Prayers is on Karibuni Children, an amazing charity that our circuit supports. Joy updates us on her experiences in Kenya as she visits the different projects set up by the charity to support the youngsters and help them to have a better start in life.

Joy and her fellow workers at this charity are offering a lifeline to so many children who would otherwise be destined to live lives of poverty. It is amazing to see the results of this work as the youngsters are enabled to better achieve their potentials and plough back the fruits of their education into the local communities.

Please pray this week for all the staff at Karibuni Children that they may feel the warmth of our prayers as we support them in this wonderful work.

Here is Joy's on-the-spot report:

My own 'good news' is that I'm in Kenya visiting the projects! Kenya is desperately waiting for the March rains to start, especially as the last rains in October/November were very poor and the maize and other harvests were likewise meagre. The grass is like straw and everywhere is covered in thick dust from the parched earth and unmade roads. The car windows have to be kept shut when travelling, despite the heat, and few cars have any air conditioning! I'm not really complaining, but it is HOT!
That's the bad news!

Following the Trustees' recent whirlwind tour of the projects, I'm able to take a more leisurely visit to them all, and I've visited Limuru and Njoro projects and am now at Meru. Here, after a difficult 2024, the project is moving forward again. They have new offices in a small bungalow and are employing two alumni from the Meru Children's Home which has been closed for some years. It was good to meet them again and see them managing their lives. I met and spent some time with the new headteacher at the primary school where most of the children go, and am very impressed with his concern for the poorer children there. Most of the school population is living in poverty in the slums, not only the 6 a year added to Karibuni's number!
Yesterday I visited the home of an 11-year-old boy who, with his brother aged 14, is cared for by his 91-year-old 'Grandma'. She is not a relative, but inherited them when their fathers had already disappeared and then their mother died. Imagine that, all grandma's!

One of the homes I visited in Njoro was that of Moses, who some of you will remember I told you about. One of his bow legs has now been straightened and a plate inserted. He now rushes around like a whirling dervish and is in school – another miracle? The project is going well with a new Chair and their energetic, enthusiastic and caring social worker, Esther.
I am being well-cared for and thoroughly spoilt and have forgotten how to clean, cook, wash my clothes – etc! The only trouble is that I'm almost being force-fed! I'll be going round the charity shops when I get back for clothes to fit me!

This year, incredibly, it's Karibuni's Thirty Years Anniversary – come to the Circuit weekend 21/22 June at AMC if you possibly can, and thank you for continuing to support the children in Kenya.

Every blessing and love from Kenya. Joy.