Kenya Crisis Continues
Greetings from Kenya!
Thank you, each one that sent a donation you sent for the Kenya Crisis relief! Many have been helped with these donations.
I am getting numerous e-mails asking how we are doing … we have been working fast and hard as the usual work continues and now have added the Kenya Crisis interventions.
Pastor Elisha from Mathare came yesterday and eight ladies working in the peanut butter project have lost them homes … Pastor Peter from Mathare came today and he has 8 home care workers … spending multiple hours helping families and doing psychosocial work with children that have been traumatized by seeing people slashed with pangas (like a machete) and hearing screams of neighbors as their homes are torched and women abused … and the Community Transformers will come again on Monday … I cannot go into Mathare and Kibera right now but those that live and work there can. We just need the funds to support their work.
For those interested in the details, let me give this glimpse into one day here in Kenya:
Monday 4th February 2008
9 AM ALL Staff Meeting
As the staff gathered they made comments about how good it was to all be together and feel some normalcy returning to HEART. Charles Obes leads this meeting as the Lodge manager and allowed time for all to share as they wanted … most of the HEART staff have been affected by the Kenya Crisis … whether having to move personally or having family members move in with them … Bishop Abel was there and encouraged all to “talk peace and not politics”. They shared their stories of sleeping outside for fear horror at night so they would be able to run quickly with their children if trouble came …
11:30 AM Meeting with Contractor (also named Charles)
We are putting a new roof on the lodge and it is about 2/3 done … we knew shortly after buying this compound in 2003 that it needed a new roof …, but this year we could not jeopardize going through the rainy season with the present condition of the roof … I had to ask the contractor if we could wait for payment until after our dinners in March to make the next payment. He was agreeable. He also agreed to donate time to help us with our Kids for School project … we are hoping to build at least 10 new homes for grandmothers raising their orphaned grandchildren … that are living in “unlivable homes” …. This year they will have a new traditional home.
1 PM Met with WEEP Center Coordinators:
Mary from Mathare
This was hard as we went through the ladies one by one … and heard the trouble and sorrow that has been their lot since the post-election trouble began. As Mary said, “We have passed through the fire of death”. One of the displaced ladies Angelina’s home was burned and she was sent to a “army camp”. She was there three days … without food, blanket or shelter(no tents at this camp) … Mary found her and brought her to our center and gave her a room and she locked herself and children inside. They said that she and her children were fed and slept non-stop for many hours on the floor. …. As it was the first time they felt safe. We have provided mattresses, blankets, cooking and eating utensils, table and chairs etc. Many horror stories are coming out of the camps of women being raped and children traumatized even more as they see their mothers abused. We do not want any WEEP Ladies staying in the camps. Elizabeth has to move as she cannot let her child pass through the youth barriers to get to school … she is also ill and William, Gladys and Mary took her to the Nairobi Women’s hospital for treatment this week … William picked them up just outside Mathare … we still cannot go inside … Consolatta, Susan, Rose … really all the ladies need help one way or another … Mary brought me a list of needs totally 170,000 Ksh …relocation, school fees, food and rent as they have not worked for over a month $2,500 American dollars.
The Mathare center reopened Jan. 27th for limited hours 10 AM – 3 PM, when there is peace. They close at the first sign of trouble so the ladies can get home to their children. Also, they are able to bring some information back to the center of when certain tribes. The ladies come from different tribes so some had to move as they could not live in an area staked out by a particular tribe and they were forced to move if they were not from that tribe … planning a skirmish so the center can close … depending on which tribe you are from …matters how you enter Mathare … the Luo’s enter from one side and the Kikuyu’s enter from the other side and all other tribes take their chances between the two … the slogan “No Raila … no peace” is ringing out in the Luo side and “No justice … no peace” in the Kikuyu area … most of the destruction is now being done by the youth on both sides … and gangs of thugs are taking over certain areas within the slums. Kind of reminds me of the gangs in our slum areas and big cities in the US. They have taken advantage of the situation.
Gladys from Kibera
Gladys, (Williams’ wife, who oversees the Kibera group) shares similar terror. She is a nurse and works at Kenyatta Hospital. She told of going to work “by foot” and being stopped by youth asking her if she was a Kikuyu? She answered “I am a Kenyan” on my way to work … now let me pass”! They stepped aside with their panga’s (machete) and crude weapons and let her pass. Many of you have seen the Kibera WEEP centers. They are not very safe because the center is on the ground level and made of mud and sticks (Kenyans say .. all we need is to throw water on these types of buildings and they melt). Gladys and William took out a loan at Barkley’s Bank and purchased a plot with a stone building already on it and they are now building a second level … I told her, “Gladys you know I have some funds for building in Kibera” and she said, “well, we will continue to look for a “good” place for Kibera WEEP … that HEART will buy …this is a temporary place for the women to be safe” … I continue to be amazed at Kenyans that will use their meager funds to care for and provide for each other!
The Kibera women are also enduring hardship …
Gracie was burned out and now with family outside of Kibera … she has lost everything … HEART will help her start over with money to rent a place and furnish it near her brother. She is ready to begin a small business on her own (outside of Kibera, she will not come back) … Caris Foundation will fund this.
Mary is quite ill with resistant TB and needs extra nutrition and drugs … HEART will provide these for her … she is unable to work so we will continue to help her with rent and food for the family.
Again all the women need money for food and rent and some need relocation funds. Gladys needs 69,000 Ksh or $1,015 US.
Delinah from Mombasa and Aisha from BulBul
We are so thankful that the WEEP Centers making bed nets are safe … because of where they are located …and still working … many requests pouring in for bed nets!
5:30 PM Nick and Charles from Community Transformers came for dinner
I was happy to see Nick and Charles from CT! They look great … and have incredible stories of their work in Mathare slums … and how they are working to help the Home Based Clients they serve that have AIDS survive this reign of terror. A HEART team the “Extreme Team” purchased a stretcher for them in November … they have used it 40 times to rescue the injured from deep with Mathare … they said people are calling them the “ambulances”. They have all kinds of stories of Kenyans killing Kenyans … … they venture into the warring zones to pull out the wounded … so sad … they have 14 children they are caring for that have been separated from their families … and were abandoned on the streets of Mathare … they were able to rent rooms to house and feed them with the 50,000 Ksh HEART sent them when the trouble just began … they left my house at 7:15 PM and it was already dark … I asked them to call me when they reached Mathare safe …they did not call and did not answer my calls to them … I prayed off and on throughout the night … so hoping they are safe … the stories they tell are frightful .. I had nightmares …I kept wishing I had just insisted they spend a night here they were tired … they had not been sleeping … fearing of the Kikuyu gangs (they are both Luo’s) I finally reached them at 7 AM … their phones were dead (batteries and no credit) … but they were safe … they arrived safely (I say that loosely ) in Mathare after waiting a long time for a matatu … his phone was out of credit he could not call (I had given them $700 in Kenya shillings to continue their work … another reason I was so concerned … as that alone is enough money to kill for in Mathare)
We agreed in the future if he was at HEART late he would stay over … and leave in the day light!
I hope this picture will come through … it is of Nick – Charles – Scott and Lindsey Roeker
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Di Roeker
Well ,that was only Monday … my week was full! I feel the sweet protection of the Lord and am thankful for all the partners of HEART … we have over 476,000/= Ksh ($7,000) that we have dispersed for the Kenya Crisis through HEART … since the trouble began and praying for at least another $5,000 to see all the ones we know personally stabilized and prepared to face tomorrow.
Thank you for your love and care and giving in this time of urgent need. Remember all your donations are tax deductible.
Vickie Winkler |
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