June trip to Kenya with ALARM group

This past June we did not have a short term mission trip as we have had the last two summers. We had to cancel the trip back in January when the political situation was unsettled in Kenya. However we still met up with a small group of people from another ministry who I made contact with through a mutual friend a while ago. This ministry is the African leadership and Reconciliation Ministry (A.L.A.R.M.). ALARM is an African ministry, empowering African pastors and other leaders to bring hope and transformation to their communities. You can find out more here…. http://alarm-inc.org/

This group was led by Robert (Bob) Pyne who was formerly a professor of theology and now works as the director of leadership development at ALARM. His wife Julie and his four children joined him along with Joni Powers, his co-author of their recent book “Life space” (http://www.lifespaceonline.com/team.htm)  Joni’s two daughters joined her. Patti Cunningham who is also a friend of the Pynes and the Powers and has experience working in special needs education was a member of this American (Texas) group. Carol and Rose are on staff for ALARM in Nairobi and joined the team for the short 4 days they spent involved with Kupenda activities on the coast.

Bob contacted me a while ago because ALARM was looking to expand their mission to include working with pastors regarding disability since this is a group of people that are marginalized in sub-Saharan Africa. However they didn’t want to start something that was already happening but to partner with Kupenda. Bob became involved with the issues surrounding people with disabilities in Africa because of his experience as a parent of a person with down syndrome. This is Bob and Julie’s oldest son, Steve, who is now 21 years old. It was a great honor and privilege to have Steve visit Kenya and become involved with our activities. Steve spoke at the pastors’ workshop and also at Disabilities Awareness day. He did an amazing job and really impacted those participating in the events. The relationship he has with his parents really came across to the local people which is really important for other parents of children with disabilities to see. 

Minna with Willy (my friend who first introduced me to the Gede school 8 years ago)

My sister, Minna, also joined me for the 7 days I was in Kenya. She is an art therapist and has worked with children with disabilities. She helped with artwork at the schools as well as helping to organize the volunteers. Since Minna was with me the first time I ever went to the Gede school about 8 years ago, it was really neat to have her here again for the first time since then.

We had a pretty intense 3-4 days with the ALARM group. We brought the group to the Gede Special school for the first day and also took some of the team to visit the homes of children that were at home that we needed to check up on. The group worked in the classrooms as the classes are always understaffed.

The second day of the visit some of the team went to the Sir Ali school for children with mental impairments to assist them and see what they do. Bob, Julie, Steve, Rose, Carol and Joni helped lead the pastors’ workshop with Reverend Mangi and Leonard (Kenya director) while the others were at the school. There were about 50 pastors present and a lot of very good discussion and issues brought up. They talked about the misperceptions of disability, difficulties working with people who have them, and trying to figure out how to better serve this population. As I said before Steve spoke along with his parents. I was impressed with them all. I spoke for a little bit but I was not able to stay at the workshop the whole day as I was the only one in the group driving. That’s right I drive in Kenya now. 

The day after the pastors’ workshop we held our third annual Disability Awareness Day where Steve and Bob spoke once again and did a great job. We had performances from many of the children at the special needs schools and many speakers. Once of the performances was done by the children from the Gede special school that won a national award in drama competitions previously.

In addition to these events I was able to drop in on the teacher’s sign language workshops that we are now funding to occur twice a month on Saturdays. The teachers are really benefitting from these workshops as the leaders of the workshop are really amazing teachers.

Minna, Leonard and I went to Mombassa to visit two children who are recovering from corrective surgery at Patrice hospital. The two girls, Faith and Nuru, are cousins and were each born with a deformed leg. An occupational therapist volunteer from the June 2007 mission trip, provided the needed funds for the two girls to have their deformed legs amputated and fitted with artificial limbs. The surgery was performed in Kijabe at Bethany home for crippled children http://www.kijabehospital.org/About.asp . We spent some time at the hospital with the children. I happen to have a cartoon movie on my ipod which we watched with the girls for a bit. They are doing really well, making new friends and even attending school while recovering. However, when I was leaving Faith wouldn’t let go of my hand with the saddest face which was kind of tough. They will begin using artificial limbs in the next couple of months and be back at Gede I in a very short time.

Of course every time I am in Kenya we have an all day business meeting. We covered a lot in a small amount of time. Of course the majority of our conversation had to deal with funding for various activities and projects….of course. These included the urgent needs of completing the classroom for the deaf that is still incomplete. The classrooms are very congested and children are being rejected from the school because of lack of space. We talked about the needs for the sign language workshops which include more books for the teachers in heir classrooms with the correct sign language for Kenya. There is a sever lack of teachers which is really impacted the ability of the children to learn especially those that are deaf. Even with funds there are not enough people educated in this area to properly teach. Therefore we discussed the possibility of trying to have people from here teach at the schools for a year or two at a time while training local people to take over. The biggest need recognized in this meeting is the need for the purchase of land next to the school so the school can expand. Of course there were many, many other issues discussed but I will save you the details as I’m sure many of you didn’t get this far even. Some of these issues will be highlighted in the next Kupenda newsletter which we hope to mail some time this summer.