Growing

Vertical sack gardens doing well!

Over the past month, the Iftin ladies really don't need a watering can, as Eastleigh is getting almost daily rains. It may make the streets muddy, but all the rain has been great for the Iftin gardens.

Laura at work in her new office

Activities are going on as usual in Eastleigh. The ladies are back in full attendance within all of the Iftin projects. Presently, Erica and Laura are working on the final reporting for the Canadian Baptist Ministries pilot project that has funded the Iftin Women's Empowerment initiatives over the past three years. As this project comes to an end in December, we are already dreaming with the ladies about the future. We are excited to be working on what the next phase of the project will look like!

More new books and supplies for Iftin

Nelius teaching in the Iftin Literacy Class

Patrick, Laura and Erica

labelling new chairs donated by the

Fallingbrook Heights volunteers

Seed beds and sweet potatoes in the Iftin Unity Garden

Sack Gardens

Two local guys helping three of the Iftin ladies bring sack garden supplies to their home with a hand cart. We are so excited to see how many women are embracing the bag gardening project!

What a Week!

WHAT A WEEK!

John hard at work in the renovations

of the new Iftin classroom

All this week, Erica and the Fallingbrook Heights volunteers have been busy in Eastleigh with Laura, Nelius, Farhiya, Patrick and the Iftin ladies. Here are a few glimpses into the week:

Nelius and Farhiya moving the Iftin literacy classes

outdoors as the entire Eastleigh Community Centre

undergoes a much needed facelift!

The new Iftin Unity Garden

is taking shape!

Nelius helping one of the Iftin girls water some of the sack gardens infront of the new classroom. Already eight teams of refugee women have entered the urban gardening contest and are growing vegetables in sack gardens throughout Eastleigh. We are so excited to see the ladies are putting their gardening training into practice both in the community centre and in their own homes. We pray for great success!

Lila helping to lay out the hundreds of new Kenyan readers and story books for the Eastleigh Community Centre library.

Yesterday morning, they presented a mountain of new books and sports equipment to the staff and students of the primary school. It was an emotional day as the little library rarely receives new books, especially African readers. All of the books provided by Fallingbrook Heights were purchased in Kenya and are a part of the official Kenyan curriculum. A huge thanks to the generosity of the Fallingbrook Heights Baptist Church who raised the funds for the library. (On behalf of the team, we also want to thank the Nairobi Textbook Centre for their discount -- it is amazing how many books they were able to bring into the school!)

Erica and Don in the new workspace for Noor Creations.

The Renovations were completed late yesterday afternoon, thanks to the dedication of the team. On behalf of the members of Iftin and Noor, we want to share a BIG THANK YOU! The transformation is incredible!!!!

The team is off for a weekend break, but they will return to the community centre on Monday to lead two days of professional development workshops with the entire staff.

On a personal note, we are excited to be celebrating Ava's 5th Birthday this Saturday. She left for pre-school this morning with a big box of mommy's cookies to celebrate with her class.

We hope you all have a great weekend!

Eastleigh Makeover!

Pharis Nyaga introducing the Fallingbrook Heights team to the vocational training centre program at the Eastleigh Community Centre

Erica is leading the Fallingbrook Heights short term mission team in Eastleigh this week. Yesterday she brought them in for a quick tour and then they jumped in with both feet as the team began helping out with the literacy classes, and renovations to our work spaces. Don and John also began a series of workshops with the older students in the school, and Don and Joy went on a home visit in the community.

Joy Hepburn sharing some geography with the Iftin Women

The team teaching a class with Iftin:

they appreciated the openness of Nelius and Farhiya

who are sharing the morning classes with them this week.

Erica, Julie and Lila painting

the new Iftin literacy classroom

Along with the renovations to our new work spaces and offices, the entire community centre is getting a major makeover through the support of the European Union and other donors. Carpenters, tilers, painters and a host of volunteers are working throughout the centre. This Wednesday will be a huge clean up day with all of the students participating. The centre is a bee hive of activity!

John and Nick working on the renovations to the new Noor Creations' workshop

Erica was the first customer for the Peace Group SHG

who are using their savings to start

a scarf making micro enterprise

Erica introducing the Fallingbrook Heights

team to her favourite basket shop

Fallingbrook Heights Arrives!

Joy, Don, Lila, Nick, Julie, John, Aaron and Erica

photo taken by Emma Kenny

Early Friday morning, we had the pleasure of welcoming the Fallingbrook Heights team who just arrived from Ontario, Canada. We are thrilled to be working together with them in Eastleigh over the next two weeks.

We have shared the past two days in orientation as the team prepares to work with both the Eastleigh Community Centre's primary school and the Iftin ladies. It has been raining off and on since they came -- also a sign of blessing in Africa!

Please keep this team in your prayers. We know that the next two weeks will go by quickly.

Church at the Centre

The Scarborough Bluffs

Today we joined Don & Joy Hepburn for worship at Fallingbrook Heights Baptist Church, also known as "The Church at the Centre". We had the joy of sharing a bit of our ministry and story with the church and had a great time getting to visit with their pastor, Ken Park, and members of the congregation after church and into the afternoon.

Aaron with members of the church who participated in a short term mission to Rwanda this past summer.

Erica sharing the story of the women of Noor Creations after the service. We were delighted to have 45 of the Noor "Solidarity Necklaces" purchased this morning by people interested in supporting these vulnerable women.

A sure sign of Spring

Spring Daffodils in the gardens around the Scarborough Community Centre

Emma and Grace Fong

Fallingbrook Heights is also the home church of our friend and colleague Grace Fong. We are so thankful to Grace who has organized most of our time here in Toronto.