Noor Designs

Noor Creations

On Monday, the CBC documentary crew and Amanda Lindhout joined us again with the Noor Creations Self Help jewelry project. The Noor ladies are excited to be partnering with Amanda's Global Enrichment Foundation which is looking at selling their bracelets in Canada.

Erica and Amanda working with

the Noor girls on bracelet designs

Zahra and Tunis sorting unfinished beads

Erica working on designs with the ladies

Hawa finishing Solidarity Necklaces

Some of the Noor bracelets

Snap shots from Iftin

Snap shots from the

Iftin Women's Empowerment Project

Erica walking with a little girl in Mathare Valley Slum

Erica with photo journalist Gabriel Craven

Over the past few days, we've been blessed to have Gabriel visiting with the Iftin ladies. Along with taking photographs, he has been hearing their stories of courage, perseverance, and faith. We hope you enjoy seeing many of the faces of Iftin through his eye.

Telling Their Story

Dan Klinck, Aaron & Erica, Amanda Lindhout, Louis DeGuise, and Curt Petrovich (Gabriel Craven behind the camera)

Over the past two days, we have had the pleasure of hosting Amanda Lindhout and reporters from CBC television's The National, as they connect with the Somali refugee women of Iftin and learn more about their stories and experiences.

In 2008, Amanda was kidnapped just outside the Somali capital of Mogadishu and held hostage for fifteen months. During her captivity, she vowed that if she survived that she would dedicate her life to helping Somali women. Four months after her release, she founded the Global Enrichment Foundation and established the Somali Women's Scholarship Program.

Through the internet, Amanda and her team learned about the Iftin Women's Empowerment Project and became interested in how the project is impacting refugee women living within the Muslim ghetto of Eastleigh, Nairobi. We were thrilled to hear that they were interested in partnering with the Noor Creations ceramic bead self help project that Erica established with the Eastleigh Community Centre two years ago. This afternoon, they will be working with the women to develop a bracelet that should be available in Canada later this year.

Curt and Louis are travelling with Amanda to film a documentary on her return to Africa and the work of her foundation. We had a great time yesterday meeting with ladies from each of the projects and joining the group on a walk of Eastleigh and Mathare Valley. We were also joined by Gabriel, a free lance photo journalist. During the walk, we attracted a throng of young children. Several little ones that could not have been much older than two, grabbing our hands and walking barefoot through the slum.

To learn more about the Global Enrichment Foundation, you can check out their website below:

http://globalenrichmentfoundation.com/

Three Years Old

Happy Anniversary Iftin!

This past Friday, we celebrated our third anniversary of the Iftin Women's Empowerment Project which officially started on July 7, 2008. We were thrilled to see so many new refugee women enter the project this spring. For many of the ladies, this was their first anniversary celebration.

The Iftin project continues to grow as it responds to the rising number of Somali refugee families entering Eastleigh. Please continue to pray for our leadership team at the community centre and for Laura, Nelius, Farhiya and Patrick as they continue to lead the day to day work of the projects.

In the next week, the Eastleigh Community will enter the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan. This can be a tense time as the women have additional responsibilities at home. 

Erica and Laura lighting the Anniversary Candles

Laura, Farhiya, Daniel and Nelius

Cutting the IFTIN Anniversary Cake

Ava and a new friend from Eastleigh

Praying for Eastleigh

Aaron with Ehud Gachuga

and Daniel Wairagu Maina

Today was our last official meeting with Eastleigh Community Centre (ECC) director, Ehud Gachuga, as he completes his responsibilities this week before beginning a new position. Over the past four years, we have deeply appreciated Ehud's leadership as we have served together in partnership between Canadian Baptist Ministries and the Eastleigh Community Centre, a program of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA).

We remember back to our first meeting with Ehud in the Fall of 2007 and for the way the Lord used him to encourage us and provide the platform that made the Iftin Women's Empowerment Program possible. We are so thankful for the ways that Ehud and the ECC team have welcomed us into their midst and given us the great privilege of being a part of the work of the community centre in "restoring lost hope"!

As the ECC board of directors search for a new director, our friend Daniel Wairagu has agreed to step into the role of acting-director of the community centre. Please pray for Daniel and the entire ECC staff as they pull together during this time of transition.

Laura and Erica at the close of today's meetings

To learn more about the work of the Eastleigh Community Centre and the many outreach projects and events that are a part of tis hub of activity, please check out their blog at

www.eastleighcommunitycentre.blogspot.com

Praying for Eastleigh

* Please remember the Gachuga family as they seek a new home and transition into life in a new community.

* We give thanks for Daniel's willingness to serve as the acting director. Please pray for wisdom and guidance for Daniel as he carries out his duties, and for the board as they begin the process of searching for a new director.

* Please pray for Laura, Farhiya, Nelius, Patrick, Tunis, Zahra, the community facilitators and members of the Iftin program.

Connections in Eastleigh

A week in pictures

Micah and Farhiya explain the importance

and use of a water filter system to a family in Eastleigh

We really can't quite capture an entire week in a few pictures. As Mary Doerksen commented one morning as we drove through the chaos of street life in Eastleigh, "Pictures are just not enough. How do we ever explain all of "THIS" to our everyone back home." We hear you Mary!

Nonetheless, here is a quick recap of some of this past week's highlights. If you are interested in seeing more, or hearing the first hand account of the Doerksen family, we recommend you checking out their blog at:

http://thedoerksenjourney.blogspot.com/

Aby introducing her new friends to one of the Iftin classes

Marking teaching the vocabulary of "good manners"

in one of the primary school classes

Mary sharing with her small group in Iftin Class 2

Mark learning about the Iftin women in his small group

Over the past five years, we've come to learn

that one of the greatest things

we can do in empowering women is listen.

H o m e V i s i t s

Each afternoon, the Doerksen's accompanied Farhiya, one of Iftin's seven community facilitators, on home visits to meet refugee families who are being interviewed and considered for assistance with child sponsorship for the primary school. Already this year, Laura Muema has a case load of over one hundred refugee children who desperately want to attend school, but can not afford it. Through the generosity of churches, organizations and people like the Doerksens, the Iftin program is helping refugee children access clean water, health care, education and livelihood training and support for their care givers.

It is amazing, but it only takes a dollar a day to change the life of one of these children.

A family of children excited to have house guests

Aaron and Mark demonstrating how to assemble

a water filter system with a family in Eastleigh

Aby & Micah raised enough money at their school in Winnipeg, to purchase about sixty water filters, that will be distributed in Eastleigh this year!

Atalie Dougherty, Erica, Mark, Aby, Micah,

Mary and Ava on their way to the Iftin Party

Eastleigh, Kenya

Erica and Aby at the Amani Ya Juu

Women's Refugee Sewing Project in Nairobi

Training for a better future!

Faisa Abdukadir in her first week of her tailoring course

We had the joy today in Eastleigh to visit with a few of the Somali women of Iftin who have benefitted from vocational skills training scholarships within the Eastleigh Community Centre. Thirty members of Iftin are now learning technical skills that will help them gain employment or start small businesses to earn a livelihood for themselves and their families.

In the tailoring class, four of the Iftin ladies have begun a year long course. "We come each day from 8am until 4 pm," shared Ayaan. "We are just beginners but someday we will start a shop together and make dresses!" She and her friends laugh together as they continue their class work. Having completed the Iftin English literacy program, they have the basic language skills needed for a class like this and to operate within the Kenyan market place.

On behalf of the women of Iftin, we want to thank everyone who has prayed for them and helped support this project. It is exciting to see how far they have come and the hope on their faces!

Farhio Ahmed, Ayaan Duale and

Faisa Abdukadir with their instructor