Symbols

The first IFTIN Self Help Group Training module was completed today in Eastleigh as our team of community facilitators prepare for a busy fall of community mobilization and group formation. On Monday, the group was encouraged by several special guests including both the Kenyan and the Rwandan national self help group coordinators who joined the women in field visits in the Mathare Valley Slum. From The Sharing Way, Ruth Minyau and Bruno Soucey also dropped by to encourage the women and to see some of the activities happening through the development program.

On Friday, we learned about the role of the community facilitators and about governance within the Self Help Group approach. During this day, Aaron also talked about the importance of communicating the purpose of SHG and about forming group identity. One exercise that the group did was the creation of a unique symbol for the Iftin Self Help Group initiative. Together we discussed what it meant to be a part of a women's empowerment program, and how we were trying to build a peoples institution, or movement, that empowered vulnerable women within our community. With our Iftin motto of "Women helping women for a brighter future" we began to think about how each woman contributes to bringing light into places of hopelessness. Before long, we began to picture an image of women coming together and forming a burst of light.

This is the symbol that we decided on as a group.

Like the eight Somali and Oromo women who sat around our table, the eight women in this picture have joined together for the good of others. But they are only able to lift up their arms and make a great impact through faith in God's presence and compassion, through unity and cooperation with their sisters, and through personal sacrifice and commitment.

Each of the eight "Somali women" in the Symbol will be different colours: each colour representing an aspect of the story of Iftin. After some thought and discussion, the ladies decided on the following eight colours:

Black for "Where we have come from"

Blue for "Faith"

Pink for "Sisterhood"

Brown for "Our hands and hard work"

Green for "Prosperity"

Red for "Love"

Gold for "Empowerment"

White for "Peace"

Of course, the symbol is only a reminder to all of us of the realities behind who we are as we come together to serve our neighbours.

Cast List

Tristan's reaction as he heard the news that he was cast in the lead for the Rosslyn Academy Elementary School Play -- "The First Leon"

Tristan celebrating with his buddy Michael

Emma thrilled to find out that she was

picked to sing a solo in the school play

After school today, the elementary was a stir as kids ran to the music room door to read the cast list for this year's Christmas play. Students in grades three to five auditioned over the past few days for the production. The four judges had a difficult task as there were so many great auditions. Erica will be directing the drama portion of the Christmas Musical. She is working with the kids over the next two months.


Happy Birthday Jessica

Wes, Jean, Aaron, Erica, Jessica, Kyle, Julia and (hiding in the back) Ava

The celebrating continued as we joined some of our good friends for a birthday dinner for Jessica Davis. While we were enjoying some great birthday cake, the patter of rain began to fall. Before we knew it, the kids were running around the yard in a rain dance.

Bridging the Gap

Pharis leading the women through the process of translating the Self Help Group materials into their mother tongues.


The fourth day of the Self Help Group training took place at the beautiful Heart Lodge. After a short time of review, the day's focus was on record keeping. Each of the volunteer community facilitators will become trainers within Eastleigh enabling their neighbours to establish functioning groups. Understanding and having competency in accurate record keeping is essential for the success of the program. As part of their training, the women are translating the group and individual record books into their own language. This led to some very interesting discussions as the ladies wrestled with bringing concepts of savings, loans, and terms of repayment into their own culture. Rather than charging interest, Muslim Self Help Groups work on a fee based system.


The ladies also had a chance to apply some of what they've been learning about running a meeting as they tried to find words in their own language for the concepts of "setting an agenda" and "keeping minutes or a record of decisions". We thought Somali was a challenging language, but Oromo is quite a tongue twister too. Here is a little sample: "Galii Tarbaaningalu Bekkumssa waan bitamtte" (translation: "Weeks total brought forward").


This has certainly been a great opportunity to get to know these ladies on a deeper level. Yesterday, one of the women shared about her own struggle coming to Eastleigh as a thirteen year old girl hoping to be able to go to school, but instead being married off to a man who did not love her. By age fifteen she had the first of her four children -- she never was able to attend school. She lives with her children and an unmarried cousin in the dusty clutter of Eastleigh. She knows that she must depend upon herself to provide a future to her children. Tearfully she told us how she decided to accept this role "not only to help my neighbours, but... I'm here to help myself!"

Zahra, the Iftin Community Coordinator, helping the community facilitators work through the final translation of the SHG materials into Oromo and Somali.

Ready for School!

Ava enjoying a quiet moment

The sun rises by 6:30 am in Nairobi, but in our house the day begins when Ava (our little ray of sun shine) rises -- at least an hour earlier! Will we ever need an alarm clock again?

Ava is enjoying the new routine of going to Potter House pre-school each morning. She is making new friends, learning new songs, and joining in several fun activities.

Now that our adoption is complete, we continue to work on her Canadian citizenship. This part of the process is much less stressful than when we were going through the court system. In quiet moments like this, we are so thankful for the ways that God has answered our prayers.

Time for school!