John Njihia, Project Officer
CBM/ACC&S Urban Ministry Program
Over the past year, our colleagues Wayne and Maureen Morgan have been launching an urban ministry self help group program in the Dandora and Mali Saba areas of Nairobi, Kenya. This is a joint project of the African Christian Church and Schools (ACC&S) and Canadian Baptist Ministries (CBM).
Earlier this week, we sat down with John under a tree and asked him about the work in which he is giving leadership. Here is a part of that conversation:
“Currently we are implementing the project, helping the community come up with self help groups as a way of empowering people politically, economically and socially. So since we started early in 2014, we have been able to form twelve groups...
Within the groups we always encourage them to carry out weekly savings, even 20 Kenyan Shillings a person each week, that is about twenty-five cents in Canada. So they meet, they save and then they can borrow from the savings. We practice what is commonly called in Kenya “Table Banking”: You don’t take your money to the bank, you save and loan to the members.
We have many challenges introducing this new kind of project in the community. Creating linkages with local institutions and government has not been very successful yet. Helping groups manage small loans is also a challenge...
We are working in an informal settlement, widely known as a “slum”. Within the slum we have a lot of thugs, drug dealers, and at times they disrupt our meetings or harass people. I would appreciate the prayers of Canadian Baptists and anyone interested in this ministry. Prayers for protection and God’s strength to keep me going!”
You can learn more about the ACC&S and CBM Urban Ministry Project on the "Morgans in Kenya” blog and you can learn more about the ministry of CBM in Africa and around the world on our website at www.cbmin.org
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