Skating with friends

Ice skating at the Solar Ice Rink

at the Panari Sky Hotel, Nairobi

Emma and Diana -- Cookie Elves!

After church today, we brought some friends with us for a picnic at the "Solar Ice Rink". Along with our sandwiches we enjoyed some super oatmeal cookies made by Emma and her friend Diana, who stayed up late together last night baking cookies.

Ava skating with the help of a penguin

Amanda and Emma

Our friend Amanda Lindhout also joined us for the picnic and skate. She is just back from a visit to Canada. Amanda and her organization, The Global Enrichment Foundation, is returning to Somalia this week for a second food convoy to the famine affected areas.

Tristan and Daddy on the ice

This was Aaron's first time back on skates after he cracked his ribs this past June. He was feeling very good, as he helped the kids around the rink.

Erica & Amanda

Michael Lower and Tristan

Diana Ojeda & Emma trying out their skates

Tristan, Ava and Michael on the ice

"Don't fall!"

Praying for Somalia

Children in the Dadaab Refugee Camp of Ifo

Erica is in Dadaab again this week with our friend Amanda Lindhout. They spent today in the refugee camps visiting with new arrivals. Between 1300 and 1500 new people are being registered into the camps each day. At one point, Erica and Amanda were visiting a family outside the camp who had a very sick child. They helped the mother bring her daughter to the hospital. The medical facilities of the camps are over run, as they respond the affects of the famine. Please continue to pray for the Somali refugees crossing over into Kenya and for the famine relief within Dhobley and the surrounding area.

Canadian Baptist Ministries is also involved in emergency food relief in other drought affected areas in Kenya's Northeastern and Eastern Provinces. We appreciate your support and prayers.

Tonight, Erica and Amanda will be going to the UN compound where Amanda is being interviewed by Anderson Cooper for CNN.

Anderson Cooper 360

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/

Update on the Drought

http://abcnews.go.com/International/somalia-famine-relief-progress-slow-race-save-millions/story?id=14249541&page=2

Famine Relief Convoy into Somalia

Photographed by Erica, in Dhobley, Somalia

We appreciate our friend Andrew Myers who just shared with us a link to the Today Show's coverage of the food relief convoy into Somalia that Erica was a part of. The piece that aired this morning on NBC, highlights Amanda's journey. Near the end, you can see Erica in the background talking with a group of Somali children.

Once again, we want to thank everyone who has been praying for this effort and for the people of Somalia.

click here To watch the video of the NBC Today Show coverage of the convoy

Back from Somalia

The present drought is taking life throughout much of the horn of Africa. According to the UN, this is the worst drought in the region in the past 60 years.

The road from Garissa to Dadaab is lined with animal carcasses. Travelling through this sun bleached land, we met several small groups of women and children walking the dusty road. Their beautiful smiles were disarming, as we knew the struggle they face each day to survive.

Meeting with Somali women on the long road to Somalia

This past week, we travelled to Dadaab with our friends Amanda Lindhout and Ryan Youngblood. Ryan is a talented young American film maker living in Rwanda.

Aaron with Stephen, who serves with African Relief, the organization that helped facilitate the food distribution within Somalia. The convoy to bring food relief to the desperate Somali community of Dhobley took the cooperation and the generous help of many individuals, government and nongovernmental organizations. We were blessed to be able to learn so much from being a small part of this journey and to have been so graciously welcomed in by everyone, especially Amanda.

Erica with Fartuma in the CBM Dadaab Compound

Along with our group of seven, there were many aid workers and journalists staying in the CBM Dadaab compound which has served as a guesthouse and training facility over the past few years for numerous organizations in Dadaab. It was great to sleep out on the old veranda under the stars, although we did have something crawl into our mosquito netting and wake us up in the middle of the night -- gotta love the scorpions!

The two food convoy trucks in the border town of Liboi, Kenya

The convoy was organized by Amanda's organization the Global Enrichment Foundation and African Future. Through the generous donations of countless people, over $70,000 worth of food aid is being distributed to 14,000 refugees walking through Somalia to Kenya.

Photographed by Erica

People lining up for food distribution in the village of Dobley

which is scarred from the recent attacks by Al Shabbab

Photographed by Erica

The convoy was only able to make it across the border and to the people who need it the most, thanks to the protection of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) forces that met Amanda and Erica this morning and escorted them into Somalia.

Photographed by Erica

Erica was shocked at how young most of the TFG soldiers were.

Photographed by Erica

After a difficult journey, it was all worth it to see the

food arrive to the people who need it the most!

Photographed by Erica

Excited children in Dhobley, Somalia

(There are several news reports available online about the situation in Dobley. I've noticed that it is being spelled several ways. The signs in the village read Dhobley, but you can find information about the village by searching "Dhoobley", "Dobley", and "Dhobley")

Photographed by Erica

Amanda meeting with a refugee women

as she received her large bag of food

-- enough to feed a family for two weeks.

Home in Nairobi!

We want to thank everyone who has been upholding this convoy and our family in prayer. Please continue to pray for the tens of thousands of refugees still walking through this arid landscape in search of help. In the past months, it is estimated that 29,000 children (under the age of 5) have died in this region from the drought. We pray for the parents who have lost young children, because they have had nothing to feed them. The anguish and suffering a mother or father must experience as they watch their children die of starvation, is unimaginable. If you are interested in how you can help, you can check out the CBM site or any of the organizations highlighted in this post.

NBC has been documenting Amanda's work in organizing this convoy. Their first report was aired tonight, but a more detailed coverage of Amanda's story in mobilizing people and resources to respond to the crisis will air at 7 am tomorrow on the Today Show (NBC).

Famine in the Horn of Africa

Greetings from Dadaab, Kenya!

Over the past week, Erica and I have had the pleasure of coming alongside our friend Amanda Lindhout and the Global Enrichment Foundation, as we have travelled together throughout the Northeastern Province of Kenya to join the current famine relief efforts. Along with representatives from other partner organizations, we drove the group to Garissa and Dadaab where we met with our friends at CARE International and had an opportunity to return to the Dadaab Refugee Camps which continue to receive 1300 to 1500 new refugees every day. Only the strongest are making the perilous journey through the arid lands of south-central Somalia. Many are left behind, too weak to carry on.

Last night, after a long dusty day, we had a simple supper in the United Nations Compound in Dadaab Village, where we met with many dedicated workers from around the world. We were told by one official that Satellite images reveal columns of more refugees moving toward the Kenyan border in search of help. The impact of this famine is staggering. It is overwhelming to witness such pain and suffering.

Tomorrow morning, Erica and Amanda are crossing the Somali border with a convoy of food under the guard of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia (TFG). The food aid is being targeted to the tens of thousands of refugees enroute to Dadaab.

Please Pray...

* For the safety of Amanda and Erica -- they are making an extremely courageous journey into a part of the world that most development agencies refuse to go.

* For the food convoy, that the "care packages" reach the people who need them the most!

* For peace in Somalia, that the current fighting between El Shabbab and TFG forces would cease.

* For an end to this famine!

* For resources that could be mobilized to enable organizations like Canadian Baptist Ministries or the Global Enrichment Foundation to get food to the people whose lives depend upon it.

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

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/