Noor Creations

Ayan, Hawa & Fatuma in the Noor Creations Workshop

It has been such a blessing to see the Noor Creations ceramic bead self help project grow over the past two years. Through hard work and dedication, the Somali refugee ladies of Noor are not only providing for the needs of their families, but are examples to other refugee women entering the Iftin Women's Empowerment program.

Tunis & Fardosa

Beautiful beads

Aisha and Aisha working on beads

Please continue to uphold Noor in your prayers as these women

work to provide a sustainable income for their families.

Wrapping Up

Farhiya meeting with Gary Nelson, General Secretary of Canadian Baptist Ministries, and Aaron on Easter Monday at the Eastleigh Community Centre.

Today was our last day in Eastleigh before departing for our Canadian home assignment on Monday. We had the great pleasure of bringing Gary and Carla Nelson to Eastleigh to visit the community centre and meet with our friend Farhiya who has not only benefitted from the program, but is now giving back to the community as both a teacher and community facilitator in the Iftin Self Help project.

Carla, Erica, Farhiya and Gary walking

through the play area of the ECC kindergarten

Aaron with Laura Muema, Iftin program officer, and Reshma Mahaboob, visiting with the Iftin program this month from KNH's International Self Help program.

Also this week, we welcomed Reshma Mahaboob from Kindernothlife to the Iftin program. Reshma will be coming along side Laura and the Iftin Self Help groups to provide expertise in strengthening Muslim SHG initiatives. She has been serving with KNH for 7 years and has helped establish women's self help groups in Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

Erica introducing Reshma to the ministry of Noor

Solidarity Necklaces

SOLIDARITY NECKLACES

Erica and the ladies of Noor Creations have been working hard on preparing solidarity necklaces for churches and friends in Canada. As you can see, they have put together a wide variety of colours. We are very proud of the ladies as they are showing great ownership and initiative of their project.

We are so thankful for everyone who has been keep Noor and the ministries of Iftin in your prayers.

New Creations

New beads created by the women of Noor

On Monday, we had the pleasure of taking our friend and CBM colleague Lois Mitchell and her fellow peace and justice researcher Katherine Morris to visit the women of Iftin at the Eastleigh Community Centre. Katherine and Lois have been working with our national partners in Rwanda and Kenya on issues of reconciliation for The Sharing Way.

Katherine Morris, Lois Mitchell, and Erica

modelling some of the newest Noor creations.

Rolling, rolling, rolling...

Hawa Haji hand-rolling ceramic beads

for the Noor jewelry project.

The Somali women of the Noor Creations ceramic bead project have been busy preparing beads and Solidarity necklaces for us to bring to Canada this spring. No doubt, our suitcases will be brimming with beads!

Our friend James showing the latest batch of ceramic water filters. Thanks to the generosity of many individuals and churches, every member of the Iftin women's empowerment projects will be receiving ceramic water filter systems this year. These particular plastic systems filter and store six litres of drinking water using a ceramic candle filter produced at the Eastleigh Community Centre. The effectiveness and safety of the filtration systems are tested and approved by the Kenya department of health.

Erica and Joanne Moyer in the garden

of the Mennonite Guesthouse, Nairobi.

Early this week, we also hosted Joanne Moyer, a Canadian student carrying out doctoral research on Religious Non-governmental Organizations doing environmental and development work in Kenya. There is a remarkable number of Christian organizations and churches that are involved in both social and environmental development as part of holistic ministry.

Mistletoe Market 2009

Erica and Patrick at the annual

Mistletoe Market

hosted by Rosslyn Academy.

This is Noor Creation's first year to participate in the many Christmas sales and exhibitions that take place throughout Nairobi. Erica, Patrick and Aisha are taking care of the Noor display today. It is a great opportunity to tell other people about the project and help the ladies sell jewelry.

Solidarity Necklace
The Noor ladies are asking women to stand in solidarity with the women of Iftin as they strive together to empower the refugee women of their community. The Solidarity Necklace is a symbolic way of showing unity with victims of violence, conflict and war. Every necklace purchased assists these refugee women to overcome poverty with dignity.

Women Helping Women

For a Brighter Future

A selection of bracelets, necklaces, earrings

and beads all produced by the women of Noor



Not your typical Christmas tree!

Although Noor jewelry is on sale only in Kenya this Christmas, we do hope to be able to bring some back to Canada with us this spring. Our hope is that we'll have a website with a catalogue up and running this year to help the Noor ladies to market and sell their products. We are also very thankful for a few friends who have offered to sell some of the jewelry in their Canadian stores. If you are interested in learning more about how you can support these ladies or about purchasing their jewelry you can contact Erica at four_kennys@yahoo.ca . Please continue to hold these women in your prayers!

New Colours

Erica holding a few beads glazed in a new speckled finish at the Eastleigh Jewelry Project -- Noor.

While the refugee women of Noor have been off these last two weeks for the final days of Ramadan and the celebration of the Muslim holiday Eid, our friend Patrick has been busy firing thousands of beads which the women had made and glazed, during the past two months.

Along with the local glazes, we are experimenting with test glazes purchased from the United Kingdom. The ladies are trying to broaden their palette of colours and designs. One of our favourites is "sea speckle blue". We can't wait to see what the new beads look like within Noor's new creations.

Erica and Patrick with some of the newly fired beads

In all, the ladies are working

with eleven new glazes

August Days

God allows the seeds to grow!

One of the six vertical garden being tended by the Iftin women's group in Eastleigh. Each of the gardens are doing very well. We will be carrying out a mass planting day with women who want to begin gardens of their own in their apartments, or on roof tops, near the end of September.

Training continues with the Noor Jewelry Project

With no power and poor lighting in Eastleigh, Erica has been hosting the Noor ladies in our home as they continue their training in jewelry making. The ladies are preparing for a large show to be held next week at the Sarit Centre in Westlands, Nairobi. The transition from "training mode" to having them form a viable business is a challenge. But slowly by slowly the pieces are coming together. The ladies were very encouraged to learn that a small order of their beads sold at the Atlantic Baptist Convention Assembly in Atlantic Canada last week. God is good!

Erica enjoying a unique dinner

with our friends Joy and Don Hepburn.

Last evening, while the kids were enjoying sleepovers, we were able to meet our friends the Hepburns -- in transit from Rwanda. Don and Joy are leading a team from their church on a short term mission trip, serving our partner churches and schools there. They shared several stories of the impact the trip had upon their group. A great highlight was witnessing a baptism of about thirty people on the shores of Lake Kivu. Canadian Baptists have been involved at many levels serving churches and communities in Rwanda, but perhaps the most accute need that we have addressed is with orphans and vulnerable children through the "Children of Hope" ministry. Throughout Rwanda, child-heads-of-households are being helped with education, support and basic physical assistance through communities of faith, love and concern.

With our time short, and traffic so terrible in the city, we treated Don and Joy to a tailgate picnic in the parking lot of the Jomo Kenyatta Airport while they awaited their connecting flight home. It was VERY FUN! We had a few odd looks. At one point a tour bus pulled up and we are pretty sure we saw someone snap of few pictures of us drinking our coffee and enjoying sandwiches.

We pray for a safe journey for the Fallingbrook volunteers as they return to Ontario. They have surely shared a transformative experience together over the past weeks.

Training Days

Fardosa and Patrick perfecting

their jewelry making skills.

It was a cold drizzly day in Eastleigh as the women of the Noor Jewelry Project gathered for training. Erica led the women through an earring making workshop in a very dim room as the power was being rationed today in the city.

Erica and her friend, Melonee,

helping to demonstrate new creations.

The girls did a great job, especially considering that they were feeling pretty tired from their fasting for Ramadan which began on August 21st.

On the Wild Side

Over the weekend, the Middleton team had a chance to relax and enjoy some of Nairobi's wild side: Beginning with the traffic (of course), but leading us to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. We joined a huge crowd of people for the morning feeding of orphaned baby elephants that are being raised for re-release into the bush.

As much as we all loved the baby elephants, the real crown of the morning was the orphaned baby rhino who stole the show by charging through the crowd, crashing into shins and knee caps with his nub of a horn. Several members of the team will be able to boast that they survived a rhino charge while in Africa!

The Baby rhino is growing up!
We first met this little fellow back in February

when he resembled an alien. To see more pictures

of him look at our February 1st posting

in the fourkennys.blogspot.com

or click here

check it out here

Malcolm Card, Muriel Bent,
and Terry & Nate Smith

During this time while we are working with the Middleton Team in Eastleigh, many of our CBM colleagues are converging on the coast for a development conference being hosted by The Sharing Way. The distinguished missiologist Rene Padilla is coming from Argentina to speak on Integral Mission. While at the elephant orphanage we ran into some of our CBM family who had come for the conference.

A view from the Giraffe Centre
Another great part of the day was visiting the Karen Giraffe Centre that butts up against Nairobi National Park. We all had fun feeding these gentle giants out of our hands (..and from our mouths)



Ava hanging out with Aisha, Ayan and Fardosa

during their first sale with Eastleigh Jewelry

After our time with the animals, we crossed the city and met up with our friends from the Eastleigh Jewelry Project who were taking part in their first sale in an exhibition within the Sarit Centre, Westlands.

Erica congratulating Patrick on a great sale!

The jewelry project did fantastic selling out most of their display

and bringing in over 15,000 shillings. The entire group was

overjoyed by their success!!!!

Talking about WILD Things...

Ava and Daddy trying on masks

at the giraffe centre's kurio shops.

"Oh Daddy, what nice teeth you have...."

Exam Day

James Odera giving the opening instructions

for the final examination of the

Ceramic Beading Course.

Today the seven women, who completed the ceramic beading program, wrote their final exams. Eighty percent of the examination was practical as the women completed tasks from each part of the ceramic beading process. All seven of the women did fantastic and, having passed the exam, they will receive certificates through the Vocational Training Centre (VTC) on June 29th.

Erica administering the practical examinations

Beautiful Beads!

Water Filters

Today, we held two information sessions on the importance of clean drinking water and the use of ceramic water filters. Thanks to the generous contribution of First Baptist Church, Charlottetown, we were able to distribute 30 water filters to the women of Iftin. We will be doing another distribution once the next batch of filters are ready in July.

Erica explaining how the filters work to separate bacteria and

harmful particles from the tap water.

Aaron passing out filters to the members of the second Iftin class. The ladies were delighted and so thankful for this generous gift. Many of them said that they would be bringing their neighbors over for some clean drinking water!

Tristan and Emma joined us today in Eastleigh and were a

great help in passing out the filters.

The ladies recognize the importance of clean water, not just for themselves but for the young children in their families. Water-borne illnesses are responsible for high mortality rates among children under 5 years old.

Patrick heads up the water filter production. He joined us today to show the ladies how to care for and clean their water filters.

Meanwhile, in the jewelry project, the ladies are hard at work preparing to glaze more beads. Tomorrow we will spend the whole day glazing beads to be used in upcoming sales. While the women are working we have been talking together about what to call our group. We'll let you know what the final decision is.

The girls working on new bead designs

Erica and James preparing the girls for their upcoming exam which will be on Tuesday. The ceramic bead training has been provided under the name of the Vocational Training Centre (VTC). The ladies will receive their certificates through the VTC and their training will be recognized throughout the country.

Thanks for supporting and keeping these

ministries in your prayers