Urban Gardens

Vertical Gardening in Nairobi

The Iftin Women's Empowerment Program in Eastleigh, Nairobi, is striving to help vulnerable refugee families living in the informal settlements of Nairobi to improve their lives. As Canadian Baptists, we are committed to several aspects of transformation, including issues of food security. In urban areas of Africa, millions of people become trapped in sprawling ghettos, slums and shanty towns where people live on less than a dollar a day. In such communities, most of a family's income goes to either food or shelter.

Training in Eastleigh

Tim and Diane Bannister not only lead the short term volunteer program of Canadian Baptist Ministries in Kenya, but Tim is our resident agricultural and agro-forestry expert. We are looking forward to having him back in Eastleigh on May 16 and 17 to lead a training program on vertical sack gardening with the Iftin members. This will be our fourth training on sack gardening at the Eastleigh Community Centre. It has been encouraging to see God at work in the lives of families who had never gardened before.

Please keep Tim and the Iftin group in your prayers as we work together to provide a reliable and inexpensive supplement to the diet of refugee families.

The first vertical bag garden workshop at the Eastleigh Community Centre led by our Canadian Baptist Ministries colleague Timothy Bannister with Bruno Soucey and Aaron, back in 2009.

Learn more about the use of bag gardens in improving food security for impoverished communities through the work of other organizations serving in Kenya:

LINK Kibera:

http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Sack-Gardens-of-the-Kibera-Slum

LINK Cowfiles:

http://www.cowfiles.com/african-gardens/bag-gardens

LINK Solidarites:

http://www.solidarites.org/ourprog/Kenya/humanitarian-action.shtml

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.

Canadian Baptist Ministries Matching Grant

Help Change a Life!

We want to thank everyone who has so generously supported the work of The Sharing Way. Through your help, we have seen such incredible transformation taking place in the lives of children and vulnerable families. We want to let you know about a "special matching appeal" that can have a huge impact here in Kenya especially in the ministry of the Guardians of Hope and Children of Hope programs. Below is a short excerpt from the CBM website. To learn more or to participate in this opportunity, please click on the link below:

"Thank you for your generous support of The Sharing Way. Because of you, we have fed the hungry, helped families increase their income through small business loans, taught women how to read, given orphans the opportunity to be educated and trained subsistence farmers in ways to increase their production.

Our annual matching grant opportunity through Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has consistently allowed The Sharing Way to start each new year with a dependable source of funding for crucial development programs. However, I need to inform you of some changes to this year’s matching grant appeal.

Due to the generous support we have received in past years, funding is already in place for our CIDA-approved projects for 2011. However, we must urgently deal with the reality that we have other crucial projects that desperately require funding – projects that are not eligible for CIDA funding.

Our greatest needs in The Sharing Way for the next several years include funding to:

• Assist vulnerable children
• Support people widowed or orphaned by HIV & AIDS
• Help hungry and malnourished families increase their food supply

The good news is that we have been given an incredible opportunity to receive matching funds to help support these programs.

Recently, a few generous donors of The Sharing Way personally committed to matching all the funding we receive through this appeal, until April 30, 2011. They have pledged to match every dollar we receive, so that your gift will continue to multiply in impact!

Please consider generously supporting The Sharing Way through this appeal and taking advantage of this wonderful matching grant opportunity. Your gift will help transform the lives of countless men, women and children in need around the world."

Click Here to Read more,...

http://www.cbmin.org/cbm/TSWMatchingGrantAppe

Erica and Mary Doerksen

We just completed a few great weeks with the Doerksen family who have been serving with us in Eastleigh. We are thankful for the way that they have embraced the Iftin families and been such a source of encouragement for us and our team here.

Today we joined the leadership of the Africa Brotherhood Church, as we interviewed candidates for the ABC Guardian's program officer. Please pray for us as we work together in strengthening this program with our partners.

Link to CBM Website:

http://www.cbmin.org/cbm/TSWMatchingGrantAppe

Iftin Champs!

Aaron & Erica with Nelius, Farhiya

and the students of Iftin's class two

Last Friday was sports day at the Eastleigh Community Centre and the Iftin students were thrilled to have won a Volleyball Trophy against the faculty of the primary school. Today the students in class two shared with us and our friend Naoma. We are thankful for the commitment of Nelius and Farhiya as they walk with the students day by day in the literacy project.

Mathare Community Garden

Gardening in the Urban Jungle

Solidarites International staff worker Akoi and community beneficiary Josephat with a vertical garden of kales. We are thankful for the help of both Akoi and Josephat who have assisted the Iftin women in establishing vertical sack gardens in Eastleigh. Over the past three years, the Mathare Community Garden project has helped over 8000 vulnerable households build and harvest their own vegetables and raise their own poultry. Families are trained on the construction, care and maintenance of the gardens and are provided the materials to make 3 to 6 vertical gardens of their own.

Sukuma Seedbeds and vertical sack gardens

As we continue to work together with the Iftin members on strengthening the women's empowerment program, we are learning from our friends in Mathare Valley on how to best provide food security for the urban poor.

Tomato vines in the Mathare Community Greenhouse

Naoma and one of Hawa's daughters

today at Noor Creations

Noor Creations

VIDEO PODCAST

This week, we posted a video podcast for our colleague Lois Mitchell and her students at Saint Stephen University. In this 17 minute video, we talk about the importance of women's empowerment within Integral Mission.

To download our latest video podcast, please click on the link below for our public dropbox site:

Video Podcast

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7126669/Fivekennys%20Video%20Podcast%20Women%27s%20Empowerment.m4v.zip

Guardians of Hope Leadership Gathering

GOH 2010 Leadership Gathering

Nairobi, Kenya

This week, Erica and I had the joy of facilitating our first GOH leadership gathering at Heart Lodge, near our home on the outskirts of Nairobi. This has been an incredibly helpful time as we build trust and understanding, and gain a much broader picture of how Guardians of Hope is functioning within each of the partnerships and regions where we are serving communities affected by HIV and AIDS.

The meetings began on Monday morning with an opening challenge on empowerment by Colin Godwin, Canadian Baptist Ministries Africa team leader: At the centre of all Christian service, we are to give power away and to rely on God's spirit to remain our true source of power. In essence, this is what we should be doing as we seek to serve others as the Church. The danger lies in the fact that many of our well meaning efforts can have the very opposite affect -- unintentionally the church can create dependency and, at our worst, exploit the very people we are trying to help.

Times like this of stepping back and examining the work we are a part of, can help us gain perspective on the ministry in which we labour.

Scott Lewis and Colin Godwin

We have been blessed to have several of our Canadian Baptist Ministries colleagues speak into the Guardians of Hope and bring their own perspective and strengths. It was an answer to prayer that we were able to coincide these GOH leadership meetings with Scott Lewis' first trip to Kenya as a Sharing Way program officer for Africa. Scott's good humour, humility, expertise, and first hand experience in community development in Southeast Asia, has made his time with us both encouraging and insightful.

Ruth Munyao sharing during the Monday sessions

We were also glad to have Ruth Munyao, The Sharing Way's Africa coordinator, join us for part of the meetings as we looked at our expectations around leadership roles and our various systems of management within each of the partner organizations.

Our Africa leadership team members

Elizabeth, Isaie, James, Henry, Patrick, Laura and Triza

(Sadly, we were not able to include Eduardo from Angola in this round of meetings)

GOH leaders meeting with Iftin community facilitators and members of the Ililili Self Help Group, Eastleigh

On Tuesday morning, we took a short break from our meetings to travel into the Eastleigh Community Centre to visit with participants in the Iftin Women's Self Help project. We had the pleasure of spending time with Somali and Oromo women who have formed a group of 18 members and have been working together to improve their lives over the past year. They call themselves "ililili" which in their mother tongue means "flower" . It was a great opportunity for the GOH leaders to see another perspective on the challenges of empowering people within marginalized communities.

Elizabeth sharing her thanks to the women of Iftin

On Tuesday afternoon, we were also blessed to have Tim and Diane Bannister join us for discussions on how we can better integrate short term volunteers into the Guardians of Hope program. Given the wide geography (and often remote locations) and nature of the varies GOH projects, the leaders have faced many challenges in connecting volunteers to groups beyond brief exposure visits. It was very exciting to work together with the Bannisters as we begin to explore new possibilities with having visitors strategically coming alongside of groups and communities. We are not there yet, but already we are beginning to look at new possibilities.

New Life GOH

The Guardians of Hope NEW LIFE Group

Machakos, Kenya

On Wednesday, we travelled Southeast of Nairobi with the GOH leaders to the town of Machakos to visit the New Life Africa Brotherhood Church and the Guardians of Hope group that meets there.

The group members working on tie and dye

The group is made up of both men and women, most of whom are living positively with HIV and AIDS. They come together to support each other and to care for over forty AIDS orphans from within their community. "We come for encouragement," shared Elizabeth Wausi, "and support one another through many activities." The activities of the group are many from a weekly merry-go-round savings program, micro credit and income generating activities, to counselling, home-based care, improving kitchen gardens, nutritional education for members on Antiretroviral medications and sponsoring orphans with school fees. "We share our experiences, support each other and plan for the future!" Elizabeth told us.

One of the great successes of the New Life Group has been the groups ability to access outside programs for support. The Africa Brotherhood Church's development program has been able to attach a community care worker, a public health worker and peer educators to the Guardians of Hope. These people work together with the group and the local hospital to help people access voluntary testing and counselling programs, access free medications and follow up people on long term treatment programs. This cooperation between the hospital, church and community is what makes the Guardians of Hope such an effective response to HIV and AIDS.

During the weekly Tuesday meetings, the guardians in New Life dedicate a part of their time to income generating activities. One of their more successful ventures has been producing household detergent. With a 400 Kenyan shilling investment for ingredients, the group can sell the detergent for 600 shillings.

Henry, Ruth and Laura taking great interest

in the detergent making demonstration

Elizabeth Wausi with Isaie Gakwerere

trying his hand at making detergent

"It smells like lemons!"

The guardians in the New Life group purchase their own products first, whether it be soap or fabric, they want to be their own best customers. They then take their wares to the local market where the funds earned go toward paying school fees for HIV and AIDS orphans being cared for by the group. This past year, the group has sponsored 42 children in attending school. The money earned is also used for small business loans for individual group members, who use the low interest loan to strengthen their personal income. This past year, ten members took and re-payed small loans that helped to boost their businesses.

Elizabeth speaking with guardians outside of Machakos

Sister Esther and her daughter Grace

As the pastor of the Africa Brotherhood Church in this community, Esther joins the Guardians each week during their meetings and provides spiritual support and visitation to the group members within the community. Please keep Esther, and other pastors working with Guardians of Hope, in your prayers as they serve their communities in such a vital way. The Gospel message of acceptance into a compassionate community of forgiveness and grace is at the heart of Guardians of Hope.

Guardians of Hope

Youth Stepping Forward

The bloom of the Jacaranda tree...

a sure sign of Autumn in Nairobi

Youth Empowerment -- Youth Stepping Forward!

This past week, we met with a group of emerging young leaders from within the Stars of Peace youth group at the Eastleigh Community Centre. On Thursday, they visited our home for a planning meeting as we work to develop the youth empowerment project within the Iftin program. The group will be working together to carry out a baseline survey within the community over the next few months, as we discern the issues and challenges common to Muslim youth within Eastleigh and identify opportunities for change.

We were very impressed by the energy and enthusiasm of these young men and women. Please pray for us as we seek to "win the community" and become a catalyst for change in a place where most young people are idle and have lost a greater sense of purpose and meaning in life.

The men serving the women -- a step forward in itself!

Isaak, Hussein, and Abdi Aziz

We are very blessed to have Isaak, a Somali Kenyan from Northeastern Province, joining our program in Eastleigh as part of his University attachment program. He will be volunteering with the youth and children's projects for the next three months.

Abdi Aziz had to give our kids trampoline a try

The girls having a great laugh at Abdi Aziz's antics

GOH Kangema

Kangema, Kenya

Earlier this week, we travelled into the Aberdare Mountains to visit one of the more remote Guardians of Hope projects with the Africa Christian Church & Schools. It was a beautiful drive up the steep tea hills and through dramatic valleys.

Small hold tea farms are the main source of income in this region of Kenya. Most farms have one or two acres of tea bush that the family will pick and maintain. Tea cooperatives purchase the tea directly from the growers and will prepare it for auction where major tea buyers will purchase Kenyan black tea for some of the world's most popular blends.

Our colleague Henry Mwangi told us that as a child his mother would take him tea picking, but as the slopes were steep it was too dangerous to let a small child wander. So, Henry's mom would simply dig a hole and leave the baby and toddlers in it while she picked. According to Henry, it was the best way she had to keep him safe.

Jacinta Kuria

The purpose of our trip was to visit with the committee members of the ACC&S Guardians of Hope in Ichichi and to interview Jacinta Kuria, a Guardians beneficiary. After sharing part of Jacinta's story, in our September update letter, Canadian Baptist Ministries asked us if we would return to Kangema to film a video interview with Jacinta for World AIDS Day. Jacinta was very gracious with hosting us at her home and sharing how God has used the Guardians of Hope to help her and her children after the death of her husband from an AIDS related illness and the her subsequent diagnosis. Jacinta is now living positively and with the help of the GOH, she is staying faithful to her medications and providing for her family. Jacinta has also become a spokesperson for other people within her community and church. She believes that God has blessed her so that she can help others affected by this disease.

Erica interviewing Jacinta with Patrick Miana,

our GOH colleague working with ACC&S

Jacinta showing us her two acres of tea bush

Aaron with our ACC&S colleagues, Patrick and Henry, and members of the ACC&S Guardians of Hope committee in Kangema at Jacinta's home.

Looking across the neighbouring tea field with Jacinta's tea picking basket on the ground

Beth, Erica, D and Jacinta in her kitchen garden

Our friends daughter, D, joined us on this trip as she was interested in learning more about the Guardians of Hope for an HIV and AIDS project that she is doing for her eleventh grade English class. It was a pleasure to have D with us and for her to have a chance to interview other GOH participants.

While we are sending the footage from our video interview to CBM, we will be posting an audio podcast of Erica's interview with Jacinta next week. It will be available on our podcast website and on iTunes.

Self Help Groups -- Eastleigh

Aaron in conversation with Laura Muema

during the recording of our latest audio podcast

This week the Iftin Women's Empowerment Program is conducting three days of monitoring and evaluation on the state of the Women's Self Help Group project in Eastleigh. Our program officer and some of the community facilitators just completed a week of training with the Kenyan National Self Help Program in Kakamega in Kenya's Western province, near Uganda. We are interested in finding ways to strengthen the existing eight groups and to identify ways of building sustainable livelihoods for the members.

On Monday, we met with Laura and during our meeting Aaron interviewed her about the concept and role of the self help group approach with the women's empowerment program. It was interesting to hear Laura's perspective on the importance of this approach and on how we can be praying for it and the over all program.

Today, we are meeting with our team leader, Colin Godwin, as we think through the direction of urban muslim outreach in Nairobi. Please pray for us as we discern the best use of our resources in following God's leading. We would also appreciate your prayers as we take a long journey tomorrow to Kangema, in Kenya's Central highlands, to meet with the Guardians of Hope leadership there.

To listen to our latest fivekennys podcast subscribe on iTunes or go directly to our podcast site at www.fivekennys.podbean.com

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Putting our heads together

Teresia Mulandi, Ruth Munyao and Erica

at our home in Nairobi

September has been a very intense month of evaluation and planning meetings for the Guardians of Hope (GOH): Our partners and GOH colleagues have been putting their heads together around how we can improve our shared work in the fight against HIV and AIDS, and strengthen our work in improving the lives of orphans and caregivers affected by the virus. In October, many of our key GOH leaders will be gathering together with us in Nairobi. We will be meeting with The Sharing Way program officer for our region, Scott Lewis. This will be an important time of learning from each other as we establish a way forward. Please be in prayer for our partners in the Africa Brotherhood Church(ABC), African Christian Church & Schools(ACC&S), the Igreja Evangelica de Angola(IEA) and the Association of Baptist churches of Rwanda(AEBR) as they prepare for this gathering and continue to serve those struggling most acutely with HIV and AIDS within their communities.

James Odera, Laura Muema and members of one of three discussion groups during last weeks leadership meetings with the Eastleigh Community Centre

This has also been an busy time for our brothers and sisters at the Eastleigh Community Centre as we work together through an evaluation process of the centre's ministry and programs. This has been a valuable time for Iftin as we become better integrated into the community centre's strategy for sustainable community development and discuss how we will move forward together. Please pray for the community centre as we seek to draw upon all that we have learned and discern how we might improve the way that we use the resources which we have been entrusted.