Feeding the hungry

18JulMay 19, 2020

A friend of mine has been feeding the hungry for more than a decade. Dyan Walker, also called Sr. Kateri as she belongs to a Franciscan lay order, has indirectly and directly been providing meals for hungry children in Kenya for many years.

The Message

A couple of weeks ago I asked Sr. Kateri how she happened to get involved with feeding needy children. She said that it all started in 2007 when she attended a church service where a missionary to Kenya was bringing a message about the work he was doing in that country. She was deeply affected by his stories of children in an area called Kampi Ya Moto – a name which translates to “Camp of Fire”. Needless to say, life was challenging in that region. Kampi Ya Moto is located in sub-Saharan Africa where daily temperatures reach high into the 80’s and 90’s and rainfall is scarce during most of the year. She learned that HIV/AIDS had claimed the lives of many adults in that area so most of the children were orphaned. Education was considered a luxury. A primary school was built in 2003, but prior to that there were no schools near their homes. Their excitement at finally being able to learn was beyond measure. However, in spite of their enthusiasm, they were fainting in class due to lack of food.

The Orphan Feeding Program

This missionary was reaching out to the church for help with an Orphan Feeding Program, allowing the children in Kampi Ya Moto to receive a daily meal.

Sr. Kateri was profoundly moved by his stories, so she began to pray for a way to help them. As a recent widow, her budget was limited, but it occurred to her to put aside $10 a week for the orphans. She began to do that, and continued to pray for their situation.

Then in May 2007, Sr. Kateri was gifted with the opportunity to travel to Kenya with a group of missionaries. The trip had a profound impact on her life. She vividly remembers the sights and sounds, the incredible wildlife, and most of all, the children.

missionaries in Kenya sitting around a round table — Sr. Kateri, third from the left, with missionaries in Kenya

In her visit to Kampi Ya Moto she had a chance to serve lunch to the school children, an experience that is still fresh in her heart and mind. She also remembered that “…there was a kitchen there but it was dilapidated and falling apart.” She returned home and began to tell her friends, co-workers, and anyone else who would listen about these children and their needs. Before long, there was an outpouring of donations for the Orphan Feeding Program, and the effort began to take on a life of its own.

Feeding the Hungry

Sr. Kateri’s passion for alleviating the suffering of these orphans in Kenya began to affect people throughout the USA and Canada. Funds continued to pour in, making it possible to address other needs as well. The kitchen she had seen during her trip was in need of repairs, and two other schools in Nakuru were asking for help with feeding orphans in their schools. Fr. Paul Stewart, her pastor of many years, told her: “The money you set aside also inspired others to give, so they were able to repair the kitchen and start the Orphan Feeding Program in two new locations.” Her prayers and continued concern and care for the orphans also led her to join EC’s Board of Directors, a position she held for several years.

Kateri’s Kitchen

Today the kitchen in Kampi Ya Moto is once again in a state of disrepair. Severe drought and extreme heat have taken their toll on this small tin, wattle and daub building. This summer, EC is raising $2,100 in order to build a structure that will withstand the climate and provide nutritional meals to these school children.

Kitchen in Kampi Ya Moto for feeding the hungry — The kitchen in Kampi Ya Moto

Upon completion, EC will be dedicating the new kitchen to Sr. Kateri. A plaque honoring her commitment to feed the children will be placed in this building, and in future kitchens also. Her legacy of giving to the least of them will continue to impact children for years to come.

Feeding the hungry plaque — The plaque that will be placed in the new kitchen in Kampi Ya Moto

If you are in a position to contribute to Kateri’s Kitchen, please click here to help us continue with our goal of feeding the hungry. Your gift will make a huge difference for the school children who rely on these meals to get them through the day.

As always, Asante Sana (Thank you very much) for your help!

Blessings,

Ruth

The Orphan’s Foot Soldier: Tiring but Worth it

14FebMay 19, 2020

Getting There

As the foot soldier for Everyone’s Child (EC) in Kenya, I always look forward to my monthly trips to Nakuru with joyful expectancy. The journey to Nakuru takes about six hours by public transportation (via matatus and bodaboda – traveling on the back of a bicycle) from my home in Migori County. I normally change vehicles twice on the way. The trips are physically tiring, but the satisfaction from serving the orphans makes it all worthwhile.

William Aludo on the way to Nakuru in a matatu

Serving There

EC is currently providing meals to a total of 350 orphaned students in three schools within Nakuru. The schools are Lanet Umoja Primary School, Nakuru Teacher’s Primary School and the Lord Ranjuera Primary School.

Unlike the first two schools, breakfast and lunch is served at the Lord Ranjuera Primary School in Kampi Ya Moto throughout the year due to the desolation in this arid region of Kenya. This meal program is more important than ever for these children as the drought this year has made food scarcity the number one issue in their lives. Here, food supplies get replenished on a monthly basis. My responsibilities include procuring the food supplies and arranging the logistics of getting the same to the school. I also ensure that the lunch programs at Lanet Umoja Primary School and Nakuru Teacher’s Primary School are being conducted for the orphans in those schools, visiting the students and staff in those schools several times throughout the year as well.

Picking up the food at Crater Flour Mills in Nakuru

Eager helpers unloading the truck at the Lord Ranjuera Primary School in Kampi Ya Moto

Children receiving their breakfast in Kampi Ya Moto

Being There

At the Bishop Edward Donovan Secondary School (BEDSS) in Lanet Umoja, EC is currently sponsoring 15 orphaned students in Forms 2, 3, and 4 (sophomores, juniors and seniors). During my first visit this year, I made sure that the Term 1 school fees were paid for each of these children so they would be able to enjoy learning without the interruption of being sent home for lack of school fees. The six Form 2 students whose applications were approved for an EC scholarship this year are pictured below. Getting these students to Nakuru town to be measured for new school uniforms is part of my to-do list for next month’s trip.

Form 2 orphans at Bishop Donovan Secondary School

Mentoring There

I’m excited to be starting the second year of EC’s Mentorship Program for the orphaned juniors and seniors at Bishop Donovan Secondary School. This program is aimed at assisting these students in making good life and career choices. We meet on a monthly basis, holding our second session early this February.

During that meeting, I invited Simon Wanjala to meet and encourage the students in the program. Simon is an alumnus of BEDSS and one of the first beneficiaries of the EC Scholarship program. He lost his parents when he was a young teenager and was left to raise his younger brothers while remaining in school himself. Despite these challenges his teachers remarked that his attitude was always positive. After graduating from BEDSS Simon found a job at a nearby primary school helping students who were struggling in class. Simon understands loss very well and knows firsthand how difficult it is to be a child, an orphan, a student, and the sole bread winner in a family. He talked about the hardship he experienced as a young adult, telling the students that he never lost his faith in God, and sharing with them how he continues to experience God’s providence in his life.

Simon Wanjala – former BEDSS student and beneficiary of the EC Student Scholarship Program

Simon meeting with the BEDSS Mentorship Program students

Blessed There

I am coming up to my one-year anniversary as Program Coordinator for Everyone’s Child in Kenya. My gratitude and appreciation goes to those who support EC financially, through prayers and otherwise in order to make my monthly trips to Nakuru possible. It is a blessing to be a foot soldier serving these orphaned students. I am always thrilled!

Keep blessed!

William Aludo

PS If you would like to help the orphans that William sees every month, please consider giving to Everyone’s Child by clicking here. Your gift will be gratefully applied to either the Orphan’s Lunch Program or to the EC Student Scholarship Program and will have an immediate impact on the lives of the orphans we serve in Kenya. As always, Asante Sana!! (Thank you very much!!)

Grateful Today

16JanMay 19, 2020

Everybody needs to be grateful. Gratitude is what fuels us, allows us to go forward, especially in challenging times. Today I am grateful, and more than that really, because in reality I’m overwhelmed at the many people who have given to the 2016 EC annual appeal. Today we are just $758 short of our goal of $20,000 for this year. However, we are already $3,500 ahead of where we were last year, so I have great hope that we will meet our goal.

I used to recoil at messages like the one I just typed, thinking that they were written to guilt people into giving or worse yet, to brag about how well an organization was doing. I am not interested in doing either of those things here. Instead I am rejoicing at the generosity of those who have given and continue to give to Everyone’s Child. I know firsthand that there are many worthy organizations to give to in our world, so anytime someone gives to EC I am grateful and hopeful that they will find as much joy and satisfaction in the giving as I do in being able to pass their donation on to those who will benefit from the gift. The benefits from this support are measurable and many: they manifest in an orphan lunch program that feeds over 300 orphaned school children in three different primary schools each day; in a school sponsorship program, and in a successful mentoring program for orphaned high school students.

Who are those who benefit? There are hundreds, but here are a few examples from children who have received something from EC and have written to us to express their gratitude:

“I want to appreciate you for the things that you have given us…I say thank you because we can’t survive without lunch. Learning would have been so difficult to us without eating lunch.” Joyleen, Nakuru Teacher’s Primary School student

“The mentorship program has helped me to create friendships with my fellow students…and to know how to choose a career and to know what steps to follow towards that career. It has helped me to know my gifts and talents and even my personality.” Anthony, Bishop Donovan Secondary School student

“The mentorship program made me realize my worth and value in this world. It encouraged us to do better in life and even in my studies. – Silvia, Bishop Donovan Secondary School student

“…through our study about self-esteem I am now able to understand how important I am and I know that I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” Samuel, Bishop Donovan Secondary School student

Moving into 2017, we have become aware of seven more orphans at Bishop Donovan Secondary School in Lanet who are hoping to be sponsored this year. Our goal is to be able to help them and the eight others we are currently supporting, as well as to continue feeding the 300+ students who rely on us for a daily meal. The cost of this in 2017 will be $20,000. We are so close to making this happen. If you are in a position to help us reach this goal, please Click here to make a secure online donation, or send your check or money order to Everyone’s Child, 19304 Cole Road, Conneautville, PA 16406. A one-time contribution makes a difference, and so will your monthly support.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you. I am grateful for your help, but not nearly as grateful as the children who benefit from the gift of an education received at your hands.

Many blessings,

Ruth

Lunch for orphans

05AprMay 19, 2020

Autumn Benjamin helps out with the orphan lunch program in Kampi Ya Moto — Autumn Benjamin, a student at UVM helps out with the orphan lunch program in Kampi Ya Moto

The orphan lunch program started in mid-2003. In January of that year, approximately 75 bright-eyed children wearing new or hand-me-down brown, white and black checked uniforms hurried down dirt roads and through fields to the Lord Ranjuera Primary School in Kampi Ya Moto (which translates to Camp of Fire), eager to learn and proud to be able to say they were just like their peers who attended primary schools in nearby towns and villages. Their school had been built by funds raised through the Community of the Crucified One (CCO) based in Pennsylvania, USA. The children in Kampi Ya Moto were thrilled to finally have a school they could call their own. But there was one major distinction with these students; many of them were orphaned and most were too poor to bring a lunch to school.

By mid-morning the hot African sun beat down on the tin roof of their classroom, causing it to pop and crackle with the expansion of the metal. The same children who had run to school in the morning began to faint, due less to the heat and more to the fact that they hadn’t had a real meal since the day before, or in some cases, for the past couple of days.

Fr. Joseph Steger was a missionary in Kenya at the time, and it was his responsibility to oversee the maintenance of each of the schools that the CCO had built. When he learned that these children were passing out from lack of food, he asked for help from his friends and family back in the USA to get a lunch program started for them. People responded in spades, and before long, students were receiving a daily meal of porridge (uji) made from maize, millet, milk and sorghum. All of the students at the school lined up at noon to receive this meal, and in some cases children would quickly close the lid to their container in order to bring home what they could for family members who were going without. Despite the dirt floors and unscreened windows in the classrooms, the Lord Ranjuera Primary School in Kampi Ya Moto became known in the area as a “wealthy” school because they offered lunch to the students.

The success of the program was immediate and widely publicized, and before long the two other primary schools built by the CCO also asked for assistance with a lunch program for orphans attending their schools. By 2006 over 250 students in three locations were receiving a daily meal. Fr. Joseph’s family and a few faithful supporters maintained what became known as “the orphan feeding program” (OFP) through an organization called “Kids in Kenya”. In 2009, they asked Everyone’s Child to take over the funding and running of the program. In the years that followed people going on tours of our schools in Kenya were allowed to participate in serving lunch to these children, experiencing first hand the results of a fundraising program that includes donors from all over the USA and Canada.

Sr. Kateri Walker of Moretown, Vermont went to Kenya a few years after the initiation of the OFP. She was deeply moved by the people she met and sights she saw. However, after her visit she decided that rather than return to Kenya again she would use her resources and connections to upgrade the OFP, moving it forward so more people could become aware and involved. She remains a regular sponsor to the OFP to this day.

Sr. Kateri Walker helping to feed the children

Today, 310 students between the ages of 3 and 13 line up in the three primary schools to receive a daily meal that is paid for by supporters of Everyone’s Child. In addition, orphaned children in Kampi Ya Moto receive a second lunch of rice and beans to carry them through the rest of the day. All told, EC is providing over 360 meals per day to students in Kenya who would otherwise go hungry.

Appreciation letter from BEDSS — Letter of appreciation from a student in Kiti

The letter above is one I received during my trip to Kenya in May 2015. In it Cliff Olendo (a student from Nakuru Teacher’s Primary School in Kiti) expresses his appreciation for a program that has fed hundreds if not thousands of children since 2003. I wanted to share it with you – the real supporters of this lunch program. For those of you who give to the OFP, you need to know that your gift does and is affecting lives right now – today – in real time. I hope you read and take to heart the prayer he bestows on you; that you truly do receive twice what you ask for as a blessing and reward for what you are giving to the least of them.

Moretown Elementary School (VT) teacher Joni Clemons empties out her bucket of uji (porridge) into a student’s bowl

For those of you reading this who would like to join in this effort of sustaining orphaned children with a daily meal at their school, welcome to our ranks! Currently this program costs EC close to $900.00 per month. A donation of $30.00 will feed six students for a month. $100.00 will feed a single student for an entire school year. You can send your tax-deductible donation to Everyone’s Child, 20 Vermont Route 100 South, Moretown, VT 05660, or for a secure online donation, click here.

Thank you. By contributing to this program you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you have made it that much easier for an orphaned student to stay in school.