07/09/2008
Kenya 2007
by Parish Office
Kenya Mission
2007 Kenya Mission:
Ten volunteers spent 3 weeks in Kenya this past July. Four were high school/college age. The host was the Kenyan Children Foundation (KCF), founded by Joanne LeClair of Highlands Ranch, Colorado. Joanne spends six months a year in Kenya, overseeing the KCF projects. She also hosts a group from the United States during each month that she is there.
The volunteer experience is a combination of work, education and leisure. The July, 2007 group, organized from St. Luke's, did manual labor at Nyumbani, an orphanage for children who are living with HIV. They also taught enrichment classes (art and music) at St. Secelia's, a school at Kibera, the largest slum in Kenya.
Leisure activities included a weekend on safari at the Masai Mara and a weekend at the island of Lamu on the Indian Ocean.
We also learned much about the people of Kenya, their history, and their culture. We also came to appreciate the work of KCF.
For more information, check out the KCF website at www.kenyanchildrenfoundation.org.
A quote from Bono (U2) summarizes our trip:
"God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a disease that will end both their lives...and God is with us, if we are with them."
