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During
my April '06 visit to Bright Star School, I met Brother Martin who had come to visit his friend
Pastor John. Martin was searching for help in his effort to
feed orphans he had found upcountry in the western part of
Kenya near
Mount Elgon.
Martin has built a school and orphanage known as Kisima School
where 40 orphans live. These children have lost their parents
to AIDS, other diseases, and tribal clashes. He also tries to
provide an education for 12 students who are from extremely
poor families. Brother Martin is a farmer who tries to grow
crops for food to feed the children and enough to sell in
order to pay his two teachers KSh1000 ($13) per month.
Feeding the children is top priority, so often there is no
money left to pay the teachers if the price of farm produce
drops. He provides education for students in Kindergarten and
1st grade.
He kindly
asks friends to help with prayers, materials, and finances.
He invites you, his friends, to come and visit this
exceptional project and you will realize that this is worthy
of your generosity. Most orphanages are set up in the larger
cities but children in the villages are often overlooked.
Those are the ones he hopes to help.
UPDATE
In June of 2008, Brother Martin wrote to Gerda to thank her
for another generous donation she and her husband made to his
school. He explained that Kisima School was about 450km
from Nairobi. Traveling by air takes 30 minutes and then
on by road from the airport is another hour to the school.
The school is situated in the western part of the country on
the slopes of Mt. Elgon in Bungoma district. The nearest
town is Kitale, which is about 30km away. The school has
three classrooms and a small kitchen all made of mud.
There are now eighty-three children, four teachers, and one
night watchman. The community elders do not take a keen
interest in assisting the needy children in the countryside
but mostly concentrate in towns. In Kisima School, a
large number of children are orphans whose parents died
because of AIDS or natural causes. Parents are unable to
feed their children or to provide necessities for their
children. In the village, many children do not go to
school because their parents do not know the importance of
education. The majority of the people are primitive.
The few who know the importance of education do not bother to
educate others' children. They are peasant farmers who
are known for farming maize and beans. Many young people
are helpless. Because they are idle, they engage in
alcohol and drug abuse. |
