United Methodist sends help to home village in Kenya
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A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose Estimates say 6,000 children are orphaned by AIDS each day.
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Singing
children greet visitors to the Teles Orphanage in Teles, Mozambique.
The children have been left orphaned by AIDS. The ministry, supported by
the United Methodist Women's Society of Mozambique, was originally
established to shelter children left homeless by war. A UMNS photo by
Mike DuBose. Photo #05-M054, 4/6/05� |
May 11, 2005A UMNS Report By Kelly Martini* In
the Mulathankari village in Meru district of Kenya, young people attend
school but then leave for the cities where they can find jobs and other
opportunities. But the city is not home. And when they contract HIV/AIDS, they come back with their children to die. Anne
Kiome Gatobu, a member of Lodgepole United Methodist Women in the
denomination’s Nebraska Annual (regional) Conference, realized the
significance of this when she returned to her home village for the
funeral of a brother who had died of meningitis. More
than her brother’s death, she said, she was most affected by the number
of orphans left by HIV/AIDS and the number of grandparents who care for
them. Gatobu
asked Kenyan women and the church there what she could do. Giving them
educational opportunities to move them from poverty and disease was
their greatest hope, she was told. She
began an organization called named FOWCUS (Focusing on Women and
Children to Uplift Society). The board of FOWCUS comprises both American
and Kenyan Christians. United Methodist Women and churches from the
Nebraska and Rocky Mountain conferences are working to make the program a
success. Public
school students in Kenya must provide their own uniforms, chalk, books,
and classroom supplies. The organization’s adopt-a-kid initiative
ensures that people in the United States and Kenya can adopt a child
educationally for $120 a year. A
local women’s group in Mulathankari is responsible for the disbursement
of funds throughout the year. The women had been putting their money
together in a "kitty" for years, according to Gatobu. "I
approached this group and asked them to do something for these
children," she said. "This is the group who identifies the children who
are high in need and who distributes the money." The women also are breaking cultural barriers by visiting those who are dying from HIV/AIDS.
"This is the most touching thing that has happened to many of them in
their life—that someone actually comes and visits them—when the rest of
the community has ostracized them," she added. "Since
the women have done this, there has been so much forgiveness. It has
challenged the community to start thinking about what we are going to do
about AIDS and the children who have been left and what are we going to
do about the elderly grandparents who can’t take care of the family.
It’s opened a milieu of questions that they need to be addressing." Meanwhile,
in the United States, Gatobu is educating church members and United
Methodist Women about the disease and its effects on one small African
village. The
biggest support has come from United Methodist Women in the Nebraska
and Rocky Mountain conferences. The UMW members have made children’s
hospital gowns and quilts, collected boxes of books for school and
accumulated tools for construction. They’ve also adopted children to put
them through public school. "It’s
had a ripple affect," Gatobu said. "A number have asked me to speak to
their groups and Sunday services. Someone else hears about it, and they
ask you." Last
summer, she and her husband organized a mission and cultural exchange
team to Kenya with participants from Nebraska and Rocky Mountains
Conference. "The
group visited and fellowshipped with the orphans and their families and
raised funds for the children in this project," she recalled. "The
group also worked on establishing a reading room for children in the
village. They built shelves and collected and sent over 700 pounds of
children’s books for the reading room. They also ran an open-air health
clinic in this village." Providing
such opportunities for children in her home village of Kenya was not
without questions and Gatobu is the first to admit that there’s much to
be done to keep an organization like this running year after year. "I
could not envision where I would begin to make a difference in the face
of so much need," she said. "I have since learned that when God asks
one to take on a task, just say ‘yes’ and give yourself to God." *Martini is the executive secretary for communications for the Women’s Division, United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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