Nearly 2.5 million people live in poverty in the slums and urban areas of Nairobi, Kenya. They lack the basic necessities of life, including adequate housing, clean water, and sanitation services. Educational opportunities are negligible. All kinds of diseases run rampant throughout the communities. Complicating the problem: there are very few jobs to provide the income needed for families to improve their lives.

In addition to these difficulties, the effects of AIDS are devastating the area. There are countless orphans and vulnerable children throughout the slums, where the infection rate approaches 40%. For every person who dies of AIDS, another six to ten are directly affected.

Where is the hope?
Keith and Kathy Ham, CMF missionaries in Africa since 1991, know firsthand the problems of the urban slums. Slum-dwellers believe they are worthless and can survive only on hand-outs from outsiders. The Hams know that the long-term solution is to help the urban poor understand who they are in Christ, and assist them in making physical and spiritual changes in their lives. As these changes take hold, they will be shared with others, breaking the chain of bleakness and despair and replacing it with hope that can bring about individual and community transformation.

In 2004, the Hams developed a partnership with Wallace and Mary Kamau, Kenyan nationals and Christians, who are the founders and directors of the Mathare Family Hope Center in the Mathare Valley slum in Nairobi. The combined ministry, called Hope Partnership, serves the community in these ways:

Provides education, clothing, and nutritious meals for the poorest children in the village

Offers a strong Community Health Evangelism (CHE) program, including the ongoing training of the CHE evangelists

Teaches HIV/AIDS awareness and education, as well as information on caring for those living with this disease

Sponsors a microenterprise loan program for launching small businesses

Offers basic health and wellness education

Plants churches, offers family counseling and religious education