The new Mathare North Center opened May 5 in rented facilities with a total of 90 children in nursery, kindergarten and grades 1-3, five teachers and one social worker. After a month of operation, enrollment at the Center is up to 142 children, so two more teachers and another social worker have been hired. Three cooks and a watchman round out the staff.

The team has made home visits to the parents or guardians of some of the students. Most come from a tough area called Mathare North, 4a and 4b, populated mainly by the Kikuyu and Luo. These areas were hard hit by the violence following the Kenyan presidential elections in December, so to have 142 children from these situations is something of a miracle, missionary Keith Ham says. Hostility between the two communities remains high.

The parents of these children are struggling to get back on their feet and return their lives to some kind of normalcy. Beatrice, for example, has three of her four children attending the Mathare North center. She visited the Center recently to report that her children are having a lot of violent dreams and nightmares. In talking and praying with her and the children the missionaries were able to help her focus on Christ and the Good News, and she has accepted Him.

The CMF team’s resettlement efforts have been heavily focused in Mathare North. They have resettled more than 300 families and helped re-start 44 businesses that were burnt or destroyed. The process of resettlement works like this: a family finds an available shack and the team pays three months rent, using funds provided by churches specifically for this purpose. The house is also refurbished with supplies that were lost.

Resettlement Stories
Yet, glimmers of hope have emerged from the violence and dislocation following the elections:

Seline Aoko is a mother of 12 with four sets of twins. During the violence her husband was taken from their home in the night, never to be seen again. She ran to the Chief’s camp with her children. When she first came to the team’s attention, she had 12 children eating from two plates of food. She has been resettled in Huruma/Madoya near one of the Hope centers and five of her children are learning, eating and receiving counseling at the Madoya Center. She is still in shock at this point and can’t think beyond tomorrow. The team is trying to guide her with God’s direction.

Mary is 17 and is the head of her household, made up of two brothers, her sister and her child, and her own child. Her parents are dead. Her two brothers and her sister’s child are now in the Mathare North Center. Mary feels anxious, confused and overwhelmed. Her little brother is troubled by nightmares about his mother’s death from TB. She recently began attending the church in Kosovo with the siblings and children, and the team will follow up with her.

The Future
The future looks promising for the Mathare North Hope Center. Here’s a look at some of the team’s immediate and long-term goals:

1. Enroll all sponsored and yet-to-be sponsored children into the Center. That will enlarge the school to 250 students.
2. Train a team to do Community Health Evangelism in the community, beginning with the parents and guardians and reaching out to the neighbors also.
3. Hire staff to accommodate the growth at the Center (teachers, social workers and a CHE coordinator).
4. Work with FAME to build a health center in the community.
5. Purchase property and build a permanent center. The strategic location of this North Center is key to reaching other areas in Mathare.
6. As CHE works, a fellowship of new believers will eventually grow into a church.
7. Community projects are being planned: construction of toilets, clean water initiatives, walking bridges, etc.
8. Launch 100 small businesses with people trained in micro-enterprise who have received micro-credit loans.
9. Begin a HIV/AIDS post test club for support of community members.
10. Begin skills training in sewing, beadwork, embroidery and carpentry at the Mathare North Center.

Through the child sponsorship program, CHE and the local church, needs continue to be met in Jesus’ name.