Kindfund

Challenging times have come upon us as we have sought to do our best for the children under our management at Kindfund.

For the past 4 years we have been operating home schooling at Wamba with the support and cooperation of the headmaster of the local primary school where our children are registered with the Department of Education. This has for us been an expensive but as you will gather from the previous NEWS article successful arrangement achieving excellent academic results for the children.
The arrangement was entered into with the primary school because they didn’t have the resources to give the attention required to our children. Classes are between 70 and 90 children and there is a shortage of good teachers as well as other challenging aspects of the school.

Our tutoring groups were between 5 and 17 (average 12) using unqualified tutors who are committed and studying themselves to achieve teacher status.

A local Education Officer has insisted that we amalgamate our children from their small groups at Kindfund into these huge unmanageable classes much to the distress of the children, our tutors and management. All in the name of Education when it is obvious that the children will be adversely impacted academically and behaviourally by the arrangement.
Despite our best efforts to enlist support from Government Officials to what is an obvious retarding step for the children we have had to comply to stay within the law.
The summary below was prepared to brief the Education Officer in the hope of reaching a compromise for the benefit of our children but so far without result.
paper 2 for EO 200623 .doc

As the photos show the children were back in their familiar surroundings on Saturday to sit some exams and to study

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Eight teenagers graduated from Primary to Secondary including one to Polytechnic.
Most of you know what it is like to take one child from primary to secondary.

Multiply that by 8 and then add 15 others already there and needing to get odds and sods for second third or fourth year.
Everyone was exhausted shopping for a long list of school needs, not least the teenagers themselves but yes a time of rejoicing with them all at their success in Government exams. Of course a time also of digging deeply into our pockets to equip most of them for boarding – mattresses, sheets, boxes, books, uniforms, sportswear etc;etc.
This year we have 23 at Secondary, 3 being helped at tertiary and a few of our former children being helped in one way or another to get on course after school. We remain the parents and as those of you who have mature children know it doesn’t stop when they finish school.
How encouraging it has been for Pamela to fulfil that missing role of mother for most of these older children. One 19 year old boy who had just finished secondary ran to meet her and threw his arms around her ‘Mum’. It brought tears to the eyes.
Some hoping to get into teacher training ( Let them help at our school till they get a place) Others who failed to complete needing help to get back on track. (Give them a small job here and there to give them a lift.) Others just wanting to say thankyou for the start they received now in the police, the army, teaching and working in trades.
We are all blessed by what is now a reality. Children who were handed a difficult start in life thanking God that they are now established into adulthood. The beginning of 2023 has been a time to rejoice and give thanks for what God has done through Kindfund of which all who support are a part
Of course we have young people who have got themselves into a mess as they do but we are there for them also when they come to their senses like the prodigal; but that is for another day. Let us thank God and be glad that the fruit has been good this year.

It has also been a very difficult time with 5 years of drought – well less than normal rainfall and that accumulation has taken a toll on the children. Where we can we are sensitive to the broader needs of children within our communities and additional resources have been put into feeding additional children and helping older adults with food on a daily basis.
Thank God rains have come to some of the areas in these last few days but even if they are sustained it will be a number of months if not years for the communities to recover

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In the week before Christmas let me begin by praying for a joyful Christmas for each one. Despite our circumstances, whether we are challenged in spirit or on top of life we can know that deep sense of joy in our spirit as we abide in Christ.

We give thanks to our Heavenly Father for each one of you as you continue to support the Kindfund children and indeed the whole family of Kindfund as it has grown during the past year to meet the very basic needs of children under pressure from the famine conditions in the Horn of Africa.
Life is difficult for many here at home and we therefore appreciate all the more the support you are providing for those living in life threatening conditions in NE Kenya.

For those of us who have travelled to Kindfund Kenya in 2022 those conditions have been starkly obvious and our hearts have gone out to the people suffering on the verge of malnutrition. We have where we are able increased the numbers of children we are supporting and followed through with medical and hospital support where it has been required in the more serious cases. (In the case of one 9 yr old girl this involved arranging for a stay at a hospital 600kms from the village along with a mother and an uncle, because the mother could not speak Swahili or English). There is more we can do and we are actively looking for opportunities to reach out with God’s love, to new communities in need. On our last visit, just returning in early December, Jonathan and I met the senior Government official and some of his senior officers in Moyale to inform them of the work we are doing supporting children in his area. He warmly welcomed us and suggested another village in the hinterland where children are in great need because of the famine conditions. We undertook to see if we could start a relief programme there and have been discussing this with our team at Dabel where we are supporting 60 children with porridge breakfast and a cooked lunch. The key for us is identifying someone, called by God, with the right heart and trustworthy spirit to head up a new programme in this remote village. Please make this a subject for your prayer. ‘Unless the Lord builds a house they labour in vain that build it.’ Ps 127:1.

In 2022 Gillian, Pamela, Jonathan and I visited the programmes twice and our Austrian team, Lea along with her sister Miriam and friend Fiona once. There are earlier reports in this News section from Gillian and Lea in which you can read about their experiences.

All of you are set in families and you will have experienced the ups and downs of life in the past 12 months. In Kindfund we are committed to a large family of some 65 staff and c.200+ children of which 120 of the children live in our homes and depend fully upon us. This is a serious and demanding responsibility which requires our regular presence on the ground in Kenya to ensure we maintain the standards of care and support we have set. This year we have had the reality of life and death, happy times and sad, proud moments and disappointments which are associated with life. We thank God for his wisdom and grace in handling the many and varied situations we face. Please continue to pray that God will meet our every need as we respond to the challenges of such a large family and deal with the regulatory framework in which we are set.

As 2022 passes and 2023 arrives please uphold the children, staff and the Trustees in your prayer as we seek to be obedient to God’s call on our lives

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