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| Barry with Pastor Jack and his wife at the water supply |
It was 1995 when I first walked into Obambo – a small scattered rural community in the northwest corner of Kenya. I was on a one month ministry visit to Uganda and Kenya and had walked several hours over a mountain from another village to the north in the company of two Africans, one of whom had put my rucksack on the bicycle he was pushing.
Something about Obambo and the Christian leader here commended itself to me. My colleague, Monica Cook was due to follow me three months later and I asked her to particularly seek to spend time here. I was conscious of the poverty and especially the orphans resulting from AIDS and Malaria. Like me Monica felt a particular attraction to Obambo and so began her work there.
At first the funds for the work passed through Sunrise Ministries, the charity we had set up to run Rural Sunrise. But the terms of this charity limits our activities to evangelism and similar ministry. It did not cover social action programmes, and the size of Monica’s vision rapidly became apparent. It started with sponsoring children for their education and giving some assistance to the Pastor to help with the care of some orphans.
That part of the work alone has developed into a programme that is providing education for 100 children. At the time of our first visit children would usually leave school after year eight, at the age of 14. As the work being done expanded a secondary school was opened, and the first tranche of students have just completed their four years there. That school achieved eighth place among all Kenyan schools based on results, and came first in the whole country among new secondary schools. Some achievement! The potential this offers them has increased substantially, but Monica is keen to see this invested locally as much as possible. The church also provides all the meals for the children while they are at school.
Back in 1995 when I was there the local water supply (a small lake) had dried up and water had to be carried from a larger lake the other side of a mountain. This involved a two hour trip each way and carrying a 20 litre water container on the heads of young women. It made me appreciate every drop of the misty liquid I was given each day to wash in. Monica set about changing that and raised money to enable rainwater to be collected and stored hygienically. This also involved replacing huts with grass roofs with new ones covered by tin. A new and larger church building was also put up and its roof provided a good supply of water.
But this was only a partial answer, and a few years later several bore holes were sunk and equipment purchased to pump fresh water up out of the ground. By now Monica and a small group of supporters had set up a separate organisation called Friends of Obambo to manage the finances and have since linked this with an umbrella charity called Links International Trust.
Monica has taken a number of friends to Obambo over the years. One of these, Ruth, is a trained nurse and ran primary care clinic sessions while she was there. This led to
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| Local woman meets Monica outside the clinic |
the setting up a small clinic building. Others heard about this work and yet another charity was introduced to the area by Monica. Advantage Africa extended the clinic and employed two nurses to work there six days a week. Now the church is adding a laboratory. The building was complete when I arrived and wired up ready for electricity. Advantage Africa has since also built and is staffing a nursery for younger children alongside the clinic.
That’s another project Monica has funded. Electricity has been supplied into the area so the meters and wiring has already been put in ready to be connected. There are even six computers purchased ready to set up a computer room as soon as the supply is connected.
The people in this area are generally marginalised by within the country. Back in 1995 the poverty was so obvious. Many children did not get regular education and often went hungry. There was a small area where maize was grown and just a couple of very lean cows. Women, often with young children on their backs, worked in the fields digging with wooden hand tools in the heat of the day.
More funds were raised and the first yoke of oxen purchased. A Christian agricultural expert was found in South Africa and persuaded to come to Obambo and pass on his knowledge to help them get the best out of the land.
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The tailoring workshop
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Subsistence farming was never enough to support Pastor Jack’s extended family, let alone anything further they intended to do. Often men in the area had to travel significant distances to obtain even poorly paid work. Again Monica recognised this and through the generosity of friends raised enough money to set up a carpentry workshop and a tailoring workshop. Originally at the nearest town of Siaya these have now been relocated to Jack’s “home compound. The tailoring workshop also provides the school uniforms for the children.
Another contribution to the local economy was made through a micro-financing
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| Micro-financing - selling maize at the local market |
scheme. Funds raised through Friends of Obambo enabled a number of people to start small business ventures, such as bulk purchasing and re-selling maize. These now operate on a cooperative basis in small groups such as women, widows, etc. Each month and taking turns the members of the group all contribute to one member so as to generate sufficient funds for investment.
Jack was keen that I should see two other sites. The first of these was a new water system. That lake that was dried up in 1995 was now full of water and another charity, not related to Monica’s work has recently installed and maintains a filtration system that ensures that fresh water can be obtained “locally”, though this still involves carrying the water.
The final site was a large field recently acquired with the help of Friends of Obambo has been set aside for an orphan project. I understand that several small traditional houses will be built on the site for orphaned children and some of the land used for crops and cattle grazing to supply at least some of their needs.
Over the years Monica has managed to raise thousands of pounds and it has been a privilege to work with a caring and honest pastor. At the same time that the practical work has been done there have been evangelism, discipleship and training programmes, and church planting work done too. My recent role in returning to Obambo was to speak at a Youth Conference. For five days around 75 young people aged 14 to 24 engaged in intensive Bible teaching in approximately two 90 minute sessions each day.
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