KITALE KENYA PROJECT

Kenya is a country of 225,000 sq. mls, 1000 miles from North to South and a population of approx. 30 million. Two thirds of Kenya consists of desert or semi-desert, one third is good fertile arable land with adequate rainfall most of the time. Kitale town is set in the heart of that farming country. So Kitale town and the surrounding country side has many well off people but more poor by far than a similar Irish setting. One reason being that Kenya has no unemployment allowance, no non-contributary old age pension, does not have full medical care, nor other social benefits.

So voluntary help for the poor is necessary for the survival of some and a more decent life for many, but above all to help those who are able-bodied to move away from the need to receive aid by using their gifts to become self-reliant and experience a life of dignity. Kenyans in general are wonderful for giving and are constantly giving in many different ways that they themselves organize. In addition there are many services for the poor provided by different churches and non-government organizations (N.G.Os). In Kitale municipality there are many centers providing the necessary services, schools and boarding facilities for orphans and street children – St. John Bosco’s is a Catholic church one. There are also the government and churches services for medical care, education, the disabled and all kinds of development programmes, though inadequate in the circumstances.

And yet there is room for me and the people who work with me. The reason is obvious, there are many people in need. But there is a deeper reason. As Christians we accept our duty to care for the poor and destitute, but in order to fulfill this duty adequately we must be organized, a group is needed who will be the eyes, ears and heart of the community alert to the condition of needy people to give a service that could be impossible for individuals: that will ensure that the community will not “pass by on the other side of the road” as the two religious individuals did in the parable of the Good Samaritan. This also gives a place and space for individual Christians to use their gifts of the spirit to serve others. In 1996 I was appointed to work as hospital chaplain. At Sunday Mass I told the people of my work and said I wanted people who felt a gift to care for the sick to work with me. In that week I had a group of eight, some of them said, “I always wanted to do this work but no one ever asked me.” The group for the sick is continuing till now with the new chaplain, not only to visit, listen and pray but also to help the needy in buying medicine etc with money which comes from monthly donations from residents of the town, mostly Catholic, some non-Catholics and one Muslim.

Working as hospital chaplain with the group we met the poor who were still poor when they returned home so we felt a strong need to care for them and others also. In 2004 we started a group composed of some of the original hospital group and others. After money months we decided on a name “Chukuana”, Kiswahili meaning caring for one another.

We saw ourselves as a group of Christians who unite our efforts to help those who lack the essentials of life either by supplying the necessary item or by helping the needy towards becoming self-reliant. By the beginning of 2004 I had begun to get money through the generosity of people of Crossabeg parish. I informed the team of the money I had but only gave them an amount equal to the local contribution; this was to encourage the group towards self-reliance. With the rest of the money I continued to help where larger sums were needed, especially with school fees for orphans and hospital bills for the poor caught in emergency situations.

In September 2005 I left the work of hospital chaplain and I was appointed to work for the poor full time throughout the diocese. I saw it as my main task to raise awareness among our church members of our need to help the poor and the necessity of having a group of people to do the work on behalf of the community. The long-term aim is to have such a group in every parish, but I decided to start with the four parishes in the Kitale municipality. I talked to priests, parish councils, anyone I met and to the people at the principal Sunday mass in each parish. I told them of the work I was given, reminded them of their call as Christians and invited those who felt they had been given the gift of the spirit to care for the poor to come and work with me. In each parish people responded and we formed a group in each parish and among those who came I heard again “I always wanted to do this………”

From early 2006 the groups have met, prayed, planned and helped many people, some strong some weak but a year later they are still intact but still some what on the margin of parish life. In October 2006 in my report to the AGM of the priests of the diocese I suggested we form the society of St. Vincent de Paul as a means of integrating the work fully into the pastoral work of each parish and linking our work with that of the universal church. It was agreed we do so and the Bishop invited the national council of SVDP to come and establish the society in our diocese. They joyfully agreed and we planned a day’s seminar for March 10th 2007. Five members of the National Council came on that day, we had a very good seminar, an interim area council was set up and the seven members of that council are visiting five parishes where the groups already exist- one parish outside the municipality request we set up a group there – telling people about the society and inviting others to join. Later in the year representatives from the National Council will come for a training session for all the groups.

As we have done all along we leave the work in God’s hands and pray that we will open our hearts to the gifts that God wishes to give us and we constantly pray God’s Blessing on all those who have cared for us and offered their generous help in so many ways.

SPECIAL PROJECT

Our work over the past four years has been on a small scale but one year ago a rather large project forced its way into our path without our decision.

In 2005 we were informed of a grandmother who was caring for 36 grandchildren, their parents having died, an are living in misery to two one-roomed thatched huts, not their own. I did nothing because we did not have sufficient funds to do something adequate, a plot of land was an obvious need, many were visiting and making premises, I did not want to give false hope. They were being helped with food by neighbours.

In early 2006 I got a call from Paddy Kehoe, Wexford, telling me they had a group helping the needy and wished to help and asked me to send a description of a project. I replied with a description of this large family and the need for 2 acres of land, which would cost between 5000 to 6000 Euro. I went ahead in great hope and with a sale just complete when Paddy wrote back saying to help such a project was not within their writ. Then providence took complete control: I met a fellow missionary who had got a lot of money for the poor from a most unusual source and was now going home because of illness from when I got E6000. At the same time I got from another family source E 2000 (my family now numbers 80 members!). The land in the meantime had gone to E4500 per acre. In the meantime another missionary here who was not involved directly in caring for the poor had got 100,000 Kenya shillings (approx E 1100) from Irish people hearing of the famine in Kenya for food, clothing and health care for children. She gave all to us with which we fed this family for the year and brought bedding and utensils for the house: their poverty was abject. A year passed by, we tilled the land and sowed maize for the orphans, houses were needed, four of them, plus a maize store and water tank. We managed to get the price for one house through an NGO and E350 from another when Paddy Kehoe contacted me again apologizing for not being able to help us the year before and saying now they had to change how they helped and now could help us. I told him we would need E 4000 to complete the houses and he promised to collect that for me, which he did.

The family moved in to the completed houses Easter week 2007. One had to see the hand of God in all that. We pray that we all will continue to have grateful hearts.

FINTAN Mc DONALD

P.O. BOX 1520

KITALE

KENYA.

10.5.07.