Repairs and visitors update

The boys kitchen floor was in a mess and it has been re-done, a dorm is also under repair.

Some plumbing repairs has been done on some faucets, drains and drainage systems.

A footpath to the single mothers place also has been made to ease access to their dorm. The former house that was housing the Coulstons has been turned into a dorm, since we are still adding more girl-students, the great hall that was their living room is being partitioned to rooms that can hold up to two girls per room. An additional toilet and bathroom is also been installed. Security lights that light up from motion detection are being installed to improve lighting and security.

In other new, we have had visitor come to MITS, to teach a skill or train the team in order to perfect their servitude to the students. Francine ( Darlene's cousin) was here, she taught English classes with Irene. She is a cowboy poet. She was full of stories of how she grew up with her family and Darlene. She left us a book with an autograph and her CD that are filled with poems and stories of her early life.

Jessica and Shannon also were here, Jessica is the youngest Professor in Pepperdine, she has been at MITS three times before and has had a seminar with the staff on leadership. Shannon too has been at MITS five times and keeps loving every trip she makes. Jessica (known as prof) has been teaching the 4.30 class on how to perfect their c.vs and improve on grammar. Both are currently workers with Life-bread Ministries, that Dusty and Cecily Breeding help run. They work closely to our catering program. Life-bread has helped build ovens made from bricks, a drum and cement.

Still here is Camron and Molly. Molly is a nurse and has been helpful on medical advices to Phillip our medic. She has had Hygiene classes with our girls. Camron is an architect by profession and is really helping us with the drawings of our buildings. He is using sketch-up to put all our building plans to scale and look professionally done. He has also trained and tutored the computer skills kids on the use of sketch-up. The Aggies and Kelly Davidson are gearing up for a camp that involves the whole of the student body as of next week. Kelly will be holding a seminar with the team on Strengths.
Expected visitors to come is Darren Wilson next week.

(pictured above is - Patrick Saulo and Moses Mwangi working closely with John Wambu on the building and positioning on the girls' dorm.)

AFC at MITS

Aggies for Christ always comes to MITS every summer. We have made them part of our family. Their arrival is always anticipated, the kids always get excited hearing that AFC is coming. The AFC always have interesting stuff like games, camps, retreats and so much more fun for the kids.
AFC have come to hold a three day camp, then a week long camp with our kids.
The three day camp is for our 10 new kids that are recently from the streets. The camp will help train and change the kids to fit our program. It will also help in the orientation period and make the new students know how the program runs and what is expected of them.
The AFC also have also been having one on one classes with our beginners' class. They help the students who are low on reading and writing. The one-on-one classes have really helped and boosted the morale and raised some ability level for our beginners' class.
Kelly Davidson, the leader of the Aggies will be having a strength finders assessment class with all the team, and try to develop and train the team to use their strengths to work and perform better.
Chapel is full to capacity, you can imagine the sweet sacrifice of the children's' voices.

Student News

Mary Waithera - Got a job at place called Art Cafe and she is doing well. She received her first salary last month. She stays on on her own though we are still paying her rent. We only have one more month to pay her rent as agreed in the exit plan. She stays in an area called Banana near The village Market.

Dotrine Zainabu - She exited and got a job at a beauty shop in a a suburb only 30 minutes away from MITS farm. Her son is doing well. We provide her with fare and rent, which ends in a months' time.

Jane Njoki - She was able to get a job in a salon Called Beauty Zone at the old Embakasi Nakummatt place. We are still supporting her with fare, food and a place to stay. The only problem is they are working on the road which connect to the salon and this has reduced the number of clients, so it has become difficult for them in maintaining and get more clients as they were used to.
NB. she is also thinking of pursuing her talent is acting which, she is very passionate about.

James Mwangi and Fredrick Otieno - both trained in auto-mechanics and have finished their attachments. One of the main challenges when they started off especially with Fredrick, is being under paid. An example is Fredrick is paid Ksh. 50 to Kshs. 100 a week, which is very little to sustain him through the week. We noted that Fredrick was good at washing our vehicles and we are thinking of purchasing a machine used for washing vehicles. Plans are for him and James Mwangi to open up a place and start a car wash business.

Evans Wambua and Mercy Waithera - They are trained at the Art's Cafe, but the issue of getting national Identification has held them from starting work. So they have stopped until they procure a national identity card. We await to confirm if the employer still wants them.

Lucy Akinyi - She is on attachment, but plans are there to take her to a course on car wiring/electronics which is a skill that will earn her some money more than a regular mechanic. Currently the market saturated with mechanics thus hard to get a well paying mechanic job.

Mary Muthoni - She has been looking for a job and was taken to a place that deal with hand made crafts, weaving baskets and traditional African clothing. She has a job interview on Thursday. Imani ya Juu is really interested in our program and has offered to be a place where we can also take our kids for attachment.

Mary Wangui - was on attachment at a salon in town called Serene Pavillion, her employer sold her shop and relocated to another place. The employer is getting the new place fixed up, but has promised Mary that once she finishes the setups, she will definitely consider Mary back to her beauty shop.

John Dennis Kamau - Currently on attachment at Good News Production Intl. this is a christian production house that only records gospel music and videos. Dennis has shown trememdous interest in production and fits in so well with the workers and staff there. Anastacia Njoki who is a graduate of our program work there.


Jackqueline Njoki - Is on attachment at a place in town, she is not comfortable with her current place and is looking for another place to work in.

Sarah Aono - she is a determined girl, and works extra hard to try and get jobs to keep her busy. She is currently working at a hotel near the town center.

Elizabeth Wanjiku - She is on attachment at a beauty shop in the far south of town. The salon is not all that busy, she is getting less experience, the team is working out other venues where she can get more experience and exposure.

Fatuma Amina and Margaret Njeri - Margaret Njeri was on attachment with us here at MITS cafe, Fatuma is still looking for a place. Both of these girls have had indiscipline cases which are currently being handled. We plan to reintegrate them with their families and help them out from there. Both are still on process of getting national Identity cards.

Abdi Jackson - He was suspended from school due to indiscipline cases which we have handled. He has resumed his classes in Computer Engineering.

Brenda Adhiambo - We managed to reintegrate her with her family, though she had indiscipline issues with the girls. We decided to take her back home to help her through her family. While with her parents she still takes off and goes missing for days. We got a good contact with a home that deals with baby care through Hollie Conway, she suggested us to take Brenda for this job, we are still thinking about it.

Bernard Kariuki - Has done mechanics as a skill, he is on attachment. Bernard on counseling with one of the team members, we recently noticed his state of mind and were very concerned. Thanks to the alarms raised by most of our friends in the US about Bernard. We have taken the necessary precautions on the life of Bernard.


Challenges that are facing our exiting students are:
-Peer pressure, in areas they move to and start life.
-Procurement of national identification and birth certificates ( employers find it hard to employ our kids who don't have these documents, they are considered as minors)
Take a moment and remember all named above in prayer!

Base visits.

Every other Friday the team gets to go out to the streets and meet young teens, mothers and families that live on the streets and try to make ends meet. These streets youths live each day at a time and do whatever odd jobs comes their way. These are the words of Moses, a team that is posted in Eastleigh...

I have been visiting bases on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.This month we have seen several improvements from the boys we visits; Mwaura (street boy) from Liliput base has stopped sniffing glue and petroleum products and has been carrying luggage for people in order to earn a living.

We also saw a young girl from Mawaya base standing on a hot sunny day cooking chapatis to sell to h

er street’s colleague. We have been teaching them about casting their burdens to God.

We also visited Riverside and Grogon bases where we found teenage boys being forced to work just for a packet of milk .One of the scrap metals dealers was very harsh to us because the city Askaris had demolished their kiosks. He complained that we were interfering with his work and he didn’t want to listen to anyone. Therefore we left but later some of the teenage boys followed to explain to us how those big guys were mistreating them. We meet a teenage girl whom has been living in several bases including Kariokor base. Weencouraged her to continuing attending our program.

During the teenage boys program, we also had a slight change on Tuesday program to go to the field to play soccer since we had stayed for a long period without doing this. It was so much enjoyable and a special day for us because Paul (a volunteer) had a good opportunity to say goodbye to the boys since it was the last day for his internship with us.

It is this month we have succeeded to find a children’s home for James Mwangi who was falling below the age bracket for Made In The Street intake. He was admitted at Gathiga Hope children’s Home at Kiambu District.

In other news...

There is a slum area a couple of blocks from our center, closely located to the KCITI, a christian technical college. The slum area has been bought by a foreign investor, thus maki

ng all those in that particular slum area rendered homeless. most are close affiliates of MITS and have come forward asking for help. We have done what we can.