Reports from Eastleigh, the Wood Shop ,Orchard and updates

On Wednesday we took five boys to the Kariakor Registrar so that they could fill the Identity forms. (Moses helps older streets youth to acquire the Naitonal IDs, which comes in handy and helps the youths attain jobs to help earn a living, plus helps lessesn harassment form the local authorities.) 
Four of the streets guys are from Dornholm base and they got the waiting cards which mean that they will have their IDs in a month’s time. The names are Alex, Joseph and Simon Anthony Njuguna (juju) from jam street base went to collect his ID card from Kayole where we had applied and filled his forms. They really thank God and Made In The Streets for the support and help. Most of the people from streets do not have the documents required by the Government for them to be given the National Identity Cards. Therefore we negotiate we the Government officials on their behalf to prove that they are Kenyans.
On Thursday I also took Priscilla Wanjiru (mum to our Mary Wanjiku-Conje and Lucy Wairimu - Lucy A) to Nyayo House for vetting to prove that she is a Kenyan and that she is a reformed street woman and reached passed the age of 18 years when one is required to apply for the ID.

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Last week the woodworking team was working on repairs at girls place replacing locks for cabinets. We also added some tables. The woodworking kids also helped put some wire mesh on the windows in the intern house located besides the girls' complex, to guard against  mosquitoes. We did other repairs at the
Learning Center. We helped repair some desks, benches and tables.
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At the Orchard James has  been working on the removing weeds, watering trees and spraying medicine on the trees. Now we are expecting oranges as mango trees are flowering.
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The seminar for the team conducted by Steve Sherman and Patrick Chappel was awesome and fruitful
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DLU is having fun with classes and a small time medical and craft camp with our kids.

Reports from Nursery...

Erick and Kehl have improved so much in  their reading and have very good memory for the things they learn in class. . Our kids discipline is to the standard and they are so easy to interact with, including Sylvia who joined and could not even sound a word.  Raphael and Dennis are just perfect for the activities of their age they are having fun. 

Dennis and Raphael had been on and off from the hospital because of diarrhea  Dennis was diagnosed with ecoly which is a bacteria; they both got their vaccination against polio. We have encourage their parents to practice cleanliness since this is the only medicine for their problem. 

Base work, am so thankful for the great love and how MITS ministry expresses their love to the people still living on the streets. This is what drives me to continue going to the base work, just seeing the faces as they are ready to meet us, no matter how hard their life conditions. I met Tabitha’s brother in mtindwa base.

What a lovely groups we have had this month lots of goodies from Clothes, and crafts and soccer kits and jerseys, and so much more fun  activities. It was a wonderful time for us at the children center. The Malibu Group, Decatur, and now the David Lipscomb University group. 

We at the children center have been enjoying and learning a lot, the story of Solomon, David and Goliath were their favorite. They also loved coloring and skits.

We have also been reading the five copies treasured tales and Moran graded readers it involves morals, all this makes our kids be able to speak fluent English hence stories have always made a big improvement as far as learning is concerned. 

Briefs from Eastleigh

On the first week of the month, we went to bases at Liliput, Marie stope, Mlango kubwa and Deliverance people were well although they were high on drugs. We have also helped about 26 people to acquire IDs. These are youths from bases in Eastleigh, Donholm. Mutindwa and Town areas.

 On Tuesdays we have been teaching boys in class and we have interacted a lot. And we have realized that they are willing to stay off the streets if offered the opportunity at Made in the Streets. They are a maximum of 58 young boys attending the program at Eastleigh. The camp for the teenagers was also very instrumental to the increase of the number of boys attending the program. The camp was put in place by the Aggies For Christ.

During the second week we also held a camp for the young teenagers with the help of Hung Le and the Malibu. The boys were very happy because they were taught practical lessons about King David and King Saul and played interesting games.

I also went to Phyllis’ home visit with the company of Joel (Student Affairs) and Jane [Residential parent] in Kuresoi in Nakuru County. We explained to the parents about the situation of their daughter and they understood the issue although they were worried that we were going to stop supporting her, but we told them that we also had teenage mother’s boarding facility and program. Phyllis has been in MITS for the last months. A pregnancy test was done at the time of intake, but was Negative, after 3 months this is when we realized that she was pregnant.

During the month we have also worked for the documentation of the two new students namely Beatrice and Sharlene. We have conducted home visits for the two girls, took them for age assessment and medical checkups.  The two girls are currently in Kamulu, joined classes and their teachers say Beatrice has had some form of schooling because she catches on fast, for Sharlene, with time she will get to a level where she can read and write with ease.

We are doing some follow-ups and  have  conducted a home visit for a 14 year old girl in Riruta Satellite in Karura slum, a referral case from a Children’s Home in Kahawa west[Familia ya Ufariji]. The mother of the girl is HIV positive and has four children. The youngest is almost one and a half years and the oldest is a girl between 14-15 years. The father of the children died of the same disease.

Reports and progress

Computer classes are going on great. The kids keep showing so much interest to learn more every time they in the Lab.

The advance is done with the introductory and use of MS-Word, they can now work comfortably around the Office suite Next month we will be starting on MS-Excel. Caleb Nthiwa and Dennis Kamau are really excelling very well; they at times assist me to teach other students who encounter difficulties.

Middle class has really improved with their ability to work around the computer environment.  We have also covered the basics and some aspects and commands in MS-Word.

The Lower level class, is a little bit slow, but they are understanding.We are using more of computer games available to assist them in their keyboarding skills and reading/writing/typing skills. Some are slowly taking on writing.typing and with time they will be able to put sentences together.. Paul Njane and Sylvester Ouma had difficulties using the keyboard but now they are comfortable and are doing a great job with their typing speeds.

Updates

We are almost done with the first quarter of the year. Team should be getting together soon in departments to see what goals have been achieved thus far.
We are currently registering our older students who are sitting for the national examination issued by the Government. The kids in total are 28. Joel and Phillip are working on getting those that do not have birth certificates  in order to ease the process of registration. Plus it will be an addition to important documents that our kids need.
The computer lab for the literacy class is has taken shape, side benches that the monitors sits on are complete and the first set of N-computing are out in place...we plan to have a total of 22 students in that lab. Thanks to Darren Wilson for making all this possible.
Lucy Akinyi has already moved out, and gotten an attachment in a salon called Hope line salon in Buruburu  we are still helping her with her kids. Collins will still attend our children day care center until we formulate a definite plan for both of them. Lucy has finished her sponsored training in Hair dressing thanks to the Cedar Rapids through Larry Hagerman Group. Joel will write a summary of his progress with the exiting students.
The entire school is getting excited on starting a series book called the Story. It will be launched on April 7th with the Coulstons teaching and training.
Florence Aoko too is an exiting student, she too got an attachment at the same place Lucy is at.

In liaison with the government office, the area local govt managed to donate to us bags of rice and cooking grease. This compliments our diet and help with the monthly budget. Thankful also for additional meat from the farm department. They managed to slaughter for us 200 chicken.
Last week our kids got the chance of going shopping to get new school shoes. As fun as is sounds, haggling and bargaining for shoes can be an uphill task. Successfully all the kids managed to get new shoes.
Since the rain are here, we are in gear to plant for more harvest. In different zones within our farming zones different crops have been planted.

Kens' story

NAME: Kennedy Owino

AGE: 18 years old

 (An essay written by Ken, pictured is George and Ken receiving towels From Larry Conway)

BEST EXPERIENCES IN MITS

My first experience in MITS was in the year 2006, it was my first time to go on a camp and I really loved it, because where we were camping at was in the middle of the jungle, and it was in Nakuru and it was really fun to be there.

So every came out of the bus pitch tents prepare dinner, ate and slept. The next morning we woke up went to look for water that we will use for making chai/tea, and then while we were walking suddenly we heard a sound from a far, and so we decided to walk after it and we found that it was a water fall.

Everyone was happy and excited about it, and by the way it was very clean, and with no waste of time we fetched some for making tea, lunch, and dinner, and then from there some washed their clothes, shoes, bed sheets, towels, and everything, and some even went ahead and washed themselves from it because of the long journey that we had that day. The lunch was ready, and we went to eat, it was very delicious that I can’t even let a piece of meat to go off my plate.  The cooks that we had at that time were very good in cooking, they were imported from China and others U.S.A.

 

It was afternoon everyone is full and just relaxing, then few minutes later Mr. Mbuvi requested everyone to get on the bus, then we took a ride into the other areas to watch the wild animals. On our way Mbuvi drove across lionesses and he stopped the bus, everyone took a good look at them, and again we asked Mbuvi drive a little closer so that we can watch them nicely.  They were five of them and big ones, Mbuvi hooted at them and even went ahead to a point of getting his feet out of the bus to see if they can do anything about it. But by good luck these lionesses were full so they did nothing to us. 

But the point of all this was just to hear them doing the roaring, but unfortunately nothing happened. So Mbuvi was disappointed.

So we drove back and kept watching giraffes, antelopes, warthogs, buffaloes, and others. So the night came, and everyone was happy about what they saw during day time. And then we prepared everything that was needed for dinner, then we started telling stories about what we saw on other side away from the camp.

After some time thirty minutes later, food got ready and we were cold to eat, so they served us and everyone started eating.

Now everyone has finished eating, and some have gone to sleep, so we remained like ten people, so we decided to make coffee for the remaining guys which are there. And then after that, we started telling stories again but this time it was funny things that we did in Kamulu. Then suddenly we saw shiny and flashy things like torches, and everyone was like what is that person doing over there, and I replied to them “those are not people with torches, those are lion’s eyes.”  We are running for the sake of running because we are confused and don’t know whether to get in the tents or bus, so all us decided on the bus. And remember these lions are the ones that Mbuvi disturbed during the ride that we took on the day time. So it’s like they were revenging.

Note: Ken is at the stage of exiting...he was computer skills training. One of his talents is drawing, designing. We have used his various artistic designs on some of our t-shirts, and labelling of signs for MITS. pray he get a good placement on intern ship and starts his life spiritually and with contentment. He is always enthusiastic about everything. 

John in class

John Wambu is our foreman here at Made in the streets. Meaning he was there at the very beginning, helped secure most of our property out here at Kamulu. Well since John was and has an interesting in history about how he met the church of christ, I decided to invite him to my History class. He started by giving his life story and of his past.

So he starts by explaining to the class that he was a gangsta, and am like YEAH! Awesome!...which reminds me that, he understand the background from which our kids come from...He organized crimes all over Kenya, he once was a wanted man, dead or alive, moved from hotel to slum area a lot to hide out from other gangs or the police. He says the law back then was, kill or be killed. He combines this historic periods of his life with the Church, which is kind of cool. It was the church that turned him from his wicked way.
He explains how life was like back then in the 70s and 80s...how the economy was still tough but manageable. John gives a randon salary would go for KSH.800(USD10)...rent would go for like KSH 75 - 100(USD 1)...this meant that one was living the life.
John also touched on some historical figures, the first president and how he ruled, the second president and his tenure...but did some sort of damage to the country, but John was still positive that despite the hardship and his lifestyles, he still had the church to fall back to.
So he winds up encouraging the class that despite hardship, we should not let our terrible past determine what we are to become in the future. But still learn from the past and not make similar mistakes...because God is watching and determines our destiny by how we serve Him.
A student asked John at the end of class, "How come you are almost light skinned and, what in the world happened to you leg?",...John smiled and said, "now that is a story for another time"...Sweet!!!