Our history and
what we do today.
The origins
of Uhuru Ministries
This
work for me, Terry Newton,
Executive Director of Uhuru Ministries, had its origins in a two-week
visit I
made to Kenya
in October 1994; this was as part of a 4 person Christian crusade team.
The
first four days of that visit, ministering in one of Nairobi’s
vast slum areas, was for my part
something of a nightmare. I could not sleep, nor eat, drank little, had
great
difficulty with the heat, and generally hated being in Kenya and just
wanted to
return to the ‘safety’ of the UK; I guess I was
overwhelmed and terrified by
the abject poverty all around. On the fourth day, at around 0300 hrs
and
without sleep again I gave in, prayed, repented of my bad attitude, and
asked
God to forgive me and give me a love for Kenya
and for its people – my life
has not been the same since. From May 1998 I went for two six months
periods –
break in between to return home UK for Christmas – during
which time I acted as
administrator to a small hospital/health centre in a very rural area in
Rachuonyo district, Nyanza Province. I am a qualified social worker,
now 69 years
of age, married to Thelma; we have four grown up daughters, and three
four grand-children.
My work permit in Kenya
is under the Methodist Church of Kenya; I am classed as a missionary. I
am a
registered ‘alien’ and have my card to prove it.
The Start of
the work
During
my period at the hospital I had to make several visits per month
to Kisumu to purchase drugs, supplies etc for the hospital and during
that time
I spent a lot of time with families and talking to children on the
street. It
is one thing for a Westerner to hear about, read about, and see poverty
on a TV
screen or read of it in a newspaper, it is quite another thing to touch
it,
smell it, feel it and see the pain of it. I began to discover some of
the pain
that many people carried, as well as the hurt and lack of hope that is
the
experience of so many in this situation, especially so for children. A
small
group of three boys, friends together, came to my notice October 1999,
and I
with a couple of Kenyan colleagues felt very constrained to get them
off the
street, and I made the decision to rent a small house for them in a
slum area
called Manyatta, Kisumu. We called this Grace Rehabilitation Home.
Since the
start we have moved to larger and better accommodation in Mamboleo,
some 6
kilometres out of the centre of Kisumu. With the help of so many
friends we
managed to purchase this house in 1997. Another part of the work that
developed
for Uhuru Organisation (International) to give it its Kenyan name, is
the
support of children, orphans, families, living in the community, to
enable them
to gain education, attend jua kali or other craft training or provide
some
small subsistence for them to survive. In the UK
we formed a Trust Board in 2000
under the name of Uhuru Ministries. We were granted charity status in
November
2001 with the Charity Commissioners and in 2002 granted Non
Governmental
Organisation status in Kenya
in 2002. As the charity work was not being carried out in the UK we had to apply
under the name of Uhuru
Ministries Support Association, whilst in Kenya
we could not use the name of
Uhuru Ministries as this implied a church work, and we applied under
the name
of Uhuru Organisation (International).
Reasons for
the work
The
aim of the work of Uhuru Organisation in Kenya
is the rehabilitation of
street children back into the community, by carrying out assessment of
the
child’s needs and opportunities which may or may not exist
within the child’s
home community. Uhuru Organisation is involved in obtaining and
providing
financial support to youngsters by way of school, college/university
fees and
educational costs, or where a child’s potential cannot be met
by education to
place and fund a youngster within some form of craft training. Uhuru
Organisation since its early beginnings has sought to work with
children and
families against the extreme consequences of poverty with an overall
aim to
help a youngster eventually become self reliant and a provider of
‘tomorrow’.
Poverty forces many children into street living. Kisumu,
Kenya’s
third largest city has witnessed an increasing number of children on
the
streets. These children come from across Nyanza
Province
and Western Kenya
as a whole. Research shows that poverty levels in Nyanza
Province
are particularly high. It is estimated that the numbers of poverty
cases are
approx., in Kisumu District, 63% of the reported cases for the whole of
Kenya;
that
infant mortality is as high as 150-200 per 1000 children compared to a
national
average of less than 70 per 1000. It is also reported that Nyanza and Western
Provinces
together have a significantly
higher level of vitamin
deficiencies
in among children. Another issue noted through research and experience
is that
HIV/AIDS is a very major factor within Nyanza Province and Western
Kenya and
that some 500 people die through HIV/AIDS every day in Kenya, with a
majority
of these deaths occurring within the Western region; this being due to
a
variety of reasons including cultural practices such as wife
inheritance? The
number of orphans within the region has increased dramatically with
children
being subjected to the extreme consequences of poverty and many of
these
seeking a ‘better life’ or being forced onto the
streets. It is the natural
right of every youngster to have the opportunity of living a dignified
life, to
get schooling and obtain medical attention when sick. Uhuru
Organisation
attempts to provide this through both its Children’s Home and
also support in
the community.
Uhuru Today
At Grace
Home,
Mamboleo we have 30 youngsters with us though some of these attend
secondary
boarding schools. Their ages range from 12 yrs up to 18 years, most are
ex
street children, and all are orphans. These are all boys. Though the
majority
of the youngsters are Luo’s we do have some from other
‘tribes’ and we have
several Muslims with us. Many of the youngsters have in some way been
affected
by the scourge of HIV/AIDS. In the community we support a further 50
young men
and women as well as five families. The Home itself has room for
additional
children, and clearly we could support many, many more youngsters both
within
the Home and the community, the only constraint for us being
‘money’, that is
the lack of funding. Currently the bulk of our financial support comes
from the
UK
though we do have
sponsors in the U.S.
and Denmark.
In the
main the support is made up of individuals, a few churches, and a few
but
increasing number of organisations and businesses. It is worth
mentioning that
where appropriate gift aid increases the giving by an approx. 28%. We
currently
have 2 youngsters doing degree courses, 8 at college doing diploma
courses, 1
young man undertaking driving instruction for heavy goods vehicles,
another
attending a training college, and one doing jua kali (under the hot
sun)
roadside training to become a tinsmith. We have 6 awaiting adequate
sponsorship
to go onto either university or college. The remainder of the
youngsters are
either in secondary or primary education, I, Terry, still spend much of
my time
in Kenya and am supported there by 8 Kenyan paid staff, a Manager , two
house
parents, two female housemothers, one grounds man, one day guard and
one night
guard. We are fully registered with the Kenyan government as a
children’s home.
Some Life
Stories
Edris
One young man, Edris 25 yrs, spent time in several children’s
homes and finally
with us. Following three years of medical training, one year internship
he is
now employed as a fully qualified Clinical Officer. At one point in his
life
Edris almost lost hope for a future but now can look forward to a
reasonably
well paid career in one of the many hospitals or clinics in the
country. He was
sponsored by an organisation in Denmark
and he and we are so thankful to them.
Don
Another young man, Don is now in his third year degree course reading
Actuarial
Maths at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology
Nairobi. Don
obtained top marks in maths and sciences and with this particular
course should
have a good future ahead of him.
Lillian
A young woman, Lillian, an orphan, recently completed a diploma course
in
Business Administration and can look forward to reasonable employment
in one of
the larger businesses. Lillian comes from a very poor rural area where
there
was little in life to look forward to.
Boaz
Boaz (15rs), is now in his third year at a good secondary school in
Kisumu and regularly
is placed in the top ten out of nearly 300 pupils in his year. Several
years
ago on the death of both parents he and his siblings were plunged into
abject
poverty. Boaz would love one day to become a pilot, and we just hope
and pray
that the shortage of funding will not prevent him from achieving this
goal.
We hope and trust that the vast majority of our youngsters will go on
to be the
providers of tomorrow. Not all are success stories, which considering
we are
dealing in the main with youngsters which are orphans, in some cases
having
spent considerable amounts of time living on the streets with all its
consequences and having missed a lot of schooling, then it is no wonder
that
their lives can be in turmoil. We have had a few who found it difficult
to live
a life without some form of drug (e.g. alcohol, bang
(cannabis), and did not settle well into
either schooling or training. It is so sad to see these, however few,
return to
a life that really holds little promise for them.
