Africa letters Feb 9
Dear friends
PLEASE PASS ON OUR MESSAGE TO ANY OF OUR FRIENDS WHO DO NOT HAVE E MAIL BUT WOULD BE INTERESTED IN OUR NEWS. Dear Family and Friends We are sure you have been reading in the newspapers and seeing on television much about the tragedy of ethnic clashes which have been exploding in Kenya since the Presidential Elections on Dec 27th. While some of the clashes were related to frustration over the dubious election results much of the unrest and inter-tribal fighting has been going on sporadically for many years and has roots in land distributions and the greed of some individuals. Most of the young people burning homes and driving people from their homes are incited and often paid by cheifs, politicians and rich people who have only their own self interest at heart and have used and abused the people of Kenya and the genuine distress about the election to enrich themselves. That said, our hearts and minds turn to those who have suffered. At the moment St Michael's school is rising slowly and becoming more desparately needed as the number of families displaced by the ethnic clashes who are seeking refuge in Kitale and Kiminini is increasing .Now they will need two streams in Form One. Kevin is providing assistance from our mission fund towards the building materials as needed and also for the building or extra desks. He is also using every opportunity to give the students a chance to voice their feelings and ideas about the crisis as well as helping them practice finding non-violent resolution to conflicts which arise in the class and school. (Just a word from Kevin: one of our teachers just buried her brother-in-law on Monday. He had been shot in the conflict and two of this teacher's sisters have had their houses burned.) In and around Kiminini, we have some 900 plus displaced families some are temporarily housed in various denominations local churches and over 500 families are renting a room or staying with relatives or good samaritans. We are operating a distribution Center at Kiminini Catholic church next to the hospital and I am helping to organize that center which provides food and other forms of aid to the 500 families living in the community, I also help distribute aid to several smaller centers where people are sheltering in and around churches within the district of Kiminini.This week alone we have bought and distributed 1000 cups and plates, as well as cooking fat and oil, lentils and sugar to supplement the supplies we received. The Kiminini Cottage Hospital is providing medical care to all the sick and preventive health care to mothers and children for all those idisplaced. Imagine delivering twins three weeks after fleeing your burning home with your 6 children.The twins were safely delivered and mother and babies are doing well, however the mother is HIV Positive and cannot breast feed the babies, so an alternate source of milk must be found. Another family consists of a father who is crippled from an accident, a seriously ill and incapacitated mother and 5 children, The handicapped parents have no wheel chairs and must crawl around, and now they have no home or belongings left. A teen aged child comes for the supplies and with the other siblings cares for the family. A local family is providing space for them in their home and a local church registered them for food aid. The Diocese of Kitale and several relief organizations including Medicans San Frontier and Germany's Agro Action,Irelands Concern and Jesuit Refugee Services and Kenya Red Cross are backing up and augmenting the Government of Kenya's efforts to provide for the basic needs of these families in our area. .Many other organizations and individuals are providing the funds to make all this possible including our MKLM members families and supporters. All of the Diocesan staff and clergy and many of the laity and Communites of Religious Sisters living locally are taking a very active role in the relief effort. Some of the staff's own family members have been driven from their homes, they are helping others while having experienced the tragedy in their own families In the whole of the Diocese there are some 30 centers and some 40,000 people are being served. Never could we have imagined our last months in Kenya being like this and even more unimaginable the possibility of leaving a Kenya so different from the Kenya we first knew. Please pray for Peace and security for the Kenyan people and that they may learn to see each other as Kenyans rather than members of rival ethnic groups and even more basicaly see one another as Beloved Children of God. You are in our thoughts and prayers and we give thanks that we are blessed and surrounded by such loving and supportive family and friends. Thank you to all of you who have sent donations recently, we will get round to acknowledging your generosity in the near future please forgive our tardiness.
Kevin and Chris
If you should want to send a donation to help our mission work please send the donation to Maryknoll Lay Missioners
Bethany House
PO Box 307
Maryknoll NY 10545
In order for the donation to be paid into our mission fund rather than the general fund for Maryknoll please write on the memo line: MA 5816 Kevin Cahalan.