TEACHING-EMPOWERING-MENTORING-BUILDING OPPORTUNITY Mission: to partner with individuals and communities in Western Kenya to support entrepreneurial activities, education and health through training programmes, scholarships, water and sanitation projects

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Has a week gone by?



These three pictures link to the account below.: Minister Opinyara (Minister for Planning) wearing his Virtues pin; the three boys at their interview; one of the schools in Luanda

I am amazed to see the date of the last post was Nov. 6. The past week has flown by.

On Sunday we took 'our' three boys to Kisumu for their interviews for the East Africa Youth Leadership Conference. They were all accepted! This is wonderful news as we aim to choose future leaders of Kenya in our scholarship selection.
On Tuesday we had two profitable visits in Kisumu. One to an organization that offers post secondary scholarships to needy students. The student (or a sponsor) must supply living expenses. We figure this would be about $500 per year, about the cost of a secondary scholarship. We will send Justus (financed by a friend in France) who has been waiting at home for two years hoping for fees. His marks are good enough for university, but the costs are too high even for us.
The second student is Dorcas who scored A in Physics, Math and Chemistry in 2006. She too has been 'at home' since then. Rod says with marks like that she should be an engineer, but again we do not have the resources. However, if these two obtain a good diploma thay can then go on to other things.
The other organization we visited is the ARC, a Norwegian NGO. They have a microfinance section and their officer will come with us later this month to Emmaloba to speak to the micro finance group. We hope that at some point these women will become independent enough to run their own group.
On Thursday we met a couple of people who were at the Virtues presentation to the town council and want training for their communities.
In the afternoon Pat did a community workshop on cooperation in basic income generating projects. This is not as profound as it sounds! We did an interesting game which we know will stay in the minds of the women as they look for projects and how to organize them.
On Friday it was out to Lunada and a couple of schools way off the main road. Both still use the cane freely and the head teachers have promsied to send a couple of their staff members to the Virtues training in December. The young priest who is the liaison with these two is really pushing for whole staff training in January or February. We shall see.
On Saturday Pat gave a Virtues presentation (the first strategy) to a large group of fairly influential people in the community. (The local MP is a member) They all said most emphatically that they want to take the full training. One of the participants is a senior provincial police officer. She wants to try to bring the Virtues training to the police academy and the Kenya institute of Management.
Last weekend we met with Minister Opinyara (in the picture above) and deputy Prime Minister Mudavadi at his request to hear about the Virtues. With so many highly placed people expressing interest we hope we will eventually receive some solid (ie financial) support.
Much of the countrywide news was taken up by discussion of the government reaction to Ocampo's fleeting visit. He came to receive the agreement of the President and PM on the movement of the suspects in last year's violence to the Hague. He did not need their approval and as forecast he did not receive it. Much too politically dangerous to be seen to support the indictment of friends and colleagues. He left, appointed three independent judges and life goes on. Many are obviously very afraid. So often the 'culture of impunity' is maintained by allowing things to drag on so long that evidence is lost, witnesses die or are intimidated and everyone moves on to the next scandal. But we understand that many key witnesses have been removed from Kenya and are in protection. So, much to the surprise and consternation of some, the ICC does not operate in the same way as the Kenyan judicial system.
The Attorney General was placed on a 'not-wanted here' list by the US when his visa was revoked. He threw a tantrum, published a full colour page extolling himself and threatened to sue the US for defamation. The derisive laughter rippled around the country.
The newspapers have published the heart breaking stories of a year and a half ago. The man who lost two wives and five children when his house was burned. The woman whose husband was murdered when he went to check on his store. Last week we met a young woman who works for a media house which broadcasts in eleven local dialects. She escaped in her night clothes and watched her house burn, recognising several of the perpetrators. She is to be admired for her tolerance and lack of vindictiveness and talked to us of broadcasting Virtues information on her stations. Now people are urging that the PM and the President stand accused of allowing and abetting what happened. This is a fairly new development for people to come out openly and say this.

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