Kenya Service Trip - July 2024Can you imagine making $1 a day? Or not having a water faucet to turn on? Or having no electricity? Or having your daughter married off by the age of 8? Or walking 5 miles to get to work? In July, 8 women from Illinois Women in Leadership set off across the world to Kikuya, Kenya, not knowing just how our lives would be changed, or our hearts expanded when we returned. Even as we are back safe at home, I am not sure we have the words yet to describe it fully. We had been planning this service trip for well over a year and fundraising to be able to provide a classroom for a girl’s Rescue Center. Our group was able to meet our $10k goal and with this we provided a classroom structure that will now provide girls the opportunity to do their studies inside with electricity versus under a tree. This structure will also be used for community meetings and even Sunday school, on occasion. This money went far in an economy like Kenya! We were able to provide desks and chairs for the classroom and some food for the girls for the next couple of months. The girls at the Rescue Center range from the ages of 5-15 years old. The Maasai Tribe that they come from believe in early marriage as young as 8 and female genitalia mutilation. These girls attend boarding school for three months at a time. They are reunited with their families with the understanding that these behaviors are illegal and must stop. There is a Chief in the community that works with the Rescue Center, school and church to enforce this and it has an extremely high success rate. These girls were beautiful and united in song and sisterhood. They are provided education, food, a home and nurturing to ensure their success. So much so the community is now seeing the girls far exceed the boys in the surrounding area and it has caused a concern that they need to educate the boys of the tribe for the future. We were challenged as IWIL members to support two of these girls with $500 scholarships to be able to attend high school next year. Without our support these girls will not continue their education, be returning back to their tribe and likely be marrying soon, raising children, carrying water all day or tending to the cattle on the farm. We hope that you will help to pitch in a little more to ensure these two girls can continue their high school education. You can donate at https://iwil.memberclicks.net/payment The first few days working at the Rescue Center were eye opening and just when we thought it couldn’t get better, it did each day. The following day we provided beautiful landscaping for the “Old People’s Home”, what in America we would call a nursing home. Over the years, this generation has been left behind. Whether they had no children or family of their own, or they have moved away and no longer could care for them, they are left to fend for themselves. Several years back, they found the population at the home soar and the elderly were sleeping in the chicken coops and even cooking meals by open fire. That has since been remedied and they have had a boarding house added and a remodeled kitchen for cooking. The lesson here was we never spoke the same language with these individuals but the smiles and songs united us. They wanted to hold hands and be shown videos of our families, pets, and America. The joy on their faces and in their hearts will last a lifetime for us. The next several days we got the opportunity to visit many schools from Kindergarten to High School. We met elementary children at a day school, where uniforms and fees can be a barrier for children attending. Part of our funds raised were able to sponsor several children to go to Comet School. The fees are approximately $400/year. These children were an absolute joy! We played on the playground, sang our little hearts out and loved as hard as we could. Many of us allowed the children to braid our hair and a few were convinced to go down the slide with them! Note it had been 20 years or more since many of us had been down a slide but it was just what we needed! The high schools we visited were sponsored by a US donor over the years that wanted the best of the best for the kids. These facilities are boarding schools, with libraries, community centers, swimming pool, gardens, computer labs and so much more! The cost is approximately $500/year for these kids to get their education. And trust me when we say they are beyond amazing facilities! Gina Latham presented to the high school Senior girls a presentation on sisterhood and even had a special video from Senator Doris Turner. Cindy Arnold, a High School Math Teacher in Lincoln, presented to the girls various leadership topics, encouraging them to believe in themselves and dream big! She got the girls laughing and it soon was contagious. After these presentations we gave the girls an opportunity to ask our group any question they wanted. Many of these questions about around careers, and schooling. But soon the girls warmed up and wanted to know what it was like to be an American teenager, why some of us didn’t have children and couldn’t believe we had dogs as pets, let alone that might have slept in our beds! This turned out to be many of our favorite experiences while in Kenya. This trip was not all work and no play trust me! We had to work hard to earn our safari but it was so worth it. We were able to visit an elephant orphanage and see them feed baby elephants bottles! We were able to feed giraffes from our hand! And then we stayed 3 days in the Maasai Mara National Reserve where we witnessed the Great Migration of over a quarter million wildebeest, antelope and zebras migrate north to have babies and feed before returning to Tanzania in September. It was pure magic to see a giraffe ten feet in front of you or a small family of lions. Not to mention the cheetahs resting under the tree after a hunt. Did I mention we had hippos sleeping in the river outside of our tents? When we look back at what we enjoyed the most, many of us agreed it was the people of Kenya. They are the MOST hospitable and joyous people we have ever come across. They were so gracious and grateful for what they have. They believe in a higher power and have strong family values. They struggle on a daily basis with absolutely no systems in place for the basics of human existence. There is little to no water, electricity, trash, postal service, medical, banking or infrastructure in place to meet their basic needs. Yet they carry on and have the brightest smiles and faith, all while many work extremely demanding physical jobs. Kenya you have our hearts and we all agree we would love to go back. Even if that is not possible in the future, we know that the 8 of us are forever changed and are looking for ways to ensure our lessons are not lost and our impact albeit small can go on to be mighty in the future. Please consider a donation to help support two girls to go onto high school. Donate today at https://iwil.memberclicks.net/payment. Cindy Arnold DONATE TODAY
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