Archive for March, 2010
Kenya mothers group makes shoes
By Janet Tinsley, project director, Africa region
On a sunny day in the informal settlement of Kibera in Nairobi, the Vision Mothers group members file into a small courtyard in front of one of their member’s homes for their monthly meeting. The 30 women and one man, all wearing the same cloth wrapped around their waists, heads or shoulders, find seats on benches in the shady areas of the courtyard and open the meeting.
About two years ago, the Nairobi project team introduced the idea of mothers groups to the mothers of the Kibera subproject and asked them to begin forming groups and register with the local government. The project staff intentionally left these responsibilities in the hands of the mothers, insisting that they choose for themselves which group they would join, raise the funds for registration (around $20), and complete the registration process before asking the project for further support.
At the Nairobi project, the mothers group model operates from the basic belief that mothers are capable, resourceful people.
“We realized that whenever we called a parent meeting, it was the mothers who showed up,” Peter Ndungo, Nairobi project coordinator, said. “In our culture, the mothers are the ones [who are] most concerned with the well-being of children, so it made the most sense to work with them.”
At today’s meeting, the topic for discussion was finding a space to rent for their shoemaking business. Earlier this year, the group started learning to make and sell shoes as a way to add to their group loan fund.
The Vision Mothers came up with the unique idea for the shoemaking business through trial and error. Their original idea was to start a trash removal service in their community, but they soon realized that there were already many other groups doing this.
“We didn’t want conflict with the other groups, so we decided to change our business idea,” the group chairperson explains.
Shoemaking, a craft that is typically dominated by men in Kenya, is a nontraditional endeavor for the women. Nonetheless, the Vision Mothers saw shoemaking as an opportunity to make good profits and provide a much needed commodity for their community, but CFCA families are only some of the many customers they hope to serve in Kibera.
Some tools of the shoemaking trade
With the sale of their first batch of shoes, the group made a profit of about $130, and in the future, they hope to use the profits to start a resource and training center that would include a meeting hall and computer training for the members and the community.
Today is International Women’s Day! Read (and watch!) more inspiring stories about the women of CFCA:
Strength and power
An opportunity for women(Part 1)
Support in a time of need (Part 2)
Mothers share their talents to improve their community (Part 3)
Creating role models close to home (Part 4)
March 8, 2010 at 2:52 pm Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) Leave a comment
Sharing the water
Lenten reflection week 3
The fact that she was coming to the well in the noonday sun was a tipoff. The “respectable” women of the village all came out in the cool of the morning to draw their water and gossip. So, being one of the more popular subjects of their gossip, this Samaritan woman preferred to come at noon when nobody else was supposed to be around.
Except that day, somebody else was around – Jesus. He was sitting right there by the well where she couldn’t avoid him. And just when she had decided to quickly get her water and get out of there before anybody saw her alone with this Jewish man (the last thing she needed with her reputation), he had the nerve to ask her for a drink of water!
She could have ignored him. She could have waited for him to leave. She could have turned around and gone home. But there was something about this stranger that compelled her to engage with him in conversation. That choice made all the difference.
What follows in this marvelous story from John’s Gospel (John 4:5-42) is a tale of living water, of death to the mistakes of the past, and a community transformed through the leadership of its least likely member. And all because one man asked one woman for a drink – and because that woman had the courage to push her comfort zone and make a graced connection.
At CFCA, we like to say we see potential instead of poverty. We learned that from Jesus, who always managed to see through the trappings and the labels into the true heart of a person. It really doesn’t take any special ability to do that, but it does take faith.
So, who’s asking you for a drink of water today?
March 3, 2010 at 2:06 pm Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) 3 comments
Early report indicates no CFCA fatalities
An early report from staff members in Chile indicates that there have been no fatalities among sponsored members. Our staff will continue to assess the situation of families impacted by the quake and send a more detailed report at a later date.
The report also said that a day center where aging members ate breakfast and lunch and took handicraft and art workshops is uninhabitable. As a result, the sponsored elderly will receive their nutritional benefits at another location and all workshops have been postponed until a new location is identified.
And finally, Sara Leiva, the Valparaiso project coordinator, said that sponsors with friends in Chile should keep in mind that letters both in and out of the country will be delayed. Some letters may arrive late or coated with earthquake dust. For now, the staff’s top priority is to assess and respond to the current needs of the families.
For more information, read the full news story on our website.
March 3, 2010 at 9:35 am Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) 2 comments
CFCA staff are fine
The following is an email sent Saturday evening by Sara Leiva, CFCA coordinator in CFCA Project Valparaiso, Chile, to Henry Flores, director of Communications Center in El Salvador, about her first impressions of the 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Chile early Saturday morning.
Dear Henry,
Good afternoon. Thank you very much for sharing the worries and concerns of the CFCA community. We have power in some areas of Valparaiso, Chile, and I was able to send this email from my sister’s house.
It was 3:35 a.m., when the earthquake started. We are kind of used to this because Chile is an area with high possibilities of earthquakes; however, this earthquake kept going longer than usual. It was then when my husband, Luis, our son and I tried to secure ourselves in the safest section of our apartment.
The noise was terrible. In spite of having the lights off, they began turning on and off by themselves. Shortly after that, the power went off. From my home, you can usually see all of Valparaiso and Viña del Mar, but when I looked outside, everything was dark. The water was off, too. Everything was full of dust, and phones lines had collapsed.
Some time later, some of my CFCA colleagues started to phone me, because we could not call out. Praise God, they were fine. At this moment, I can say that my family is well, too. Praise God, the construction in Chile is strong and can withstand the full force of the earthquakes.
As soon as we had daylight, I went to the CFCA office. On my way to there, I saw some areas of Valparaiso. They are very affected because they are historical constructions and not as strong as present-day buildings. I saw houses collapsed and many destroyed walls. The CFCA office looks OK. When I entered, I saw everything on the floor, the walls have cracks and the place is full of dust.
One of the walls on the first floor have collapsed, and there was water coming out from somewhere. I contacted some firemen who were working in the area, and they helped me close it. The firemen told me that I needed to report the damages because some of the walls are loose and dangerous. They suggested that we evacuate the office building.
We immediately took the files and other important things to the houses of some of the staff members to keep them safe. We knew that in situations like this there is always a high risk of robbery. After that, I visited the house of some of the staff members: Luis Olivares, Olga and Mauricio. We need to contact a friend of ours who is an engineer to have him assess the damages we have in the office.
The most affected area is located south from Valparaiso, and at this moment, we are in alert of tsunamis. The islands in front of Valparaiso are being affected by the high waves.
Henry, we strongly believe that our CFCA families are very scared, without running water, power or communications, but we are hopeful that they are well. As soon as we receive more news, we will notify you. We hope to have a steadier channel of communication, because we won’t be able to go back to our office for some time.
Thank you for your concern. I will be in touch.
Sara
March 1, 2010 at 11:19 am Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) 18 comments
