Heading into the summer and with many of you traveling to our 410 Bridge Communities in Kenya, we would love to share the most recent updates to the communities so that you are aware of what changes and growth has happened this year so far…
The following is information covered with our Kiria Community church partners. We hope that all of you who have visited Kiria will be encouraged at the growth and health in this community! (sorry there aren’t any pictures!)
Projects:
- The nursery school classroom building is completed and looks great. The kids moved in this new term. This move freed up a classroom in the school so a class that had 60 kids has now been divided.
- Classroom furniture has been funded by Brightpoint for Children and built for classes, 2 and 3. The class 2 furniture consists of 50 steel chairs, 9 wood tables and a chair and table for the teacher and a wall cabinet.
- Salaries for 3 primary school and 1 preschool teacher have been paid by Brightpoint for Children. Brightpoint for Children sponsorships also fund Saturday tuition for classes 6-8 students as well as evening tuition for class 8.
- Completion of cement floor on breezeway. The walkways in front of the classrooms will be completed with new cement top where needed. This will complete the renovation work started in 2011.
- Textbooks- books were distributed on 23 March to the school. Parents were on hand to cover the books after a formal presentation to the school. The books were purchased in January but were not given to the school until the parents completed a large secure storage closet for the books. The teachers and parents are expecting great improvement with the new books, desks and renovated rooms.
- Kenya Power and Light is running electrical lines into this area. This will improve the quality of living in Kiria in the future.
- Water solution- the proposed solution is to capture a spring in the nearby mountain and gravity feed it to a tank in Kiria. From there the community will have access to water. This proposal is somewhat risky in that even though the government has approved this capture (it is in the national forest) they could at sometime change their mind and stop the flow. There is also the possibility of others connecting to the pipe as it travels the 1.5 kilometers to Kiria thus reducing pressure for Kiria. With the introduction of electricity to Kiria we will look at a borehole option since we have had such good results with Karima. We are in the process of looking at the options at this time.
Spiritual development:
- On February 11 all Kiria area pastors came together for an inter-denominational crusade that had been planned. All the churches in Kiria were involved and had the opportunity to preach to those attending. The theme was “coming together as one” because the pastors realized they are one and headed to the same destination.
- On Wednesday March 14 pastors from the entire area of Kiria, Karima and Kwambekenya met at Kwambekenya KAG church. The meeting was led by Stanley Kamau who is the spiritual development expert for the 410 Bridge. The pastors spent the whole day discussing spiritual issues and now plan to meet on a more regular basis.
Community news:
- In march the wife of one of the men who had lost both legs and died last November also died.
- A young boy named Andrew Wahira who had leukemia also died.
- The annual short rains started in April, about 3 weeks late and are now heavier than normal and causing flooding in many areas of Kenya but are still very welcomed by the farmers
- The Bibles that were given to the homes are making a large impact on the spiritual development in Kiria. It is exciting to see what God will do as a result of the availability of Bibles
2012
- 252 Rejoice project- this virtue based program will be introduced in the area schools.
- Brightpoint for Children still needs 21 children sponsored at Kiria Primary
- Water solution
- Pastor training
