Kenya

Samaritan's Purse has been sending doctors to Kenya since 1978 through World Medical Mission, supporting hospitals that have helped tens of thousands find new life in Jesus Christ. Samaritan's Purse also operates several community development and children's projects across Kenya. The country is one of four in East Africa where we have launched a comprehensive HIV/AIDS program to strengthen the Christian response to the pandemic.

Note From the Field

Reaching Out to Nairobi’s Slums

From country director John McKelvey

Walking through a Nairobi slum during the rainy season requires the utmost concentration and effort. The sticky mud and muck and little bits of trash quickly adhere to the bottom of our shoes. Getting the caked mud combination off requires a good strong stick, or a swift kick like someone pretending to punt a football or practicing karate. We try our best to avoid falling, given that this muddy earth is often disease-filled because of a lack of sanitation.

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A survey of the scene reveals a picture of muck, mud, plastic bags and trash, trickles of water, crooked shacks of rusty tin or dark brown oiled wood. A little girl with braided hair wears an oversized blue and white checkered dress, with laceless, floppy-tongued tennis shoes. She jumps back and forth across the trickle of an open sewer while singing to herself. A bearded man with a Rasta hat sits on an overturned rusty bucket staring into nothingness while smoking a hand-rolled cigarette. A mother in a dress carries a sleeping baby on her back. She gingerly walks with precision in high-heeled, mud-spattered navy dress shoes, the mud making a sucking sound and trying to pull her shoes off with each step. Children with smiling faces laugh and trail us asking for sweets and barrage me, a foreigner, with an endless chorus of, “How are you?” Mud, muck and that, “whatever else,” squish between the toes of their bare feet.

Sixty percent of Nairobi’s population lives on 5 percent of the land. The largest slum comprises one-quarter of the population yet occupies only 1 percent of the land. Ninety percent of slum dwellers have no piped water and as many as 500 persons share one toilet. Population densities approach 2,000 persons per hectare, as opposed to four per hectare in nicer Nairobi suburbs. The average class size in elementary schools in slum areas is 98. Infant mortality is double in the slums as opposed to rural settings; child immunization rates are less. People are twice as likely to have HIV in the slums. Half the children under age five are stunted in Nairobi’s largest slum. Slum dwellers spend up to three-fourths of their income on food. Ninety percent have cut back on meal frequency and size since prices have skyrocketed. Life is tough in the slum.

By 2020, more people in Kenya will live in cities as opposed to rural areas. The vast majority of this growth will take place in slums. Samaritan’s Purse has always been willing to go where others will not and do the hard work in Jesus’ name. In Kenya, we are active in these places and seeking to expand our work there. It’s where the people are and where they will increasingly be. Reaching the world for Christ means going to the cities and the slums of Kenya. Please pray for us as we do.

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PROJECTS

Turkana Feeding Program

Samaritan's Purse has been working to reduce deaths due to malnutrition among children five years and younger and pregnant and nursing women. Since 2006, we have established 29 feeding centers in northern Kenya's drought-stricken Turkana district. We have also partnered with two local health centers to provide medical care for severely malnourished children.

HIV/AIDS Education
Since August 2005, Samaritan's Purse has been implementing our MET program, which trains church and community leaders to reach out to youth with messages of abstinence and faithfulness in marriage. The curriculum also teaches the basic facts about HIV/AIDS and stresses the importance of providing compassionate care to those living with the disease in an effort to reduce stigma and discrimination. Our staff has also facilitated community conversations on the prevention of sexual abuse and the exploitation of children. Nearly 3,500 pastors, church workers, and teachers have been trained, who have reached more than 148,000 young people in Kenya’s Eastern province.

Agriculture and Tree Planting Project
The Kinango district is characterized by low rainfall and perennial drought. Climatic conditions coupled with years of poor farming methods and deforestation have contributed to the region's present-day food insecurity. Since March 2005, Samaritan's Purse has implemented agricultural training to improve small-scale farming practices through seven demonstration farms in four villages. We have also provided farmers with proper equipment, seeds suitable to harsh climates, and rain water harvesting training. We have also planted more than 40,000 trees in school, church, and public properties.

Household Water Project
Since 2005, Samaritan's Purse has installed more than 700 biosand filters—a household water treatment system—to make clean drinking water available to the people of Kenya’s coastal district of Kinango. The filters are made of concrete, gravel, and sand and provide ideal intervention for communities with easy access to surface water and cut down on waterborne illnesses. Over 1,000 household caretakers and children at primary schools have been trained in improved hygiene and sanitation practices. More than 200 new pit latrines have also been constructed.

Livestock Project
Samaritan's Purse provides improved livestock management training to people living in Kinango's Samburu division. Many of these residents earn less than $2 a day, and with frequent crop failure, are among Kenya's poorest. Since 2007, Samaritan's Purse has trained 316 households while sharing the Gospel.

Trans-Nzoia Feeding Program
Samaritan's Purse has been working to reduce deaths due to malnutrition among children five years and younger and pregnant and nursing women. Since March 2008, we have been working with IDPs in 15 camps in Trans-Nzoia East and West districts, in western Kenya near the Uganda border. We have also partnered with the district hospital in Kitale to provide medical care for severely malnourished children.

PRAYER REQUESTS

Wisdom to address issues of food security in the face of looming famine and hunger in many parts of the country.

Healing and reconciliation amongst people of different tribes, especially in Rift Valley province. Pray that the church would provide the leadership during this time of healing.