May-June 2009 Kenya trip

We had a great trip to Kenya. I spent a lot of time getting Alanna set up for her 8 week stay in Kenya working on a grant funded project for Kupenda. She’ll be doing a pilot study on the impact Kupenda has on parents’ attitude towards disability. We tested out the questions on a few parents. I’m really excited for Alanna to be doing this. A couple will be joining her at the end of June focusing on the impact of Kupenda on pastors attitudes among other things.

Alanna will also be doing some work with the kids incorporating physical therapy into dance and assisting with children who have autism at the Sir Ali school for Mental Impairment.

Minna spent time using her artistic abilities to paint educational drawings on the new deaf classroom walls with the help of some of the kids

One very significant event on this trip for me was an example of divine intervention. A midwife came to see us telling us about a child that had been born without one of her hands. The mother was crying every night thinking she did something wrong and wondering what she had done to cause this. The midwife ended up bringing the mother, baby and dad to us later in the afternoon and we talked to her a long time. Rev. Mangi was there to counsel and pray along with Leonard who did most of the talking. She is missing her left hand and it is a little longer than mine. She’s 3 months old. It ended up being a very productive conversation. The mother said she was encouraged to know white people have this happen to them as she thought it was only Africans. She said seeing me doing things made her encouraged and changed her attitude especially after Leonard told her about Kupenda and how it may not have happened without my being born the way I am. She said that she now has hope that not only will her child be able to manage in life but that her child can also be a blessing to others like she saw with Kupenda and me. I told the mother it was up to her to ensure that her child does not limit herself although there will be times that will be hard for her. What are the chances that this woman would happen to come to us while I was here? 

I participated/led an all day Saturday board meeting. It was very productive and I feel blessed to have such a great group of people running things in Kenya. The board consists of a parent of an older special needs child, a special needs teacher, a researcher in special needs, a retired organizational manager for African medical intervention, the local pastor, and our director. One important detail is that we decided unanimously that getting a nurse for the school is essential especially after a child died last year due to complications related to malaria. Currently children are not admitted to the school if they are sick due to this issue.

Leonard filled in new sponsorship applications for children at the Marafa school. The school now has 27 children enrolled now. This includes two classes. One is for children who are deaf and the other is for children with cerebral palsy.

While we were in Marafa we had to take a child to school that was left at home due to his disability. He has a severe spinal deformity and only three fingers on each hand. The father says it is a result of the mother taking an overdose of medication to attempt a miscarriage/abortion. He’s actually about 15 years old.  

We were able to see the Sunday school at Saint James church where the children from the Gede school are brought.  I also preached on the church responsibility of people with special needs with about 5 minutes of preparation time. 

If you made it this far thank you! If you are interested in seeing more pictures from our trip you can view them here..... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=82090&id=778033986&l=56c4b37086

Love, Cindy