Community Health Evangelism: 9-16

Today we got to do some good orientation with the Community Health Evangelism department. Ruben (a CHE trainer) gave us the scoop. There are three main goals of CHE: disease prevention, promotion of good health, and helping people live a better life in Jesus. The programs under the CHE umbrella are: HIV, community work, disability, clinic, agribusiness, and research.

The HIV/AIDS department provides home based HIV counseling and testing programs. They provide children education on HIV. The post test clubs are for people who have tested positive for HIV.  They focus on awareness and treatment. The government provides free HIV/AIDS medication. CHE does quite a bit of community work. They train communities and meet leaders through forming and training committees. This committee training is for 5 days. Chairs of the committees are trained for an extra amount of time. They do many community based projects. For example, the community in Modoya made a toilet block after a need for sanitation was identified due to lots of flying toilets. Another project underway is combating household pests. Many households are made of clay or have gaps in the walls, so it is hard to eliminate all the holes. Currently some communities are cleaning up dumping sites of heaped garbage. The land is reclaimed with vegetable gardens.

The disabilities program assists children with mental, physical, or other challenges. They identify the children and network them into other programs, which has really been successful. There is a clinic in Pongani that is for children enrolled in any MOH school. This clinic helps run the visiting medial camps as well. The clinic has completed its registration with the government, so now it is officially operating legally. The agribusiness department has built greenhouses in Joska with vegetable gardens. Currently Fred (the head of CHE) is in grad school and he is doing research in Mathare. He has done some HIV surveys and water surveys. I look forward to learning more about his research.

Evangelism is a big part of CHE. Every Tuesday, they do door to door evangelism. They explain the gospel the first time they meet with someone and then they always do a follow up. When someone accepts Christ, they are invited to a Bible study immediately to get plugged in.

We went out into the community so Ruben could show us the Modoya toilet project and meet up with one of his groups in Mabatini. We walked to a main road in the slum and took a mutatu. We got off and began our descent into the valley. It is so mind-blowing how many people live in slums in Nairobi. Mathare valley is just one slum and it has many districts. Names like Modoya and Mabatini are villages. Each village is like a city within a city. There are elders and a chief in each village.

We reached the recently built toilets in Modoya. It is a public restroom that cost 2 shillings to use. (The conversion is 80 shillings to one dollar.) So basically it’s free. This is a blessing for the members of the community because they don’t have very many options for going to the bathroom. The community leaders had identified flying toilets to be a huge problem, so CHE empowered the community through committees to fix it. Next to the public toilets was a good sized vegetable garden on reclaimed land. That was really neat to see. I hope I can get involved in some garden projects.

While in the area about 10 kids spotted us and came over to see what was going on. Two little kids grabbed my fingers and examined my hands. One rubbed my arm (he seemed confused by my white skin). We started playing with them. We grabbed their hands and swung them around in a circle in the air. They totally loved it. They would line up like we were a carnival ride and take turns going for a spin. I could have done that all day.

Ruben introduced us to a committee group. The leaders of the committee are young people (my age-ish). It was encouraging to see the involvement. They were planning on meeting that night, so Ruben wanted to make sure everything was good to go.

We took lunch (they say take lunch instead of have lunch) at Mabatini and got a tour of the school. It had a dirt soccer field. I really want to play with the kids at recess soon.

We got back to Pangani and stood out on the balcony while waiting for our ride to come (this happens frequently). We saw a glue boy walk by. He was stumbling like he was drunk and was sniffing something in a bottle. He was totally dazed and unaware. It is so sad to see young boys like that. They just want an escape. But they need Jesus.

After having continuously black snot for the past few days, I have realized that the people living in Mathare must have some respiratory problems. There is a ton of car exhaust (virtually unregulated) and burning trash. While we were standing on the balcony we were bombarded with smoke. It was pretty intense.

Tonight we decided to surprise Elizabeth with a dance party in the kitchen. One evening when the electricity went out Elizabeth sneaked up to our room when we where chillin with David and scared us to death. We decided to somehow get her back. So I brought my computer downstairs like a ninja while Leann and Julie distracted her with questions. I came in with some Gaga (Pokerface). We all started dancing all over the kitchen and Faith joined us. It was such a blast. They knew Lady Gaga. She brought us together. We plan on having another dance party soon.