---

Kenya, Africa

KEN03b - Support of Robert Gitau

---

Report Date: November 11, 2015

Report from BHW Field Director Following Visit in October

 

Recent Events

Remarriage

The death of Rose was a blow to everyone. She was the financial controller and things quickly got into trouble after her death.

Robert’s remarriage was also a major “new” thing for both Robert and Theresa. Robert shifted off site for some months with Theresa after their marriage which was probably a good thing. It certainly improved his health. 

Land

Robert had a problem with a piece of land that belonged to him and Rose. Someone came and sold the land to someone else and Robert has had to take the “sellers” and the “buyer” to court to get it back. This has cost him more than the value of the land. He is suing both parties for costs but who knows if he’ll actually get anything back.  

School

The school, dispensary and water project have recentlly been restructured and a committee established to run these. This has been very hard on Robert but something had to be done if they

were to survive. The establishment of the committee is a good thing and we hope Robert can gain some focus now and not continue starting new things.

Family

One of Robert's adopted daughters went to Germany on a scholarship after finishing High School. She stayed for 21 years, learned German and became an aeronautical engineer. She came back to Kenya and married but her husband subsequently died. Her boss in Germany, an Iranian, wants her to go back to Germany, he has arranged a job for her and also wants to marry her. He has sent Robert a new Toyota Prado - he is very wealthy and this is the dowry. Robert plans to sell the vehicle and use the proceeds to support his ministry including Forward Green Hostel. 

Once he has sold the vehicle it should set him up financially for the future. Once this has been realized, it would be a good time to phase out of our current involvement as he will be self-sustaining. 

Forward Green Hostel

They have taken on a well-qualified young woman to look after the children in Forward Green Hostel. She is a trained social worker. She seems nice and the children respond well to her. We met them all together one evening. 

 

Ideas for the Future

A dialogue with Robert has been started based around the future. This applies whether or not he gets a good return from his vehicle. At the end of the day he has to become self-sustaining. The key to this is for him to get water. This could happen either from the school water project or to put in a borehole. At this stage he is intending to put in a borehole when he sells the vehicle. 

Robert has to concentrate on becoming self-sustaining. This will require hiring a competent person to work in the greenhouses and on the land. With the sale of the vehicle he has the opportunity to realise this if he makes wise decisions with the windfall. 

I wonder if the best thing we can offer to Robert and Theresa is for one of our Foundations for Farming team to go there for a period to help him set up the greenhouses, the fishponds and to maximize the use of his land. It has the potential to fully fund him and the hostel now he does not have the demands of being the sole supporter of all the school funding shortfalls. This would need to wait until the water is connected. 

There is real potential to train a lot of people in the community in Foundations for Farming and they really want this training. 

 

Current Issues and Challenges

1) Getting water on his property. The fish ponds have dried up, neither of the greenhouses are in operation and the outside gardens are not producing anything. 

2) Getting reestablished after the changes in school management. 

3) Meeting the day to day costs of having 40 children to look after in Forward Green Hostel  

 

Prayer and Praise Points

1) That Robert has married again and seems happy. He is convinced that Theresa is God’s provision.
2) That the school situation has been taken out of his hands and that there is a strong committee and a good strategy to get it self-sustaining. 
3) Pray that Robert will be able to focus on a few things and do them well. He needs to focus his activities to his role on the school committee and see the benefits of doing this. 

4) That the 40 children in the hostel will be well cared for and that adequate funds will come on stream from the plan for the property 

 

Comments

The kids at Forward Green are a nice bunch of children and obviously very vulnerable. Robert is going to struggle to support them if he does not start generating resources from the land. However, now that the school is not his responsibility the calls on his funds from that direction will diminish.