Report from BHW Kenya Partnership Facilitators

Key Person: Bob Abdalla

Recent Events

Floods

Kenya has recently been hit by heavy rain causing severe flooding and devastation. While climate events such as El Nino – the warming of the surface water of the Pacific Ocean, which causes heavy rainfall in some parts of the world – have been linked to the increase in rain, many Kenyans believe the flooding has been exacerbated by lack of investment by the government.

Bob and his community have been overwhelmed by the floods. The kiosk where they run their business has been swept away as well as many members' homes. 

Bob has reported that many people have contracted water borne diseases and their roads have been severely damaged. The children are getting sick, and the doctors have gone on strike. 

This comes at a devasting time for this project as they just began expanding their sewing project into other vulnerable communities which are connected to affiliate churches. 

Bright Hope World have been able to provide support to start a feeding programme for those impacted by the floods. 

Partnership's Influence within the Community

This project continues to provide vulnerable women in their community with training and opportunities to run their own business. With the support of Bright Hope World, they have now begun to expand their training into other vulnerable communities. Once a group of 3-5 vulnerable women is formed in each area and connected to a partner church, a trainer will be assigned. Once they have been trained, they are supported to start their own sewing businesses to bring in an income. 

Current Issues and Challenges

The biggest issue currently is the major flooding that has hit Kenya. Bob’s community was hit badly, and he has said they have been overwhelmed. 

Some of their shops have been swept away and some of the members' houses also. They will need to re-establish a lot of what they had started developing and focus energy on supporting those impacted. Bob would like to set up a feeding programme. 

Prayer and Praise Points

Currently this project needs prayer as they support those in their communities who have been impacted by the storms. They will need to rebuild the kiosk in which they ran the project too. 

With the success of the tailoring training in their local community, Bob had proposed extending the sewing project out to the areas they have affiliated churches. He has expressed that there is a desperate need and have over 30 women in these areas who are wanting to be trained. 

Comments

Bob and his wife had started the new trainings in March, but we will need to now allow time for them to rebuild and get re-established after the devasting damage caused by the flooding in their community.  Support has been given for this and for a feeding programme. Bob has said he will keep us posted on progress although getting detailed information from him can be limited.