Springs of Hope Foundation's Kijiji Mission Project, visited Murogi slums on the outskirts of Nakuru City to do a food distribution today. Most of the people living in the slums don’t have jobs. They depend on casual work, which is rare to come by these days with the high cost of living. The elderly have no one to look after them as their children left to look for greener pastures in other towns. The group was anxiously waiting for our arrival and were more than grateful for our visit. They told us that most of them had no food in their homes and some had spent days on an empty stomach. Some elderly sent their grandchildren to collect the food on their behalf as they were bedridden. Pastor Ben organized the venue at a good-hearted lady’s homestead. Ivy our volunteer together with Antoinette did the distribution and all went on well as planned. All thanked the hands that giveth and asked us to visit them more often.
We are so grateful to you, our generous supporters for making our food distributions possible. Whether it’s doing our larger distributions to the more remote areas of Kenya or just reaching out to 90 of our elderly, disabled, or single moms, our neighbors in the surrounding slums. I would like to say a huge Asante Sana for your generous, continued support of our work at the Springs of Hope Foundation.
Warmest blessings,
Jennifer Hughes-Bystrom
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Jambo, Greetings,
Last Weekend Springs of Hope Foundation traveled to the border district of Mogotio, Baringo County to distribute food hampers to the elderly and vulnerable within two communities. Joining us for the distribution were Ivy, one of our volunteers who comes to our center every Tuesday afternoon to teach our students a course in business and financial management, and Elizabeth, a recent graduate of our 12-month tailoring course who is being mentored to become an assistant to our administration manager and our teacher Martha. Our first stop was at a center known as Barina, which is an internally displaced person center. We found the group anxiously waiting for us. We distributed food hampers and washable sanitary pads to the women and teen girls. One elderly lady said there are families that have slept hungry for days and are very grateful that they will have something on their table that evening and for weeks to come. We then drove another 10 km to the second village known as Sawaiti, where we distributed the remaining food hampers to the anxiously waiting crowd. They came out in numbers and although we had prepared 90 hampers for this village, some still missed out. They were very grateful for our visit and thanked and prayed for the hands contributing to the food and sanitary pads. The fact that whatever food is available in the market has doubled in price, combined with the lack of fieldwork over the past 4 years due to drought has made it difficult for many of our food hamper recipients to be able to purchase food.
Families were tending to their plots as we drove past small family farms on our way to Baringo County, which, after 4 years of drought and failed crops is a very good sign. With the rains at hand, they have started planting beans and maize. Unfortunately, the maize won’t be ready to harvest until September, which will still cause an interim shortage of two of Kenya’s most vital food sources, maize (corn) and beans. We’re praying that the rain will continue.
I wish you could experience the great joy your kindness brings to our elderly and very needy food hamper recipients in person. These are the forgotten villages that larger aid organizations are not able to reach.
Asante Sana,
Thank you,
Warmest blessings,
Jennifer, Antoinette, Martha, and our team of great volunteers at
www.springsofhopefoundation.org
PS. If you’ve ever thought about volunteering in Kenya, spending time visiting our breathtaking game parks, and participating in some of our projects, if you would like more information please email me at jenniferhughes@springsofhopefoundation.org.
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Dear Friends,
I can't express how proud I am of Antoinette and the team of volunteers who embarked on last week's trip to the West Pokot and Turkana regions of Northern Kenya. East Africa has been devastated by the worst drought in 40 years. With little rain in the past five years, rivers and watering holes have dried up and people and animals are dying from a lack of water. It was a long and exhausting trip, but in every picture, everyone on the team is beaming with the joy of being able to give to those who are so desperately in need.
Here is Antoinette's unedited report about their trip.
Thank you so much to everyone who continues to support our work, making it possible for us to immediately say YES whenever asked to provide food and assistance to those in need in times of crisis.
Warmest blessings,
Jennifer Hughes-Bystrom
Founder/CEO
Springs of Hope Foundation
It was a long and exhausting trip, but in every picture, everyone on the team is beaming with the joy of being able to give to those who are so desperately in need.
Jambo Everyone,
On 28th November 2022, as the representative of the Springs of Hope Foundation’s Kijiji Mission, I was privileged to be invited to join a one-week mission to Central Pokot and Turkana counties in northern Kenya. Mr. Nelson Kanandi, a long-time friend of mine, and his team of volunteers from Kutus organized this long and desperately needed mission trip, asking the Springs of Hope Foundation if we could offer support by providing much-needed food hampers. Our students at Kijiji Mission were not left out as they got to prepare the 300 food hampers we were donating, allowing them, for the first time in many of their young lives to share in the joy of giving back to their communities.
Early Monday morning we loaded the food hampers and started our long journey, arriving at our first overnight stop of Kapenguria very late that evening. On Tuesday, after some mechanical problems, we started our journey to Pokot Central, a journey of 140 km into the village from Kapenguria town.
The Turkana food was packed and loaded on a truck due to security, arriving in Lodwar a day ahead of the team. The food was distributed to the elderly in the first group peacefully. In the second group, a huge crowd overwhelmed our team, they all wanted a portion of the food we were distributing at whatever cost.
As the crowd grew larger we were forced to abandon the distribution and could not manage to take photos of the scene. The area has been hit with severe famine for the past five years whereby both animals and humans have succumbed due to severe drought. The food was distributed to the Turkana elders despite the shortcomings and we look forward to distributing more in the future with the help of the local peacekeepers. They were extremely grateful for the kind gesture as most had not had anything to eat for days. We arrived at Lumot center, Mosel village in the evening. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we woke up at 5 am due to the heat, for the outreach mission in the villages, walking for 8 - 10 km carrying our food hampers to distribute from homestead to homestead in the scorching Pokot sun. The area is extremely dry, without rainfall for the past 5 years.
Most homesteads we visited had nothing to eat and most of the wives were young girls between the ages of 13 to 20 years old with 2 to 7 children each. Most children do not attend school. There is no electricity, toilets, or bathrooms in the area and the bush serves all. The young mothers have to walk 5 - 8 km to the borehole to wash their clothes, bathe, and fetch water on their backs while their month-old babies are being carried on their chests. Many young girls are looking for opportunities to be sponsored to further their education due to the lack of school fees. However, the only opportunity for these girls would be a boarding school and as I have mentioned earlier, most of these young girls are promised into marriage at a very young age, often to a much older man.
We arranged to have the group of 35 elderly transported down from Turkwel under security by bus. We gathered the group at the church compound and distributed our food hampers to them. They looked frail, hungry, and unwell.
We also had the security of the Pokot warriors, always close by as the region has suffered a great deal of internal tribal warring.
As part of our mission, we counseled the adults on the illegal, devastating effects of FGM, and early marriage on their daughters, which is still commonly practiced within these communities. We counseled the youth on early marriages, FMG, and the need for education.
They were overwhelmed after receiving our food hampers, they sang and danced in appreciation.
May you all be blessed in whichever way you participated in saving a life.
Asante Sana,
Blessings,
Antoinette
Asante Sana,
Jennifer
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Hi,
At the beginning of the month, we were invited to accompany a group on a six-day mission trip into the severely drought-stricken region of West Pocot in Northern Kenya. Of course, we immediately said yes, as this region has been tragically affected by the worst drought in 40 years and is suffering from a severe food insecurity crisis.
It will take the team two days just to reach the region, so with the Springs of Hope Foundation's limited access to reliable transportation, this was an easy YES for us. Antoinette has been busy shopping for beans and maize all week, and our students have been busy preparing food hampers every evening in anticipation of Antoinette's departure on Monday, November 28th. We're all praying for a safe and blessed mission trip for Antoinette and the team.
Because of your continued support, we will be able to provide desperately needed food to hundreds of families in a region of Northern Kenya that has been severely distressed by the recent, devastating drought in this region.
Thank you so very much for making this trip happen,
Jennifer Hughes-Bystrom
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