Kenyans Returning Home
May 7, 2008?Nyamuhu Kabogo is pleased that the Kenyan government has begun to resettle thousands of the people who fled their homes after violence swept the country following a controversial presidential election.
Kabogo works for the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee as a program consultant in the Rift Valley, an area in west-central Kenya that was the focus of much of the unrest.
In an effort called â??Operation Rudi Nyumbaniâ?? (Operation Return Home), the government began this week to help displaced persons return to their homes.
"They are starting to take people back to where they were removed from, but they are doing it very carefully," says Kabogo, who is in North America for the next few weeks to speak to congregations about her work.
During the strife that took the lives of more than 1,200 people and displaced at least 350,000, Kabogo was not able to travel freely about the country to oversee the programs. CRWRC, in partnership with other faith-based organizations, provides training and in some cases food and shelter for AIDS orphans and their caregivers.
But the program is now slowly getting back on track, says Kabogo, who spoke at a luncheon presentation this week at the Christian Reformed Church in North Americaâ??s office in Grand Rapids. She will speak at churches in California and Washington in coming weeks.
"It wasn't easy to go through what we went through, but we are moving forward," she says.
In her work, she oversees a program that assists caregivers, often grandmothers, establish healthy, stable homes for AIDS orphans. Often this means helping the grandparents to plant and maintain gardens and to establish small businesses that can bring in resources for the home. As many as 1,500 children a year are helped through this program.
Caregivers are also given some legal training so that they can advocate on behalf of the children, some of whom had family property taken by relatives after the death of their parents.
In addition, she says, the program helps to cover the cost of school uniforms for the children. Kenya provides education for the youth, but they must have uniforms in order to enroll in school. CRWRC also helps connect caregivers with clinics that can provide health care to the children.
A native of Kenya, Kabogo worked in South Africa before returning home to work for the CRWRC in a job that, she says, helps to empower and encourage people without stepping to tell them what to do.
â??We donâ??t dominate people,â?? she says. â??We work with the communities. This is how God wanted it to be.â??
A few years ago it was estimated that more than 10 percent of people in Kenya were infected with HIV, the AIDS virus. Although that number has been cut in half in recent years, there are still parents who are dying and leaving children, some of whom also are infected with the virus.
â??It satisfies me to see a generation of children being assisted because of the work that we do,â?? Kabogo says.
CRWRC is the relief and development agency of the Christian Reformed Church in North America.
- Chris Meehan, CRC Communications
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Chris Meehan News and Media Relations Christian Reformed Church in North America www.crcna.org