Good Tidings of Great Joy!

Veronica Lemuya, our new director, has hit the ground running and has already done more in a month than most people are able to pull off in an entire year.  After just one week in the office, she had already made rounds to visit several families and students in the program to survey the needs of the community.  She found that the majority of families whom she visited were struggling to put food on the table, and they also needed more information on COVID-19 and on precautions to take to prevent the spread of the disease.   She reported that adolescent girls needed sanitary pads as these are normally distributed at boarding schools, and many of them cannot afford them now. Her visits were also important to let families know they had somewhere to turn if they were in need of resources and support.  Being on lockdown means that people must stay at home, but homes might not always be safe as some students might be at higher risk for sexual/domestic abuse during this time of COVID-19.      

Children of the Kingdom Kenya Director Veronica Lemuya sharing with Mrs Anna Liwan about COVID – 19 at the end of April with information about the disease and how she can help the children protect themselves.

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The bags for each family included 10 kg rice, 10 kg maize, 3 liters of cooking oil, 7 kg beans, 3 kg sugar, 500 gm salt, 500 gm Omo (detergent), 2 bars of soap, face masks, and hand sanitizer.

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Children of the Kingdom vehicle delivering supplies to over 300 families in Lodwar

sharing face masks with children in Nawoitorong Village in mid-May

​From her initial report, we worked on a budget to pay for some of the most pressing needs that families shared with her including food and other supplies as outlined in the caption above.  We were able to draw $15,000 from our 2019 Rafiki Run contributions and from other generous donations for this emergency fund.  Over the last two weeks, she recruited former Children of the Kingdom graduates and others in the community to help with the distribution. Veronica shared that some of the volunteers expressed how meaningful it was to be a part of the distribution as they were able to see the needs of the community for themselves, and it was a way for them to give back to the program which had supported them.  

She reported that this verse below was the theme verse of the distribution:   

​Veronica shared, “I could see the joy in the eyes of the children and their mothers. Many were breaking down in tears. I could hear them saying "Ejok noi" (Turkana for “Thank you”) and "Asante Sana" (Kiswahili for “Thank you”), and they wanted me to convey that message from the Turkana children to the Children of the Kingdom family in the US….The entire exercise was an eye opener to me. It’s a call to pray, to reach out to the children, and to give them a shoulder to lean on sharing with them their challenges and walking with them step by step.”