Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Planning Next Trip to CCC

I am excited that I will be going to Kenya again in February. Will be happy to see everyone at CCC.
I am also thrilled to report I am making progress on getting wind turbines to provide electricity to the school. This came about by happenstance as I was put in touch with Ahead energy right here in my home town of Rochester NY.

http://www.aheadenergy.org/

Raise money for AHEAD just by searching the Internet with GoodSearch -

http://www.goodsearch.com/?charityid=847358

The generous owner of Jetpro from China is donating two turbines and accessories to get started. We hope to have two students from the University of Rochester go to CCC to set up the system. Check out their turbines they are cool!

http://www.jetprotech.com.tw/en/gallery/01.htm

Monday, November 2, 2009

Hello All,

I recently returned from three weeks in Kenya. I was able to make a short trip of 5 days to see what was happening at Chazon Children Centre in Molo. Thanks to the help of a number of volunteers from all over the world things have greatly improved since my last visit. The major improvement is access to water. You actually turn on a tap and get clean water to drink, cook with and wash your hands. This may not sound like a big deal to those of us in US or Europe but in Kenya water is scarce and precious. A long term drought has led to starvation, death and water rationing in all of Kenya even the capital of Nairobi. Water is turned on at unpredictable times and days and you had better be around to get it. Many people have to go to a local tap and fill cans with water. These “jerry cans” weigh about 40 lbs each and many women carry them on their heads for long distances. Others carry them on their back with a strap around their forehead to hold the weight. I truly do not know how they do this; they may be carrying a baby at the same time. The poor women in Kenya break my heart. Some have told me they are “beasts of burden”.

At the same time there are more and more educated women who are trying to help their sisters in Kenya. They are bright, brave and determined. I believe it is the women who will be the future of Kenya. The politicians are mostly men and often corrupt. If you have been reading the papers you know that some of them may have been responsible for precipitating the post election violence in 2007 that killed many innocent and poor people and displaced thousands of others. The orphans we care for at CCC are refugees from that violence.

But I digress; getting the back to progress at CCC and more importantly the hope that Chazon Children Centre and the directors Samwel and Lucy offer not only to the children but to the community at large and the volunteers. They do not take time to lament but work and pray very hard. Their belief that they will meet their goal to take care of all the orphans in Molo never seems to waver and is an inspiration to me and many others.

Since I was there in June the number of children served has increased from 74 to 102, and they are managing to feed them all. To be truthful I guess I was not hungry enough to eat the frequent fare of Ugali (a maze staple and Scuma (kale). For the children this and porridge for the younger ones may be all the food they get.

Thanks to the recent volunteers the children have text books, swings and a brightly painted wooden building for a kitchen. (I love the stripes!!!) The teachers and directors have a decent place to work and are able to accomplish even more.

While I was in Molo the rain came down in buckets for a good period of time. The community was ecstatic and hopefully the crops will benefit and water will not be so scarce at least for a short time. It also rained in Nairobi when I was there! I cannot take credit for this although people were sure I was blessed when many birds managed to cover me with blobs of purple gifts as I stood under a beautiful tree.

If you can spare even the smallest donation ( we are not proud $5 can buy food for a few kids) please send it. Lucy and I have an agreement that to start I will manage donations from USA You can send a check to me at 126 Ferguson Drive Hilton NY 14468 (this way there are no charges and CCC gets every penny) I then deposit it in a checking account I have opened for Lucy, she can access it with ATM card. This by the way is the cheapest way to get money to Kenya. Daniel will you please verify this for those who don't know me.

Blessings
Virginia J Duffy PhD, Psychiatric NP
WWW.PsychSense.com

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Dear partners,

Another beautiful day God has given us, the rains are doing great, we have plenty of food in the small garden. The children are fantastic, good to be with these children everyday, desire to visit CCC and it will change your life!

Pastors Lucy and Samuel

Monday, October 12, 2009

Dear friends,
nice to see ourselves on blog, thanks to Daniel's effort. Just to inform our partners that work at the Centre is fantastic, the children are really happy, enjoying every bit of the swings, volleyball, football and the indoor games, thanks to our Head of games teacher -Geoffrey.
You are wellcome to contribute to this wonderful project.

Pastors Lucy and Samuel

Thursday, October 1, 2009

On one of my last days in Molo

I had just returned from the supermarket and I heard a young voice yelling "Daniel, Daniel", - to my left were two small boys. I said "Hi" (very surprised any of them even knew my name), I didn't get to spend much time with the kids. "Where's David?" the older one said, I said: "Oh David left about a week ago" the younger one then said "we love David" didn't do much for my ego but it was a well deserved complement for David!

Saturday, September 26, 2009

The volunteering continues!

Even though I left Molo more then a month ago it's been nice to continue to work with Samuel and Lucy. We have taken the first steps of designing a logo and that makes setting up a simple blog possible and here it is! I will be contacting all the volunteers to see if you'd like to participate on the blog. I'll set you up with writing access so you can start to post here and though work on the web site has just begun this blog will at least give Chazon a web presence. This blog will be far more personal then the coming website but the purpose of both will be to encourage/inspire/inform others about the opportunity to serve at Chazon, it'll be available to volunteers while they are at Chazon to post about their experiences and of course it will be available to the staff at Chazon to share with the world what's happening on a daily basis.  


So welcome to the Chazon Children Centre blog!