About the Area

We are in the Ziwani area of Nairobi, and whilst it is not the poorest area it is far from affluent. The area surrounding the church is one with high levels of unemployment and evident problems of drug and alcohol misuse; particularly an illicit local brew called chenga, which claims many lives every year.

It is an area that shows signs of neglect, blocked open sewers and much litter. Housing showing little evidence of maintenance since they were built approximately 60 years ago.

We are staying in a hostel belonging to the AIC (Africa Inland Church) and we are in bunked acommodation, three to a room.

We are accompanied by one of the AIC pastors (Nick) and one of the youth pastors, (Patrick).

Nick has been our key liaison person in Kenya and is one of the younger more energetic pastors of the AIC with a sense of mission that takes him very much into the local community.

Others will write in more depth about the work we have been doing and some of the experiences along the way.

Briefly we began our work in one of the poorer areas working at two school rooms with George, who set up a school which caters for the children of mainly single mothers in one of the slums. Many of the mothers are HIV positive and George and his wife have taken in 11 children who would otherwise have been left destitute when their mothers died. Our work was to paint the two school rooms, which we did in cream and blue gloss. Whilst this may not have been the colour scheme of choice in the UK it was the scheme that was wanted locally. After two days of work we left the school much cleaner and brighter, and with the approval of staff and students.

Our next piece of work was closer to the hostel. Nick has acquired a piece of land. We cleaned it up along with the roadway outside. The plot of land will be used by a local entrepreneur who customises VWs. In addition to the two men he employs he will take on five unemployed teenagers as a part of the deal and train them up as mechanics. They will then be equipped to start their own businesses.

On the land he vacates they will start a car wash which will provide further employment for 5-6 young people. Adjacent to the plot is a vandalised toilet and wash room. The rental income from the VW customiser will pay for the refurbishment of the wash room and 2-4 further people will be employed cleaning and maintaining it. This will be sustained by tenants paying a nominal charge to use it.

We have had two football matches, both of which we lost to teams that had a better knowledge of local conditions and were acclimatised to the heat and altitude!

We start a period of travel tomorrow and go to the Masai Mara on Monday so blogs entries are likely to be restricted for a period.

All is well and the team have been a real credit and a delight to be with.

Clive