CTC International Blog

Economic project is proceeding well as Malaika mums are working harder for a tender of 1000 bags from Siamanda Chege who has a company by the name Beberavi collections. This company employs 100 women from rural villages in Kenya, devasted by the HIV/ AIDs virus and high unemployment. (http://www.beberavi.com/)
Siamanda visited CTC Kenya offices where our Malaika mums work and after realizing the good work that CTC does for these ladies, she felt a need of working with them in a way that will help the ladies to earn something for their living.

Malaika mums have also been doing more practicing on dresses and shorts making and this is really helping them to be more perfect.

By Liz Josiah

It has been a quiet time on the blog but not on the ground. The last couple of months have been very busy and we have witnessed tremendous growth in all of our programs.
Starting with our Malaika kids Program which has seen some new children come in, while some of our children who has been in the centre has moved on to regular schools after performing so well. Go Malaika kids!! We love you so much.
On the Health initiative, we finally have opened a clinic. Such a blessing! We started officially at the beginning of this month of August and the community has now started to enjoy the testing and counseling services right at our centre. We can’t wait to be able to offer complete Health services, but one step at a time. This program has not only seen the clinic open, but we have 3 new employees to CTC to help run the program. Welcome to the CTC family guys.

On the Education initiative, Rafiki Link has not been left behind. We have a new employee to help out with this growing program that has unlimited potential to help our students. Welcome

The environment program is enjoying a boost from Albion heights school in Canada, with our Initiative to make Ngeya a beautiful school for the kids to learn and enjoy now the botanical garden is looking very beautiful. Thanks Albion heights and Anita specifically for all the efforts to keep the partnership going.

Mama hope has helped us push our gardens to the next level. We have started a tree nursery and hope to run three gardens in the near future. Thanks Mama hope, there is true hope in the lives of our community through your support.

The economy program received tons of blessings beginning with Cucu Alice and the visit of the ASG team that has seen the mums with brand new energy to keep sewing. Please keep those bag orders coming.

I want to thank all of you who have had an opportunity to visit us this summer. It has been a joy to host all of you and thanks for your input in what we are doing in Maai Mahiu. We request you to remain connected and check us out often as we have opportunities with your name written all over them. Bring those gifts and talents as we need them.

Welcome back and stay updated.

Jeremiah Kuria

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Two Saturday’s ago, our team were witnesses to the strength of the human spirit and the power of community. For the first time in Maai Mahiu the five major tribes of this village came together to celebrate Unity in Diversity. Nearly 1000 Maasai, Turkana, Kamba, Luo, and Kikuyu people came to dance and sing and be witnesses to how important standing together as a community is for the future of Kenya.

For the past year CTC has sponsored an Ubuntu Day once a month. Ubuntu is a Zulu word that translates, "I am because we are." CTC was able to bring these groups together because of long-term cultivated relationships. One person and family at a time. There were no handouts at this gathering, no empty aid with strings attached, no free rides; simply a promise from CTC to walk with the people and to seek solutions to their struggles in relationship, together.

The day began with the Environmental Club from Ngea Primary along with children from other local schools planting trees along the highway that runs through Maai Mahiu. What followed was a day of dancing, singing, laughter and fun.

The new Art, Culture, and Peace Center at CTC was officially dedicated by the tribal groups, an amazing goat stew was prepared by the ShoSho’s (grandmothers), and all was supported by Jeremiah, Rocky, Bernard, and the whole CTC staff. They did an amazing job.

The day ended with a football (soccer) tournament between teams from CTC/Maai Mahiu, Maasai, and IDP (Internally Displaced Persons). 100’s of people, mostly kids, circled the field to watch the side take a run at each other. As the sun was setting and a storm was moving into the valley, on the eighth penalty kick CTC defeated IDP 2-1. The World Cup final had nothing on this “beautiful game.”

As dusk was turning to dark, the kids gathered and asked Jeremiah to bless them with words as they had blessed us. A Beautiful Day concluded with the Beautiful Game. If there is a better way to embody Ubuntu, I don’t know what it is.

“I am because we are!”

peace,

Ken

Note: The Faith and Community team has completed its trip to Kenya. This journal entry and the ones to follow document a piece of our experience.

There is a moment in every journey where expectations, anticipation, and excitement come face to face with a new reality, a new place, a new culture. Our team host Charles Wachira introduced us step by step into the world of Maai Mahiu and the work CTC is engaged in.

But, there is a moment when the joys and struggles of the people become incarnate in relationship. For many members of our team that moment came at standing in a demonstration garden at Ngea Primary School. Ngea is a public school with about 1000 students and 10 teachers.

The garden which is used by CTC to teach the kids in the Environmental Club how to plant and raise vegetables to help feed their families, sits on the corner of the school campus, bordered on one side by the school’s kitchen (basically s storage building with an open pit fire in one corner) and on the other by an orphanage.

Charles was explaining how the school serves a hot lunch to the kids whose families can afford to pay 50 Kenyan shillings per term (less than 1 US dollar) and it is the only meal most of them get a day. “Does everyone eat?” “No,” said Charles, “Only about half of them.” After a long silence when we were all trying to process what he just said, Charles told us the story of his own struggle to find money to finish 8th grade and then later secondary school. The sacrifices his mother made was the only reason he was standing there with us. He now spends all his extra money making sure his siblings, not to mention children he does not even know, stay in school. “Education is everything. It will make the biggest difference.” After a long pause he finished, “I love my mother very much.”

It is easy to be overwhelmed by the intensity of the need. Everywhere one looks, there is need.

But still, in Charles’ story (and many others we would hear), there is hope.
Education begins with one person trying to make a difference, and finds its completion in a community transformed.

This Friday, Charles will turn in the final chapter of his Masters Thesis. The transformation continues.

Peace,
Ken

Note: The Faith and Community team has completed its trip to Kenya. This journal entry and the ones to follow document a piece of our experience.

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Adventures come in all shapes and forms. Some are grand and epic, about which books are written and tales told. Others happen in the imagination of a child and only require space to play and to dream. But, no matter what kind of adventure, the common element is separation. Separation from the normal, everyday, run-of-the-mill happenings of life, and diving into a new reality is how all adventures begin.

The journey began for our Faith and Community team back in November 2009. Several of us with connections to CTC gathered at Mozart’s Coffee Shop in Austin, Texas to talk about coming together as a team to travel to Kenya and experience for ourselves what Zane had been telling us about for years.

At that first meeting we decided we did not want to focus on a particular project or element of CTC, we wanted to focus on relationship. A common belief that all people are created in the image of God drew us together, and a common experience of the power of community brought us to Kenya. Relationship.

Money was raised (easier than most people think), bags packed, tears shed, and 24 plane-airport-taxi hours later we were in Nairobi!

The excitement of our arrival temporarily overcame any notion of jetlag (an 8 hour time difference). As I drifted in and out of sleep that first night, I was startled awake by the sound of two monkeys arguing (how can you tell?) in a tree outside my window. Yep, we are in Kenya!

The next morning we headed north out of the city toward the town of Maai Mahiu. As the road swung to the right on the edge of the Rift Escarpment the whole beautiful, amazing, Rift Valley opened before us. Its scale defies description. Beth, Sandy, Sam, Judy, Lysle, Emily, I let out a collective, “Wow.” Definitely a new reality! Separation.

Peace,

Ken

Note: The Faith and Community team has completed its trip to Kenya. This journal entry and the ones to follow document a piece of our experience.

Thanks to everyone that is following the journey of this team. More to come soon.

Over the next two weeks we would like to welcome you to follow the diary of our Community and Faith team. They will be blogging from Kenya over the next three weeks and sharing the adventure with you. So please follow their journey.

If you would like to meet the team, watch these video

Everything here is moving on very well and Kenyan students have worked very hard to finish their history essays competition and they are now eagerly waiting for their results and not forgetting about prizes that will be awarded to the best students in this competition.

Students at Longonot secondary have been posting information on their blog on weekly bases at http://longonotsecondary.blogspot.com and they are very excited in this, also not forgetting our little kids at Ngeya who had no laptops are now again back to their Rafiki link activities and they are also excited that they will be learning computer skills again. They have been able to post little information on their blog at http://ngeyaprimary.blogspot.com

It has also been a pleasure for us to receive a team of 6 people from the USA who are spending time with our students at Maai- Mahiu secondary sharing about girl child life experiences since they want to look for ways that they can use to empower Kenyan girl child, we are praying for them and wishing them all the best in what they are doing.

Rafiki link main site rafikilink.blogspot.com will be updated twice per month, follow up with us to see what is happening.

Lastly, we are not forgetting to remind you to vote for CTC on the Chase community giving challenge on facebook, click on this link to vote for CTC http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charities/412123008-ctc-international-inc

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It has been an amazing time for the malaika mums as our vistors has been with us for two weeks. It was good to see old friends and also to make new friends who came with the team.

The climax of this teams visit was the seminars that malaika mums attended with other 50 women. In a patriachal culture that has little or no place for women, this seminar meant everthing for these women. They learned about boundaries, communicating with their spouses and how to relate and talk to their kids on sexuality and other sensitive issues that affect them every day. The seminar also covered an important training on health and nutrition and how to use the available resources and foods to provide the healthy bodies. The conference room was full of energy with women getting the sense empowerment and hope of freedom. It was a great time together.

During the seminar the women experienced art therapy for the first time. They learned about colors and how to communicate feelings using colors. It was sad to see some with their life sorrounded by red signifying danger while others painted black as a sign of hopelessness in life. They were in tears while told to share their stories.

Finaly the all the women went to the mural wall and practice what they hd learned. To express their feelings through art and it was so powerful to see all of them scrambling for paint brushes to paticipate in the gratest mural they have ever seen. Thanks to Kaitlin and her sister Leah for coming for the first time in Kenya to help all of us experience the joy of art.

At the end of the day, it was very evident that people need the information and knowledge to be given to them so that they can exercise the freedom that belongs to them.

Will keep you updated as more continues to unfold.

By Liz Josiah

A year is gone now since I came back from the comfortable and convenient Unites States of America. With a little hesitance and apprehension I started working for CTC. I was not sure how things will work out for my family, myself and for the big CTC family.

There was a ton of changes for all that were involved. We were not sure how things will turn out as we started together. New faces all over, big expectations and low expectations, Good things expected while others were not sure. Confidence and encouragement flowed freely from all who were involved. It was a time full of mixture of emotions.

I now look back and appreciate the opportunity to serve with CTC. We had an Ubuntu day last Saturday May 22 2010. Just a normal day when we give back to the community. But this one turned out to be an evaluation Saturday. We planted the trees as usual and then gathered together for a drink after some good hard work. One person after another gave their comments on how CTC have affected and impacted their lives in one way or the other. They all loved the work they have been doing with their own hands. A sense of pride and ownership of the good that is happening in our town. And then we wondered what the future holds for CTC in this community. There is lot of hope and expectation due to the performance of all the other activities.

Thanks to our sponsors and donors; Your work is not in vain. Through our relationships and being there to listen, many are experiencing the love and the acceptance that every human being needs, and even so those that are poor in the community that we are serving.


Being a full time community servant by profession and a minister of the gospel by calling, I love the opportunity to share this love by doing more than by words and hence the extra opportunities to tell the Story.
Our work is worth all the effort and the trouble we have to go through to accomplish the mission.

Big thanks to Alice Johnston for her television debut on Topeka local news. She was invited to tell her story as well as the story of the Maliaka Mums. Alice has launched her very own campaign to raise funds for new sewing machines for the women. We are so proud of her work for CTC International.

Also big thanks to CTC Volunteer, Aimee Lirette, for her public relations skills. We knew that Alice had a story to tell of her own and are so thankful that she was able to share with her community.

Malaika mums project is still progressing as mums are working harder to make their ends meet.
The amazing thing is that from the previous month, mums made 700 L.I.F.E bags. still on that month we had a tour to Gilgil during the national field day which was very educative to our people and they were also very excited.
Members who were present were anxious and curious to learn more about us after finding out the amazing work that CTC have been doing to the community of Maai- Mahiu.

Hello everyone,

Hopefully by now you have noticed that CTC has gotten a makeover. We have changed our look and are so excited to share these changes with all of you. Please be sure to visit our new website. We are just working out some finally things on the site but are really pleased with the way that it is turning out. http://www.ctcinternational.org

Some other great news is that Zane Wilemon(Founder/Executive Director) is in Washington D.C. right now preparing for the annual D.C. Summit Series. DC10 is an invitation-only event that connects top young minds and inspires a new generation of leaders to succeed in business and in life.
With over 700 guests and panels including President Bill Clinton, Blake Mycoskie(TOMS shoes), and John Legend we were more than excited to be invited to attend. However, we were ESTATIC to be asked to be the offical bag of the event. That is right over 700 of the L.I.F.E. bags made by our Maliaka Mums will be sported around all weekend at this event by attendees.

When we learned of this we immediately called up our friends at Veritas Fashion and the H.O.P.E. campaign and asked that their artist collectives create designs for these 700 bags. We were so happy to get such amazing designs and to be able to include our community of like minded people who want to use their art to give back.

We are wishing the best of luck to Zane on his trip to D.C. and are so proud of everyone that came together to make this work out.

Special props to the women that make these bags and have found a sense of empowerment with a skill that is quite literally being used on the other side of the world.

Thanks to all of you that have made this possible from our screen printers at Under Pressure(Austin),to the artists, to our FABULOUS intern Cali Huffman for her graphic work on our new L.I.F.E. Bag tags.


For more info about
Veritas Fashion visit http://www.liveveritas.com
H.O.P.E. visit http://hopecampaign.org
DC10 Summit Series http://dc10.summitseries.com/

Our staff at work:

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Well, things are good here in Kenya, We have been enjoying a good climate as it raining quite regularly. We are hoping that the community will have a good harvest this year if it continues like this.

We had an educative trip to Gilgil last Friday; it was a national field day in Kenya where we were able to demonstrate what CTC is doing to over 5000 people from different parts of our country. We were also able to learn what other people are doing and we achieved and it was a great learning experience.

Malaika mum’s, youth program, caretakers and environmental club members had a wonderful time. They were able to visit over 40 different programs that were being exhibited in the site. The theme for that day was sustainable resource use for social-economic development.

On other programs : The Shosho shamba is doing good and they are ready to train others. This is shown by what they are doing back at their homes and at the demonstration garden. The ministry of agriculture is impressed with what we are doing and they want to partner with us and work with environmental club at Ngeya primary school and at the demonstration garden. We are glad to be able to do something that the government officials appreciate and recommend to people in the community.

Thanks for your support

By Rocky Muuri

We are back!
We are thankful to God for giving us a good quiet week. Things have been happening one after another and sometimes its only through His Grace that we can be able to confidently face another day. Thanks to all of you for following with the things going on here, your prayers and encouragement has been a great support to all CTC family and Maai Mahiu community.

In brief for those who did not know what was going on. A car accident took a close friend who was a CTC volunteer and the wife of our printer. It was very sad. Same week the man who led with the funeral arrangements passed away after an hour's illness. Same week a bus accident killed ten people still in our town and one man hang himself. Very chaotic but we are thankful to be able to serve and support those who have been griefing among us.

The Mums were so thankful at the same time as they completed making 700 bags, a huge order that left their faces smiling at the end of the month.

We are also thankul for DWC team nd their great work at Maai Mahiu Secondary School. The project was a success and Mr. Mwangi The head teacher is still getting creative and making it look even better. Pictures will come once its finally done.


Maai Mahiu is finally green. We take some things for granted but this place was desperate, dusty and in need of rain but now it looks wonderful. We are so thankful for the rain.