News from New Life Homes in Kenya

Sunday, January 27,2008

Dear Amani Friends,

I'm sure you have read about the violence in Kenya since the election results were announced on Dec. 30. What an enormous blow to the great model of peace that Kenya has demonstrated for the last two generations. This is the saddest chapter in Kenya's history.

One glimmer of good news is that at New Life Homes throughout the country, the work of caring for orphaned children has continued without interruption. And even in these weeks of despair, several NLH children have found new families: Anne, Kip, Kate, Archie and several of the toddlers have left with their new parents and some of the newest babies have been spoken for. What a miracle!

Nairobi and Kisumu Home
During the first weeks after the elections, the Nairobi and Kisumu homes faced the greatest challenge. For days at a time, the staff in those homes spent nights there rather than running the risk of being kept from work by the protests. In cities where scenes of ethnic violence were being video cast around the world, members of different tribes were bouncing babies and folding laundry as usual. Clive Beckenham reports that the "lock down" times in the Nairobi and Kisumu home actually seemed to build the camaraderie of the staff in those homes.

The Kisumu Home was particularly vulnerable in the first weeks of the crisis as it is located between the city center where the looting was going on and the neighborhoods where Kikuyus were being attacked and chased from the town.

The Nairobi home was affected on many days because of the limitations that the protest put on travel and on purchasing formula and food. Now Nairobi has regained its calm, and its usual bustling traffic and business have returned to the streets. The angry young protesters in the high density neighborhoods have failed to respond to ongoing calls for protest. They are rebuilding their lives. And Kisumu, though emptied of much of its vitality, is quiet.

Nakuru Home:
The violence has moved toward Nakuru in the last few days, with the Kikuyu, who were the major victims of the first chapter of violence, retalliating attacking Kalenjin and Luo families in high density neighborhoods in an effort to chase them from the area and claim their homes. This is all happening on the western side of Nakuru, New Life Home is on the eastern side of town and is safe. The Army arrived Saturday and has put a curfew on the town to control the violence. Many of the New Life Home Staff will undoubtedly be stranded either at New Life Home or their own home, and the stress must be enormous.

Though conversations with our friends and partners in Kenya make it clear that there is much more peace than violence throughout Kenya, and that the arrival of Kofi Annan and the fact that the leaders are meeting brings the hope of some sort of closure. But they also agree that tribal relations have been set back decades. And the long term impact on the hundreds of thousands of women and children who have been left homeless, fearful and vulnerable is immeasurable.

New Life Home has weathered this storm with grace and courage, the next storm it will face will be the monumental work of making room for a inestimable crisis of abandoned babies before next December.

So, what do we do?
Personally, Chad and I have found these events unimaginable. We've spent lots of time reading the news and trying to make and remake plans for upcoming trips and events. At every turn, the news has never been as difficult as international news predicted or positive as we would hope. One thing that has encouraged us enormously has been the amazing level of concern and interest from so many of the 2000 people in the US who contribute to the care of the New Life Home children through Amani.

With that in mind, we have decided to offer weekly updates every Monday to any of you who would like to receive them for the next few weeks as this crisis in unravelling--and updates about things different people in our area are doing to help. We do so with some reservations, because so much of what has happened each day has surprised us and contradicted what we gathered from news and conversations the day before.

The updates will be marked--Amani Update #1--Date. If you would prefer not to receive them or would rather receive them in a different mailbox, let us know--or if you hear something we need to know about, fill us in!

Thanks for your prayers and your support!

Jane and Chad Stephens

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The Amani Children's Foundation
3288 Robinhood Road, Suite 107
Winston Salem, NC 27106
336-306-5404
www.amanichildren.org