| The goal of our partnership with the Esabalu Self Help group is to support sustainable development projects and to promote cross-cultural understanding and friendship.
Deb and Julius outside the Ebussamba Primary School |
In September of 1988 Ruth Waley, school nurse at Amesbury Elementary, asked me if I would like a "teacher" penpal in Kenya. She was a member of the newly formed Amesbury for Africa and has visited Esabalu, Kenya. I guess Ruth knew it wouldn't be a one shot deal for me. I still have the first letter I received from Julius that month. Since then I have visited and stayed with Julius and his family three times and he has visited with me and stayed with me in my home. Since Julius and I are both teachers we have worked on projects to improve the educational resources in his school district. Child to Child, a school/home health initiative has been very successful under Julius' direction. A yearly fundraiser at AES that involves our children trading their "used" books for quarters has helped Ebussamba Primary buy needed books for their school. Our children not only keep reading, but learn about children in another part of the world and what it means to help other communities. Julius and I are just one of the many friendships that make AFA Special.
Robin was a youth member I met. He is a talented philosopher with a passion for writing. |
I decided to become an example to my children and myself and went to Kenya to see if there really was something I could do that could make any difference. Me, an ordinary woman, a single mom, who stayed home to raise two daughters working only part-time at various jobs. At the time I was emailing James Onyango, director of Kenya AIDS Intervention Prevention Project Group (KAIPPG) in Kenya and he siad if I came to visit I could take pictures of the clients and families in their program. I contact Dr. Mark Bean with Amesbury for Africa who set me up with home stays in the village of Esabalu. A few months later I was on a plane, on my way to Kenya. I stayed mainly in the village, with no running water or electricity, but with lots of wonderful people and delicious home grown food. While in the village I met the youth group and am still working with them now through a committee in Amesbury for Africa. We are developing more ways to get information about HIV/AIDS awareness spread to youth there as well as working on job skills and related projects. What an experience and an example of just how much can happen when we just ask for help and expect someone to answer. I flew to Kenya alone but came back from Kenya with hundreds of people in my heart.
Mark Bean with Tom Amakoye outside the Ebulako School |
I believe development happens one person at a time; Tom Amakoye is a good example of that. Tom was introduced to me in 1990 on my second visit to Esabalu. He had just been elected chairman of the Esabalu Self Help Group. He was a teach in a primary school in the village. Through Tom's efforts Esabalu obtained a grant from the Heifer Project International to bring graded milk cows to the village. The Heifer Project has given children milk to drink and provided income for their families. It also provides employment for those delivering the milk and taking care of the animals. Now Tom is the headmaster of Ebulako School with some 700 students and 20 teachers. He contrinues to work hard for development in Esabalu. His latest project is organizing all of the self-help groups in the area into an "umbrella group" so that they can work cooperatively together for the benefit of all the groups. I'm proud of what Tom has done for his community.
| 
