Sometimes the News is Good

On November 28, 2009, In Africa, Children, Global Warming, Internet, By Susan

Here in the U.S people are recovering from Black Friday. I read that one woman missed Thanksgiving entirely so she could be first in line at a Best Buy; however her family did bring her turkey and pie while waiting in line. Here in D.C the town is abuzz about the couple who sneaked into the White House State Dinner, seems in their climb to notoriety has revealed their rather shady past. Ah, small news day today.

However, the Daily Nation did have a great story about kids in Kogelo part of the area we work in. They have fired off their first email to President Obama asking him to do something about global warming. I’m delighted to see that progress, though, it is a school supported by the Obamas. In any event I give you today’s good news from Kenya.

News
Kogelo learners send first email to Obama

Pupils and students at the Senator Obama schools in western Kenya on Friday sent their first emails using solar energy to United States President Barack Obama. Photos/DAN OBIERO

Pupils and students at the Senator Obama schools in western Kenya on Friday sent their first emails using solar energy to United States President Barack Obama. Photos/DAN OBIERO
Posted Friday, November 27 2009 at 16:32

Pupils and students at the Senator Obama schools in western Kenya on Friday sent their first emails using solar energy to United States President Barack Obama.

The messages appealed to the president to champion renewable energy at the Copenhagen climate summit in 10 days.

“Please President Obama do some­thing. We just want to ask you to help other children all the over the world to access solar power. Teacher Ann sees a connection of climate change and the drought in Kogelo village and said that solar power is a solution to climate change. Help protect the climate, this is our future,” read the message from the excited pupils.

Simple request

They told him that had it not been for solar power, they would not have afforded to reach him.
In a separate email, secondary school students had a simple request. They asked Mr Obama to use his “great office to encourage the utilisation of renewable energies such as solar power.”
“We want other students in communities similar to ours to enjoy their education like we do here in Kogelo,” they said.
Solar power at the schools, Senator Obama Nyangoma Primary and Secondary in Kogelo, was installed in August 2009. The schools are a stone’s throw from President Obama’s grandmother Mama Sarah’s house. She also has a solar panel and charges the mobile phones of her young neighbours. (Agencies)

 
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Mungiki

On April 14, 2008, In Children, By Susan


Time grows short before I leave again. I try to read the Kenya papers every day. Today they are rife with the reports of the Mungiki. They have terrorized before, these descendants of the Mau Mau. Some read the papers and become afraid and want to warn me off of my trip. No, I shake my head, I shall not be moved. I live in a city where children are gunned down every week. Are we any different here in Boston? These same fearful people who want me to stay don’t even notice the body count in our own city. Sometimes I hang my head in shame, since I don’t keep count that well either.

Two weeks ago a child named Acia was burned to death in her apartment. She was 14; her 3 year old sister was killed also. One of my clients sent me the news clipping, Acia was her student. Another client who worked in Acia’s school commented on this child’s death. Evidently Acia was a real rising star at her middle school. She was also a child of poverty, the raw biting kind that comes from urban poverty with drugs and guns and old rickety buildings that burn to the ground because of space heaters. Is she any less a victim of the “Mungiki” than the gangs that roam the streets of Nairobi. She was left by her mother who went for a drug run. Are they not all children of poverty whose stars are extinguished by violence, or negligence or both?

No one is really considered brave if they go into Dorchester. Perhaps they might roll the windows up in the really tough areas, but teachers go into the “hood” every day and try and bring hope to the children. The teachers go into Charlestown and Chelsea, to Roxbury and Mattapan, pushing back against the “Mungiki” who steal the children to the streets. No one thinks they’re brave, but I do. They go into the war zone every day and come out a little battered. I am privileged to work with some of these brave hearts who pour themselves into the embittered souls of the children, trying to breathe light and hope into the darkness that resides within them. And sometimes they succeed and for a glimmer of a moment hope is spawned.

For me, I go to Kenya, for others they go around the block. You see, we can either be afraid of the Mungiki or stare them down and grab each child’s soul and struggle to keep it alive however we can. So tonight I pray for all the children, the ones up the block, the ones in the streets of Bangkok and Nairobi and the ones silent in the suburbs. I pray that we leave fear behind and stretch out our arms and embrace them all.

 
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