May 6, 2002
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| A MOTHER and daughter look out from a row of laundry hanging in an alley in the Mathare slum of Nairobi. The mother lives in an 8-by-10 room with eight other people. They have no electricity or running water. (Scott Collins/Buckner) |
THE RUSTED rooftops of tin dwellings in the Mathare slum of Nairobi hide more than 600,000 people living below. Many of the orphans cared for at Baptist Children's Center come from Mathare and similar slums.
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Buckner takes Texans to
aid of Kenya's orphans
___By Scott Collins
___Buckner News Service
___NAIROBI, Kenya--Thick black smoke belches from diesel engines as traffic inches along a busy Nairobi thoroughfare. Cars, vans, trucks bounce along semi-paved roads as passengers hang out the doors and windows. Horns blare drivers' discontent.
___Trash piled like growing mountains along every street and alley vies for space with vendors selling everything from food to handmade furniture.
___This is Nairobi--a city of survival and a city struggling to find its soul in the clash between modern society and African culture.
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| BET STEWART, a member of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas, talks with a Kenyan orphan during a recent camp sponsored by Buckner Orphan Care International. Through Buckner, Texas Baptists minister to needy children in Nairobi, where at least 60,000 children live on the streets.Buckner became involved with the center last year, after Buckner officials visited Nairobi with Jeff Byrd, missions pastor at Park Cities Church. |
___Squalid slums scattered around the perimeter of the city hold as many as 600,000 people each. Residents pick through the mounds of trash looking for anything of value, including food. One Kenyan government official estimates 60,000 street children eke out an existence in Nairobi. Others have put the number as high as 75,000.
___On the far edge of one of the slums known as Maili Saba (Seven Miles), 16-year-old David has lived at the Baptist Children's Center for seven years with his younger brother, Daniel. When their father died, their mother ran away, leaving the brothers as orphans.
___The brothers were living on the streets of Nyeri, about two hours from Nairobi, when Jill Branyon found them and took them to the children's center. Branyon, a missionary schoolteacher with the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board, has served as their surrogate mother ever since. She helps the boys with their education and clothing and opens her home to them several times a year.
___"Without the center, I would be living in the streets sniffing glue," David explained.
___Sniffing glue is what street children and orphans do in Kenya. It numbs their stomachs, taking away the hunger and cold they feel and helping them forget about the hard lives they live.
___Texas Baptists and other Baptist groups are working together to offer better alternatives fo
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| MIKE DOURIS, vice president for Buckner Orphan Care International, talks with Isaac Otieno, an orphan living at the Baptist Children's Center in Nairobi, Kenya, during the BOCI camp. |
r the orphans and street children of Nairobi.
___Buckner Orphan Care International, along with the Southern Baptist Mission of Kenya, Kenya Baptist Convention and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, supports the Baptist Children's Center where David found help.
___Dickson Masindano, director of Buckner Orphan Care International's Africa ministries, serves as the social worker at the children's center and as a member of the center's board of directors.
___Buckner became involved with the center last year, after Buckner officials visited Nairobi with Jeff Byrd, missions pastor at Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas.
___Buckner had been looking for an opportunity to open ministry somewhere in Africa, said Mike Douris, vice president of Buckner Orphan Care International. "God's timing was tremendous in this."
___Buckner is focusing on four areas:
___ Program development. Through Masindano, a graduate of Hardin-Simmons University's Logsdon School of Theology, Buckner provides professional social services to children at the center. Buckner plans to develop a foster-care program to enable the center to care for more children. During an April visit to Nairobi, government officials in charge of the country's social services system asked Buckner to develop the model for the future of foster care in Kenya.
___ Humanitarian aid. Through Buckner's Shoes for Orphan Souls program--as well as donations of clothing, medicine, developmental toys and food--Buckner helps the center meet the immediate needs of the children and families living in the adjacent slum.
___ Volunteer trips. Mission teams working at the center host Vacation Bible School programs, sports camps and interact with the orphans. In addition, Buckner hopes to organize medical teams and other professional teams in the future.
___ Orphanage improvement. The children's center is in "desperate need" of two new dormitories, Douris said. Currently, the children sleep in
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| JEFF BYRD, missions pastor at Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas and a volunteer with Buckner Orphan Care International, talks with a Kenya Orphan during the BOCI camp. |
two crowded rooms with each room holding more than 20 boys and girls sleeping in bunk beds. He added that Buckner is seeking donors to help fund construction of the new dorms.
___Currently, Buckner provides about two-thirds of the children's center's operating budget, Douris said. Buckner is actively seeking donor support for the center's operation and capital improvement needs.
You're invited:
___Buckner Orphan Care International has planned several volunteer missions opportunities for Texas Baptists this year. Among the offerings:
___ Summer camps for orphans in Russia, June through August.
___ Shoes for Orphan Souls mission trip to China, Oct. 10-22.
___ Shoes for Orphan Souls distribution trip in Russia, Nov. 7-17.
___ Shoes for Orphan Souls humanitarian aid trip to Romania, Nov. 7-17.
___Additional information about these missions opportunities is available by contacting Buckner Orphan Care International at (214) 388-1442 or visiting www.helporphans.org on the Internet.
___Individuals, families and church groups all are welcome to participate. Similar trips already are being planned for 2003 to Kenya, Guatemala, Russia, Romania and China.
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