Alison Talbert - Kenya |
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Prayer Update May 2008
“Raining and training”
Dear Friends,
Its only a couple of weeks since I wrote my last update but a few things have happened. Its started raining which means its cooler and I don’t have to have the fan on all the time. It also means the farmers can get on with the important work of growing the family food. We plan to track the price and availability of food as part of our nutrition research, in the wake of the post-election troubles and with the news of global price increases hitting the poor.
This week I’ve spent 2 days with the Upendo Methodist church women’s group on a strategic planning workshop! I really enjoyed being with a totally different group of people from work and attempting to see the world through their eyes. As well as planning the next 3 years for the Upendo (Kiswahili for love) orphans’ support project we had to do our own life plans (very useful!) I was intrigued how many of the women wanted to build houses and rent them out to get a steady income. There is a new university starting in Kilifi and the women have seen the business potential in property but none of them have any capital.
In the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis I learnt that some local people won’t enroll their children in the project nursery school because they call it the AIDS school and are afraid their children will be infected by playing with the HIV infected orphans. It is so difficult to reduce the fear and stigma surrounding AIDS. The fact is that several of the orphans lost their parents through other causes- one family of 5 boys are supported by Upendo after their mother was electrocuted in an accident and they are now in the care of the older brother and his 15 year old wife. Working in the hospital with severely malnourished children where a quarter are HIV positive it is easy to get blasé about HIV infection and downplay the social consequences of disclosing the diagnosis to family and neighbours.
I have been in planning meetings for the in-service training of outpatient nurses for our new study. We aim to improve skills in screening for malnutrition and giving nutrition advice to parents. This will raise awareness of the level of malnutrition before we get approval to do the actual study on supplementary feeding. The first hurdle was passed in April with the protocol passing the Kilifi Scientific Committee; however they said that we had to find another funder to avoid a potential conflict of interests if Valid International were funding a study on their own food supplement. The next stage is the national scientific committee in Nairobi.
I thank God for:
- the enthusiasm and sacrificial giving of their time, talents and money of the ladies of Upendo churchwomen’s group who saw and responded to the needs of orphans themselves before asking for outside funding
- the support of the District Medical Officer of Health for our training of outpatient nurses in nutrition screening and counselling planned for the last 2 weeks of May
- the rains and cooler weather
- continued improvement in Patricia’s medical condition
Please pray for:
- the new administrator of Upendo, Grace Anzazi, as she applies for legal trust status for the project and implements the strategic plan
- those involved with the orphans’ families for wisdom and patience in supporting their material, spiritual and emotional needs
- good working relationships between researchers and outpatient staff to be built up during training and preparation for the moderate malnutrition study
- a new source of funding for the malnutrition study
With love in Christ,
Alison