From: Yona Maro
This document, entitled Ending Child Marriage and Meeting the Needs of Married Children, builds upon research into best practices for addressing child marriage.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) seeks to ensure that children are not robbed of their human rights and can live to their full potential.
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Karibu Jukwaa la www.mwanabidii.com
Pata nafasi mpya za Kazi www.kazibongo.blogspot.com
Blogu ya Habari na Picha www.patahabari.blogspot.com
From: People For Peace
Voices of Justice for Peace
Regional News
BY CHRISPIN ONYANGO
NAIROBI-KENYA
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2012
When a Canadian bishop whose diocese was rocked by clerical sex abuse crises told the Synod of Bishops that the new evangelization must address the reality of distrust and disappointment the scandal left in its wake, his pleas were not taken seriously yet this is the emerging problem that must be addressed urgently.
[image]Bishop Brian J. Dunn of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, leaves a meeting of the Synod of Bishops on the new evangelization Tuesday at the Vatican. Dunn told the synod Friday the new evangelization must address the reality of distrust and disappointment caused by the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic church-photo courtesy (CNS/Paul Haring)
With the sex abuse crisis, Catholics have experienced “a great disorientation that leads to forms of distrust of teachings and values that are essential for the followers of Christ,” Bishop Brian J. Dunn of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, told the synod Oct. 12, adding that the Catholic Church cannot ignore the need to find a way to “evangelize those who have been deeply hurt by clergy who have been involved in sexual abuse.
At the same time, the church needs to investigate the causes of the sexual abuse crisis and ensure measures are in place to protect children and vulnerable adults.
A perusal of recent books, articles and information from websites, reveal strong and generalized damaging assumptions about priestly celibacy in connection with sexual scandals. The focus is no longer in the West but also in Africa and the rest of the continents.
Sexual abuse in whichever dimension, is a symptom of dangerous sexual perversity and should be strongly condemned. That is why problems of ever sexual abuse by the celibates of the Roman Catholic Church should not be treated in isolation as they might be a sign of deeper problems the church or an individual is unwilling to face.
Generally, sexual abuse is a wide social moral problem not confined to a particular culture or class of people only. Sexual abuses have a long history with diverse global dimensions.
The assumptions about celibacy of the clergy are inexhaustible. Among the assumptions being saturated worldwide are that; Catholic priests, especially in Europe and America are sexual abusers of children and youth. One gets the impression that other Christian churches do not have sexual predators among their clergy or leaders.
The second assumption is that the celibate Roman Catholic Priesthood is non-biblical. However, it is openly debated that the abolition of celibacy or, if it is made optional by the Roman Catholic Church, sexual abuse of children, youth and women would become a thing of the past, both, within the church and society.
However, it is not mentioned anywhere, that priests also can be victims of lustful women and seductive girls. One gets the impression that all young girls and women are innocent, holy and angelic, incapable of sexually molesting and terrorizing priests.
In this case, it is purported that only men are sexual predators. Unfortunately, the mass media and other communication networks give sensational and exaggerated information with sometimes an outright bias; as long as such information is in public demand and interest, instead of being fair, objective and truthful.
I have to admit that there is something odd about the current interest of the mass media with respect to ecclesiastical weaknesses. It is definitely bordering in the frenzy, sensational and alarmist side. The impression is that journalists reporting on clerical abuses are the moral and ethical gurus of the society, its conscience, and prophets of righteousness.
Is it possible that some of these people have a hidden agenda? Are they for example, instigating a laity uprising; a revolution against the clergy? Fortunately, other journalists, information sources, etc. have begun to publish alternative insights on the situation of the church and its ministers since it is not true that all clergy sexually molest children or are involved in sexual abuses of any nature and that also some parents, relatives, doctors, teachers lure unsuspecting children and youth into anti-social immoral practices.
However, sexual scandals that have besieged the Roman Catholic clergy in the West have in one way or the other affected the Catholic Church in Africa. As St. Paul reiterates, “If one part is hurt, all the parts share its pain and vise versa (1 Cor 12:26).
Whoever responds to the call of Christ to serve a Roman Catholic priest, in essence accepts the conditions of living a celibate life from the onset. Osale, E. rightly observes that, “… the success of consecrated celibacy clearly depends on initial conviction and commitment by those who undertake it”.
But, to single out the 1 percent or 2 percent of such cases and publish websites, books describing all Roman Catholic priests, men and women religious as sexual perverts, defiles logic and human decency. This is an outright exaggerated with an open agenda of demoralization. I am not trying to condone sexual abuses of any type.
I admit that even a single priest or man and woman religious who is unfaithful to his/her commitment to God, in the vocation he/she has freely embraced, is quite damaging to the Church’s credibility. But it should be noted that from the bible and two centuries of church history, it is evident that the church is composed of both wheat and destructive weeds.
It is a church of saints and sinners, both living within the very core and bosom of the church. As St. John writes: “I f we say we have no sin we deceive and the truth is not in us….” (1 Jn 1:8-9). This is neither a justification nor a cover up of sin but the point is that the present unfortunate sexual scandals in the Church do not diminish the grace of God in rehabilitating and powerfully using these human earthen vessels in announcing God’s merciful love and forgiveness. And again, Jesus did not love Simon because he was perfect, but because he was so human.
Jesus did not choose Simon Peter to be the one to strengthen others because he was strong on his own, but because through Peter’s weakness, God’s grace could be visible. When we read about the life of Jesus with women, it is no surprise that Jesus loved and respected women.
They were His wonderful friends. He never viewed women as real and present dangers to His celibate state, in spite of the grumbling of the Pharisees and religious leaders of His time (Lk 7:37-43). The Gospel of St. John records an incident of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well near the town of Sychar as follows; “At that moment Jesus’ disciples returned, and they were greatly surprised to find him talking with a woman.
But none of them said to her, what do you want or asked him, why are you talking with her (Jn 4: 27-34). Common sense and my African culture background lead me to think that in both incidents the disciples and other people in the company of Jesus suspected Him and the women to have been sexually attracted to each other.
Their suspicions were totally unfounded. But, modern journalists would have, without thorough investigations, blown the whistle out of proportions, calling them scandalous and within no time, Jesus would have been branded a “womanizer.” Celibate priests as ministers therefore should learn to love and respect women as their special companions in the church’s mission.
In conclusion, the issue of sexual abuse should not be approached in isolation. It is part of a complex or multidimensional social and moral malaise. All social groups mare involved in it in one way or the other.
It is thus wrong to put blanket blame on a particular class: Roman Catholic Priests, for this sexual sickness. At the same time those celibates those celibates who are involved in sexual scandals should know that they are gravely hurting the Body of Christ, the Church and not only violating other people’s dignity but are betraying the trust the Church and the entire society has bestowed on them.
Chrispin Onyango is a theologian seminarian in Langata-he writes on religious, social and moral issues.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
People for Peace in Africa
Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Peaceful world is the greatest heritage That this generation can give to the generations To come- All of us have a role.
From: Ouko joachim omolo
Voices of Justice for Peace
Regional News
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2012
Bishop Broderick Pabillo, Auxiliary Bishop of Manila’s approach to new evangelization is not only mission impossible but also calls for yet another workable approach. Pabillo who also serves as chairman of the National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace wants women in Philippines to be given real rights and decent jobs and not prostitution.
Pabillo has not only denounced the United Nations over growing criticisms regarding the international organization’s recent report recommending that sex-related jobs be legalized in the Philippines but also stated categorically that prostitution is immoral and must be urgently eradicated in Philippines.
Bishop Pabillo has also rejected the idea that sex workers should be supplied with condoms to help control the spread of HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases, arguing that HIV is still prevalent even in countries where prostitution is legal and using condoms.
According to Pabillo, the only way to eradicate prostitution in Philippines is for the government to focus on behavioral change. He thinks that by educating young people that sex outside marriage was a grave sin and could lead them to hell where there is everlasting fire would help to change their behaviors towards premarital sex.
It is not that sex workers are not aware that sex outside marriage is immoral they enter the industry to support poor parents, themselves, siblings according to recent survey.
According to survey of women working as masseuses indicated that 34 percent of them explained their choice of work as necessary to support poor parents, 8 percent to support siblings and 28 percent to support husbands or boyfriends. More than 20 percent said the job was well paid.
Over 50 percent of the women surveyed in Philippine massage parlors said they carried out their work “with a heavy heart,” and 20 percent said they were “conscience-stricken because they still considered sex with customers a sin.
Philippines is more than 80 percent Catholic and the church leadership thinks that by promoting abstinence young people may be able to adhere to the church’s doctrine for that matter.
Being predominantly catholic country, is why some local authorities, such as the mayor of Manila City, prohibit the distribution of condoms in government health facilities even for the non Catholics.
It is also why in late 2003, President Arroyo was praised by religious conservatives for taking Pesos (P)50 million (U.S.$888,000) from a fund allocated to contraceptive programs under former President Joseph Estrada and awarding the sum to a nongovernmental organization (NGO), Couples for Christ, to teach natural family planning methods.
While bishops in the Philippines have always opposed condoms for moral reasons, more recently some have begun to buttress their moral arguments with claims about the ineffectiveness of condoms.
These include the claim that condoms contain microscopic pores that are permeable by HIV pathogens, a view that is shared by such influential bishops as former archbishop of Manila, Jaime Cardinal Sin, and the head of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Family, Alfonso Lopez Trujillo.
It is also why sex workers interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they had been given HIV tests in government clinics without their informed consent – a practice that has been shown to drive people from health and prevention services and increase their risk of infection. Being predominantly catholic country, apart from the church, some local authorities, such as the mayor of Manila City, prohibit the distribution of condoms in government health facilities.
In late 2003, President Arroyo was praised by religious conservatives for taking Pesos (P)50 million (U.S.$888,000) from a fund allocated to contraceptive programs under former President Joseph Estrada and awarding the sum to a nongovernmental organization (NGO), Couples for Christ, to teach natural family planning methods.
While bishops in the Philippines have always opposed condoms for moral reasons, more recently some have begun to buttress their moral arguments with claims about the ineffectiveness of condoms.
These include the claim that condoms contain microscopic pores that are permeable by HIV pathogens, a view that is shared by such influential bishops as former archbishop of Manila, Jaime Cardinal Sin, and the head of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Family, Alfonso Lopez Trujillo.
Besides repressing condoms and HIV/Aids information, the Philippines also acts in ways that radically increase the likelihood of a rapid outbreak and spread of HIV/Aids among populations at high risk, particularly sex workers.
Sex workers had been given HIV tests in government clinics without their informed consent – a practice that has been shown to drive people from health and prevention services and increase their risk of infection according to Human Rights Watch.
It is also why police routinely used possession of condoms as evidence to arrest and prosecute prostitution. Prostitutes have plenty of condoms in their bags in any case their clients did not carry them. They use condoms to avoid being infected by HIV viruses that cause Aids.
Most women and men enter sex trade industries due to lack of employment in Philippines, which remains the highest in the country compared with six other Asian countries.
The total number of unemployed persons in the country reached 2.9 million in January 2012 or 7.2 percent of the 40.3 million Filipinos in the labor force according to University of the Philippines economist Benjamin E. Diokno who admits that joblessness is more severe in the Philippines.
Jorge V. Sibal, dean of the University of the Philippines School of Labor and Industrial Relations, attributed the result to the relatively slower economic growth of the country. The country’s GDP gross domestic product is a little bit below the average economic growth in the region. Also, economic growth in the Philippines is much slower compared with the other six countries.
Almost one-third, or 32.8 percent, of the young unemployed Filipinos are high school graduates, 13.8 percent are college undergraduates, and 21 percent are college graduates. This explains why child prostitution is on rise.
In April, of the estimated 62.8 million Filipinos, aged 15 and above, 40.6 million are in the labor force, up slightly from the estimated 39.7 million recorded in April 2011 according to the study made by an international research group.
The research group cited the much higher population growth in the Philippines compared to its neighbors as the main cause of the country’s high unemployment rate. The Philippines has now a population of almost 100 million.
Another factor that compounds the unemployment problem is the low gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the Philippines, which was only 3.7 percent last year, the lowest in the region. The study said that less economic activities mean less spending by companies and thus making it difficult to create new jobs for the people.
Another criticism aired by some sectors is that the country’s education system continues to turn out college graduates whose training and skills are not attuned to the needs of the labor market both at home and abroad.
Against the background that women trafficking is alarming. About 150,000 Filipina women have been trafficked into prostitution in Japan according to recent Press Statement, Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association.
There are 400,000 to 500,000 prostituted persons in the Philippines. Prostituted persons are mainly adult women, but there are also male, transvestite and child prostitutes, both girls and boys with an estimated 9,000 or more children involved in Manila alone.
This is not to mention children on the streets which make up approximately 75 percent of the street children in the Philippines. They work on the streets but do not live there. They generally have a home to return to after working, and some even continue to attend school while working long hours on the streets.
Completely abandoned children have no family ties and are entirely on their own for physical and psychological survival. They make up approximately 5-10 percent of the street children in the Philippines.
This process of predominantly catholic colonizers, it enabled the Church to play a central role in the lives of the people because it touched every aspect of their existence from birth to growth to marriage to adulthood to death. Whether the natives clearly understood the tenets and dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church is of course another matter.
In the course of colonization, the friars constructed opulent Baroque-style church edifices. These structures are still found today everywhere across the country and they symbolize the cultural influence of Spain in Filipino life.
Through these influences, the Church afforded the Filipinos abundant opportunities for both solemn rites and joyous festivities and celebrations known as “fiestas.” The services inside the Catholic churches often spilled out into the thoroughfare in the form of colorful and pageant-filled religious processions in which the rich and the poor participated.
This calls for the Catholic Church to change its approach to catechism, especially in Africa where the first white missionaries came to literally buy people to embrace Catholicism.
In Africa white missionaries did not want money from their faithful, instead they supported them, gave them free education, healthcare, built for them churches, schools, hospitals and paid for them school fees for their children.
The white missionaries did not want money from their faithful that is why whether you paid ten cent for sadaka (offertory) they did not mind because they did not want your money. That is why up to now Catholics still pay sadaka ranging from one shilling to 20 shillings at most.
It explains why black missionaries who are taking over from whites get it very difficult to run parishes because majority of their Christians still believe that they should be everything to them just as white missionaries were.
Many Catholics have abandoned Catholicism to other denominations where they think they can get help. Even pastors fight over powers to control finances. It has become a nightmare and a big challenge for churches in Africa and developing worlds.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
People for Peace in Africa
Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Peaceful world is the greatest heritage
That this generation can give to the generations
To come- All of us have a role.
From: Ouko joachim omolo
Voices of Justice for Peace
Regional News
REGIONAL NEWS TEAM
NAIROBI-KENYA
MONDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2012
Just as Synod bishops are discussing the approach to the new evangelization, in Kenya there is a shocking report that three in every 10 teenage girls are having children. Kenya is among countries with a large number of teenage mothers globally, according to the UN report.
Nearly three in every 10 girls are having babies and disrupting their schooling, the study by the UN’s special envoy for global education, Mr Gordon Brown revealed recently.
Among 25 countries selected for the survey based on mothers under 18 years, Kenya is ranked sixth.
In Philippines where teenage motherhood is also on the rise Episcopal Commission on Youth executive secretary Fr. Conegundo Garganta calls for a renewed sense of values among the young. Fr Garganta believes this can arrest the increasing incidence of teen pregnancies.
At 53 births per 1,000 women aged between 15 and 19, the teenage pregnancy rate in the Philippines is the highest among Asean’s six major economies, according to the United Nations Population Fund’s 2011 annual report.
Based on data compiled from birth certificates, of the 1.75 million live births in 2009, the latest review year, over 11 percent involved teenaged mothers. The UN Population Fund Agency also found out that teenage pregnancy cases in the country surged by 70 percent in only a decade.
Although according to health experts lack of services and information about adolescent reproductive health are to blame for fuelling the rise of teen pregnancies, in UK where government policies aimed at reducing teenage pregnancies have failed to have any impact, according to a new study.
The study looked at the teenage pregnancy figures between 1969 and 2009. It found that despite the millions of pounds spent in government initiatives over the last four decades, pregnancy rates among teenaged girls aged 13-16, have remained steady, while abortion rates have gone up.
Government policies have tended to focus on providing ever-easier access to contraception, including “emergency birth control,” after sexual encounters which had an even worse rate of success.
In Kenya, besides the pregnancies, the report also has evidence that despite huge efforts and resources spent in HIV awareness campaigns, many teenagers are still engaging in sex.
In Kenya, as in most African countries, 25-year-old men are far more likely to have HIV than 16-year-old adolescent boys. This means that sexual relationships with older partners are particularly dangerous for adolescent girls.
It is equally shocking that teenage pregnancy in Kenya amongst school going girls has become a worrying trend. Young girls drop out of school due to pregnancy and may not continue with their education.
While poverty could be attributed as one of the major causes of teenage pregnancies, most young people trust their peers and are easily influenced to engage in sexual encounters as a way of belong to a group.
While each year worldwide, an estimated 13 million births take place among young women between the ages of 15 to 19, in Kenya every year up to 13,000 girls leave school due to pregnancy.
According to available statistics half of girls in Kenya begin child bearing before age 20 years. About 250,000 girls between ages 15 to 19 procure abortions. Every year Kenyan families lose an estimated 806 million shillings due to school girl drop out.
Besides poverty, lack of a stable family structure may also push the girls to look for security else where and this is when they get lured in relationships which have devastating effects on their lives.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
People for Peace in Africa
Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Peaceful world is the greatest heritage
That this generation can give to the generations
To come- All of us have a role.
From: Ouko joachim omolo
Voices of Justice for Peace
Regional News
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012
Although the Synod bishops have not put it as a priority for discussion and how to resolve it once and for all, one of the biggest evangelical challenges facing the Catholic Church almost certainly in 21st century is continuing fallout from the child sexual abuse scandals by clergy.
Just as the bishops are discussing approaches to the new evangelization today, Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Bishop Marco Antonio Ordenes Fernandez of Iquique, Chile, accused of abusing a 15-year-old altar boy.
The Vatican said on Wednesday that the pope has accepted Ordenes’ resignation under the code of canon law that says a bishop must resign if he is sick or because some other “grave” reason makes him unsuitable for his job.
The 47-year-old Ordenes is accused of abusing a 15-year-old altar boy in the northern city of Iquique. He defends himself by saying that he met the boy in 1999 when he was 17 and they had a relationship when he was no longer underage. His accuser, Rodrigo Pino, 30, said the abuse began when he was 15. At first, he said it was forced, but then they became lovers.
A handful of U.S. bishops have resigned after facing sex abuse allegations. More recently, the then-bishop of Bruges, Belgium, Roger Vangheluwe, quit in 2010 after admitting he had molested his nephew for years starting when he was a young boy. This is not to mention early this year when the Vatican laicized a Canadian bishop who was convicted of child porn possession.
Instead of giving the sexual abuse scandals a priority in their discussions, the bishops instead talks of the new evangelization as the need for humility, joy and confidence in spreading the Gospel, emphasizing on the act of evangelization of a child and his family, and also fosters respect for human life.
Although charity and justice is also put as a priority as the heart of evangelization, and that to work for justice, peace and development is especially attractive to young people who are touched by such witness that changes hearts, the discussion does not spell what justice can be given to the victims of the sexually abused children.
The bishops are also referring to new evangelization to mean the need of new saints because are called to be those new saints. This is according to the bishops is because the new poverty of the world is a poverty of saints.
They are also making the point that the greatest obstacle a priest or theologian faces in becoming an effective evangelizer is pride and selfishness, and that the obsession with becoming great, original and important results in pastors feeding themselves and not the flocks they lead.
Among other obstacles to evangelization they argue is the lack of missionary impulse, and the absence of joy and hope among priests. The evangelization therefore, becomes the medicine to give back joy and hope to the world, and priests are important agents of this effort to help the Church come alive again.
The bishops are also stressing the importance of Trinitarian love at the heart of all new evangelization efforts, and the building of community and the promotion of a sense of communion, emphasizing the fact that the primary sacrament of the new evangelization is the Sacrament of Penance.
Also often raised in the discussion was the subject of Islam. Many discussed evangelizing in the Middle East and elsewhere amid the threat of persecution, with some participants stressing the need to take “great care” in proclaiming the Gospel. “This can be a red flag and an invitation to tragedies.
Evangelization for Jesus however, meant adopting a new way of life where we would share kingdom values such as compassion, understanding, forgiveness, peace, acceptance, etc. This is how Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God, saying that we are already in the kingdom if we live according to these values.
Furthermore, Jesus promised that we will live more completely in the kingdom after our death. According to Matthew 25:14-46 the kingdom of God will be like a man going on a journey calling his servants and entrusted to them his property, to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability.
Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money.
Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.
And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed?
Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
This is also what will happen during the final judgment. For when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’
Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’
Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
There are some pastors who think that evangelization is to convert and baptize people as well as the destruction of many indigenous cultures, filled with stories of much cruelty and suffering at the hands of many well meaning missionaries.
What distinguishes our Catholic faith today is precisely the understanding that the Church is the enduring presence of Christ, the mediator of God’s redeeming action in our world, and the sacrament of God’s saving acts.
The challenge here is not more on secularization but why many do not sense a value in Mass attendance, fail to receive the sacrament of penance and have often lost a sense of mystery or the transcendent as having any real and verifiable meaning. This is not because of secularism.
The majority of Catholics in Ireland for example, do not attend Mass regularly because the significant numbers do not believe in key tenets of the church’s teaching, according to an Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll.
More than two-thirds attended services far less frequently. Some 39 per cent said they either never or very occasionally went to Mass. A further 20 per cent said they attended every two to three months, while 8 per cent went once a fortnight. Those who attend Mass regularly are twice as likely to live in rural rather than urban areas. They are also more likely to be older and support Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael.
It explains why the new evangelization should not be approached as a program. It is a mode of thinking, seeing and acting. It is a lens through which we see the opportunities to proclaim the Gospel anew. In other words, approach to the new evangelization should not be rigid but open to new challenges.
That is why the new evangelization must provide a clear theological explanation for the necessity of the Church for salvation, speak about God’s universal salvific will and at the same time recognize that Jesus has provided a clear and unique path to redemption and salvation. This is because the Church is not one among many ways to reach God, all of them equally valid.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
People for Peace in Africa
Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Peaceful world is the greatest heritage
That this generation can give to the generations
To come- All of us have a role.
Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City
A family member of the US President Barrack Obama based in Kenya is embroiled in a controversial legal tussle before a Nairobi court where his girl friend has accused him of forcefully snatching her three year old child.
The court heard that George Obama who is a half-brother of the US President Barrack Obama had planned to take the child to the US without the consent of his mother.
George Obama the 30 year –old step-brother of the US President Barack Obama is facing a legal suit filed in a Nairobi court by his girl friend Anne Nyawira who is the mother of the three year old boy.
Anne Nyawira claimed in suit papers filed in the court that on October 6,2012 forcefully snatched and took away the child from her custody without her consent from Huruma Estate, a suburb of the Kenyan capital City, Nairobi where they were celebrating the child’s third year birth day.
Nyawira alleged that Obama wanted to sneak the boy out of Kenya and take him to the US. Obama was ordered by the court to present the boy to the court on October 31st,2012.
The court also issued an order legally stopping Obama from unlawfully removing the boy out of the country {Kenya}
Nyawira is unmarried woman moved to court after failing to trace her child since last weekend when Obama allegedly took the boy away pretending he was gong to buy him birthday present.
According to court papers the two got into a “come-we stay‘ kind of union temporary marriage arrangement in 2008 without celebrating any formal marriage
Nyawira’s lawyer John Chigiti told the court that Obama planned to take the boy to the US where his mother lives. The defendant [Obama} had informed Nyawira that he wanted to take the child to the US his mother where education is free . The suit come at the time when Obama was reportedly busy processing the child’s travelling documents for the US trip and unless he was stopped by the court, he was likely to execute his plans which will work against the “best interests of the child,” Nyawira states in the plaint filed in the court.
The lawyer said the whereabouts of the child at the moment was unknown.
The complainant says George Obama went to her rented house in Huruma Estate on October 6, in taxi cab and insisted that he wanted to buy the child a birthday present.,
She,however, reluctantly allowed him to go with the boy but on strict condition that the child was to be accompanied by his grandmother and her sister that he was to return the child to her to her house the same day. But when they got into the taxi, Obama violently and forcefully threw the child’s grandmother and his ant out and speed away in the car with the child inside. And drove to an unknown destination with the boy.
Ends
By Agwanda Saye in Nyando Kenya.
A suspect who had been charged with defilement staged a daring escape while handcuffed and plunged into River Nyando in Kisumu County where he is believed to have died as efforts by divers to retrieve his body bore no fruit.
The suspect had been arraigned before Nyando Senior Principal Magistrate, Dorah Chepkwony for allegedly defiling his 16 year old sister in law.
Kennedy Odhiambo Aimbo (28) was being led to the Ahero law court cells from the Magistrate’s chambers, but abruptly took to his heels and headed straight to River Nyando where he drowned.
Confirming the incident, Nyando OCPD, Patrick Mbarire said the suspect was quite cooperative with the police officers who were surprised by his drastic act of staging a daring escape
The suspect had been taken to court by his mother in law who accused him of having impregnated her daughter (his sister in-law) who has been living with him following the death of his wife.
The incident took place at Kakola location in Nyando District- Kisumu County.
Odhiambo body has not been retrieved yet.
From: People For Peace
Voices of Justice for Peace
Regional News
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2012
One of the local Daily Newspapers reported a shocking story yesterday how sex in Kisumu city is on high demand to the extent that a classy one will set you back Sh200, while in some places like Kondele, you can have sex with Sh50 or even less depending what type of sex and how long you have it. Men who do not want to use protection pay double.
[2 images]Rape of the Innocent; One million children trapped in the slavery of prostitution
Inset: left a man with child prostitute- right fourteen-year-old Lipi waits for customers at a brothel in Faridpur-Image by Andrew Biraj / Reuters
According to the report Kutuma salamu (a euphemism for giving head) cost only Sh20 in Kondele and Sh100 in higher-end red light spots. Most of the bamba 50s come wearing bathroom slippers, but they are adored because they are pocket friendly.
Some even offer credit services and ‘invoice’ their clients at the end of the month. Others are nearly ‘married’ to clients as they even cook, wash and iron for their regular male clients who pay handsomely — say Sh300 a night.
At Dunga Beach, along the shores of Lake Victoria of Kisumu, sex can be offered for exchange of fish. Women and young girls attract fishermen on the style they dress, with neatly plaited hair and good look. Some of these women are not tied to one fisherman, but will sleep with whoever offers the best deal on any given day.
Most of the fishermen would rather have sex with the young girls than have sex with their mother’s age-mates. Some of the men are not conscientious about using condoms; they will use a condom if a girl brings one along, but if she doesn’t, they will have unprotected sex.
Girls in Nyanza are said to begin sexual activity earlier than their counterparts in other regions: the average girls in Nyanza according to the report starts having sex aged 16, compared to 19 in Nairobi Province.
Recent report that on two separate incidents a group of form four students from Onjiko High school in Kisumu county reportedly sneaked their way in to two neighboring girls schools, namely Rae and Ahero Girls secondary schools allegedly on a sex quest mission can tell it all.
According to the principal of Onjiko Boys High school Mr. Alfred Ochiel, five form four boys from his school sneaked out of their school at 8.pm on the night of 21 July and went to Rae Girls which is almost 10 kilometers away where he alleged the students were received by a group of waiting form four Girls from the girls school who then went on to engage in sex.
While some girls and boys engage in sex at a tender age for money, some are said to be influenced by pornography. At Kisumu Day and Lela Day secondary schools for example, teachers decry the high number of pornographic materials accessible to the students.
A number of the boys who have been treated for having sexually transmitted infections, especially gonorrhoea, admitted to have slept with prostitutes to experiment the styles they saw in the pornographic materials.
A 12-year-old standard six pupil at St Mark Primary School in Kisumu admitted to her teacher that she was lured into sex when her boy friend showed her a pornographic video, he told her he was going to also try to feel the way the people in the video were feeling. Since then the girl became addicted to sex and would like to have it almost every time.
It is also a coincidence that men in Kisumu generally marry later than those in other towns, as recently revealed by the Kenya Urban Reproductive Health Baseline Survey. This is because sex workers are affordable and can offer ‘extra.
The survey shows that Kisumu has the highest number of males of between 15 to 24 years, constituting 42 per cent of the total area population. In the study men in Kisumu generally marry, later than those in other towns but they end up getting as many children or more than the men in other cities surveyed.
Some of the underage girls who offer sex for either money or fish are orphans whose parents had died. One such orphan girl who offered sex for money is Nancy who even bought land and established a home, which she turned into an orphanage.
Nancy according to the story started helping widows, orphans and street children. The children had left home to beg in the streets of Kisumu after being orphaned. No one was ready to look after them.
The report comes barely three months since a pastor was caught red handed, making love to somebody’s wife. A pastor of legio Maria sect (name withheld), was caught pants down, having a “good time” with someone’ wife, in one of the houses at the Kisumu Lower Railway estates.
It is also in Kisumu where a bishop of a protestant church was caught two years ago in a compromising situation with a wife of an intelligence officer in a Kisumu Hotel. The bishop who happens to be related to the intelligence officer was said to have been dating the young woman for a decade.
Last year a clergyman was also accused of having a love affair with a married woman in the city. The youthful clergyman who according to Crazy Monday took refuge in Kisumu after a teacher he was alleged to have cuckolded attacked him and smashed his car windscreen. Police arrested the teacher and booked him for malicious damage to property early last week.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
People for Peace in Africa
Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Peaceful world is the greatest heritage
That this generation can give to the generations
To come- All of us have a role.
From: Yona Maro
For children growing up in crisis and post-conflict areas, opportunities for education and play are limited, and funding is scarce. In the most recent edition to the ‘Beyond School Books’ series, UNICEF podcast moderator Femi Oke spoke with Ms. Cassie Landers, Columbia University, and Ms. Evelyn Margron, Tipa Tipa Program Country Director, on the importance of learning through play. UNICEF is testing playground projects in Bangladesh and Haiti to inspire children’s dreams, to help them rebuild their confidence and rebuild communities. Children are developing many skills in the playgrounds, such as learning geometry, verbalizing better and following rhythm. They are developing important social skills by learning how to play together and how to help younger children understand their capacities.
To listen to the podcast, please visit: http://www.educationandtransition.org/resources/podcast-62-inspiring-children-to-dream-through-play/
—
Karibu Jukwaa la www.mwanabidii.com
Pata nafasi mpya za Kazi www.kazibongo.blogspot.com
Blogu ya Habari na Picha www.patahabari.blogspot.com
From: Sam Oyugi
Hallo,
Greetings. This is Dr. Oyugi. I have sent you two messages for posting. The title is
Gethsemane Garden Christian Centre (the new Starehe of Kenya) Harambee Is August 18, 2012. So far I have not seen the posting. If I am not following any specific rules of posting request, please kindly inform me. As it is, it is getting late and the fundraising is in two days. I’ll obviously be glad if the posting gets done before the event, preferably as soon as you can. Thanks.
Here again is the same attachment;
Sam Oyugi
732-857-0378
==========
Gethsemane Garden Christian Centre (the new Starehe of Kenya) Harambee Is August 18, 2012
Members of the Lowland Community, the organizing committee and Gethsemane Garden Christian Center students, staff and family are inviting you to a fundraiser in aid of the center on Saturday, August 18th, 2012 in New Jersey, USA starting at 5p.m. to 12 a.m. @ the American Legion Post 401, 148 Major Road, Monmouth Junction NJ 08852.
Gethsemane Garden Academy and Gethsemane Garden High School for orphans are the new Starehe of Kenya located on Mfangano Island in Suba District.
The center, which was started in 2003 for orphans from Kindergarten to third grade, has expanded to 12th grade or Form 4. It has been largely financially supported by well wishers from U.S. who have visited the school from time to time.
The center wants you to be part of its success as it makes history.
The school started from a humble beginning, a loving vision of supporting a few children who lost both parents to the dreaded HIV by a God chosen couple Mr. Naphtaly Mattah and his wife Nereah Mattah. Like the children of Israelite the number multiplied very fast and God’s miracle worked its way to now 535 students. Gethsemane now prides itself with strong candidates distributed in academic giants such as Alliance Boys and Girls, Starehe, Mangu, Moi Girls Eldoret, Maranda to mention a few. Below is the official website and videos of Gethsemane story:
www.ggcckenya.com
Video stories of the students of Gethsemane:
1. Orphans With AIDS Given Hope By GGCC
2. Gethsemane Garden Christian Center school of hope
3. Boat that brings people to God
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asRuGPv_46A&feature=player_detailpage
Video songs of students of Gethsemane:
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMNkhC9BhZk&feature=player_detailpage
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=SPE3Hid_MGM
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=uw21EIgi0ng
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=QH2Ox54k9uE
5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=WXpNs8likgg
6. (In suba): http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ZvB1mSiQmDw
It is for this reason that we are inviting you to help raise funds to continue supporting this noble cause.
Also during this event, you will have the opportunity of selecting a child to sponsor at GGCC and thereby have your family participate in raising up the child back in Kenya at very affordable monthly fee. GGCC has a tax exempt status in the USA. Therefore, all your donations on June 18th and any future support through child sponsorship or one time donation will be tax deductible.
Come and join some of the previous sponsors of the school on August 18th. It will be a good opportunity to join them in promoting the school and thanking them for their kind support for the last 12 years.
Guest of Honors will be:
Amos Atonga: New Jersey/ Rusinga Island
Dr. Sam Oyugi: New Jersey/ Mfangano Island
Dr. Joshua Ojwang: Florida/Mfangano Island
Maurice Onyuka New Jersey/Homa-Bay
Peter Menya New York/Migori
Yours sincerely,
Contacts:
Dr. Sam Oyugi 732-857-0378
Amos Atonga 732-586-2849
From: People For Peace
Voices of Justice for Peace
Regional News
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20, 2012
For more than a decade, advocates for those abused by clergy have been demanding that church leaders in Ireland and at the Vatican accept blame for protecting paedophile priests. The big question here is why such cases do increase almost in daily basis.
[book cover image; An Irish Tragedy
How Sex Abuse by Irish Priests Helped Cripple The Catholic Church; by Joe Rigert]
Joe Rigert’s book, An Irish Tragedy, tries to give the answer to the question. He makes a potentially controversial suggestion that there was something about the background and training of Irish priests that made them more prone to become abusers. Joe adds that apart from the training, social and religious background in Ireland has also contributed to the matter. The story of how Irish immigrants helped to build the Catholic Church, both in Ireland and America. In his investigative reporter Joe Rigert’s search for the roots of the Catholic sex-abuse scandals which led him to Ireland, he found that rigid sexual repression in both society and the priesthood has had the opposite of its intended effect, fostering bizarre and criminal sexual expression. Though a tiny country, Ireland has been a chief exporter of abusers to America, making the Catholic Church’s darkest crisis a true Irish tragedy. Catholic historian Terrance Dosh calls this book “a riveting read with many remarkable insights.” The book details the history of the migration of Irish priests and their unusual penchant to abuse girls and women, and raises questions on the Church’s emphasis on homosexuality as the primary cause of the sex-scandal.
The book is a must-read for those who remain unconvinced of breadth of the scandal; and a useful book for those wanting the history, details and underpinnings of this tragic event. The book suggests that sex abuse by Catholic clergy is not limited to a “church” problem. It is a deeply rooted, complex flaw in society in general because the results impact so many aspects of their daily lives. It is against the background that the problem is not only with priests but nuns as well. In March this year an Irish nun appeared before a special sitting of the country’s Circuit Court on 87 charges of the sexual abuse of primary school girls. Rape and sexual molestation were “endemic” mainly in Irish Catholic church-run industrial schools and orphanages where priests and nuns for decades terrorised thousands of boys and girls in the Irish Republic. According to the report, molestation and rape were “endemic” in boys’ facilities, chiefly run by the Christian Brothers order. The report concluded that when confronted with evidence of sex abuse, religious authorities responded by transferring offenders to another location, where in many instances they were free to abuse again.
[map of Irland]
Some clergy and nuns were considered notorious child molesters. Some of them raped or indecently assaulted over one hundred children, mainly in Dublin where four former archbishops in Dublin – John Charles McQuaid, who died in 1973, Dermot Ryan, who died in 1984, Kevin McNamara, who died in 1987, and retired Cardinal Desmond Connell – were found to have failed to report their knowledge of child sexual abuse to the Garda from the 1960s to the 1980s despite the fact that they were aware of complaints. The Murphy Commission of Inquiry into the abuse of children in Dublin identified 320 people who complained of child sexual abuse between 1975 and 2004. It also stated that since May 2004, 130 complaints against priests operating in the Dublin archdiocese had been made. It is so notorious to the point that the Irish government had to announce the closure of its embassy to the Vatican, starkly illustrating that relations between Dublin and the Catholic Church are at a historically glacial low. The government and the Vatican has always remained in serious disagreement over child abuse by the clergy, with the Irish Prime Minister, Enda Kenny, accusing Rome of trying to sabotage official inquiries. Traditionally, Ireland has been unusually close to the Catholic Church, but its faith was greatly shaken by a series of damning reports on the Church’s alleged indifference to child sex abuse by priests and other clerics. Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJTel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.comPeaceful world is the greatest heritageThat this generation can give to the generationsTo come- All of us have a role.
From: People For Peace
Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
TUESDAY, 19, 2012
At the conclusion of the 50th Eucharistic Congress in Ireland last Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI used the occasion to tell Irish Catholics it is a mystery why priests and other church officials abused children entrusted in their care, undermining faith in the church “in an appalling way.”
[image]Children who have been prepared for first Holy Communion in one of the parishes in Western Kenya-cases of such children being abused by clergy still remains a mystery/ File
Benedict commented on the scandals of sexual abuse and cover-ups by church hierarchy in a pre-recorded video message for an outdoor Mass attended by 75,000 Catholics, many from overseas, in Ireland’s largest sports stadium attended by Ireland’s prime minister and president.
In Ireland, the United States and many other countries, bishops and other church leaders have been accused of systematically covering up pedophile priests, often by shuffling them from parish to parish without telling the faithful about the abuse.
Ireland announced last year it would close its embassy to the Vatican, one of the Catholic country’s oldest missions, after relations hit an all-time low over the Church’s handling of the sex abuse cases.
The Pope spoke about the abuse at the time justice was finally served at a Kitui court for an 18 year old girl who is alleged to have been defiled by a Kitui Catholic priest, Father John Mutua Munyoki. He was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment by Kitui Principal Magistrate Beatrice Kimemia on charges of defilement.
The prosecutor said that Fr Munyoki lured the girl who was at the time 16 years old and a form three student at Zombe Girls Secondary School to his car and defiled her. The girl told the court she was headed home from school on that fateful day when the father offered her and her friends a lift home.
After the heinous act he threw her out of the pickup and threatened her to not say a word to anybody, offering her Kshs. 1000 as an assurance of her silence. The girl however confided with her school matron who took her to a local health centre for examination. Medics made a clear report that the girl was raped leading to the arrest of Fr. Munyoki on June 5, 2010.
In a similar case, a16 year old girl in Samburu north was staring at a bleak future after a priest allegedly defiled and impregnated her and denied fathering the baby she delivered. Efforts by the girl and the family to have the priest provide for the child have proven fruitless as the clergyman has demanded a DNA test to prove paternity.
The missionary priest was hurriedly transferred to another parish, ostensibly to avoid the unfolding drama. Villagers and relatives of the standard five students had reported the matter to the provincial administration and district children’s officer.
In May this year, one girl in Maralal was raped by a priest. Talking to the media the girl said that the priest promised to take her to a sister’s home and then changed directions and took her to his own home where he defiled her and only to be thrown out of the house in the morning as he went for mass. The 14 year old orphaned girl is now the mother of a six months old child.
In August last year Police in Jinja were holding a catholic priest for alleged defilement. Reverend Father Joseph Kalinaki, the Jinja Diocese secretary for finance and Episcopal vicar, was picked from Paradise Hotel in Jinja, where he was found with a senior five student.
The 16-year-old girl by then hails from Namwendwa village in Kamuli district. Police said the sister to student tipped them that Fr. Kalinaki had picked the girl from Busoga High School in Kamuli and taken her to Paradise Hotel where they were found.
People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya
Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail- ppa@africaonline.co.ke
omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org
From: Yona Mar
The topic of gender and physical education with a particular focus on girls has been widely researched and reported in the English language literature. The issues influencing girls’ participation in physical education and sport and the potential benefits they derive from their experiences are well known.
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002157/215707E.pdf
—
Karibu Jukwaa la www.mwanabidii.com
Pata nafasi mpya za Kazi www.kazibongo.blogspot.com
From: People For Peace
Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012
Recently Uganda’s parliament established a committee to investigate security companies suspected of involvement in human trafficking of at least 600 Ugandan girls who have been forced into Malaysia’s sex trade in what has become a human trafficking epidemic, according to a foreign diplomat. The parliamentary committee report is expected by mid-March.
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Uganda is not alone in this epidemic. A recent Interpol report has also implicated some Tanzanians in human trafficking, a diabolical trade that mainly involves the selling of unsuspecting people, mostly children and young women, into slavery and servitude. It also involves immigrants.
Like Uganda, the Minister for Home Affairs, Mr Shamsi Vuai Nahodha, has formed a 19-strong committee which has been instructed to study the situation closely and advise the government on how best to confront the growing social menace.
In Tanzania the problem is already a serious matter. In the last three months 300 suspected traffickers (locals and foreigners) have been apprehended. Accusing fingers have also been pointed at unscrupulous immigration officers who collude with criminals in the heinous business at border crossings.
Illegal immigrants are shunted into Tanzania mainly through border posts in Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Mara and Kagera regions. Most of the people who are trafficked into Tanzania originate from Somalia and Ethiopia. Some claim to be in transit to South Africa.
In Kenya, it is estimated that more than 20,000 children are trafficked annually. Kenyan children are reportedly trafficked to South Africa, and there are reports of internal trafficking of children into involuntary servitude, including for work as street vendors, day labourers, and as prostitutes.
Kenya is at risk, not only for human trafficking but also hundreds of Kenyan youth who have been recruited into Al Shabaab over the last six years in a process that has complicated efforts to tackle extremism in the region.
Despite the call by Internal Security PS Francis Kimemia on recruits to turn themselves over to the government and request amnesty so that they could be put under a rehabilitation programme is not yielding any fruit-instead more young Kenyans have been converted into Islam and recruited including school children. “Idle, unemployed youth are at particular risk.
In Sierra Leone and Liberia, while the countries have some of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, with 15-24 year olds, UNHCR reports that Liberia and Sierra Leone are a source, transit, and destination countries principally for young women and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labor and forced prostitution.
Out of an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 people trafficked annually internationally according to AOL News network website, 70 per cent are women and 50 per cent children. The business generates about $32 billion profits annually and it is second to drug trafficking.
The website indicates that up to 1.2 million children are trafficked annually as sex slaves with United States alone recording up to 14, 000-17,000 human beings being trafficked into the country annually as Asia is leading with three human trafficking victims for every 1,000 people – three times the rates elsewhere. The victims, especially children end up as sex slaves in brothels and massage parlors.
The report found that girls as young as eight were selling sex for items such as food, beer, clothing, perfume or mobile phones. Others were reported as having sex with adults in return for good school grades, video screenings or rides in cars.
Pastors have also been implicated in human trafficking like a recent case in Gucha where a pastor was arrested for allegedly facilitating child trafficking of an 11-year-old girl from Tanzania. The child was reportedly trafficked from Ukeleni District, Tanzania into Kenya on August 30 last year and taken to the pastor’s home in Kenyenya District.
In 2004 Kenyan born United Kingdom based evangelical pastor Archbishop Gilbert Deya hit the news headlines. While claimed to be able to make postmenopausal or infertile women pregnant by exorcising their demons to beget children, some children’s charities said his actions were a front for baby trafficking to acquire wealth in God’s name.
The person behind the racket had been identifying childless mothers and arranging for them to acquire babies from pregnant mothers who do not want them according to the children’s officer. The UK, alongside other countries in Europe, is a major destination for Africans from a number of countries, including Kenya as trafficking of children is concerned.
Strip clubs are another growing concern, especially within Nairobi. Due to competition, an increasing number of restaurants are introducing strippers in order to gain clientele. Many of the girls are highly educated college graduates who turn to stripping for lack of employment. As a consequence, all across Nairobi will be found women renting expensive apartments, living big and buying the latest mobile phones.
Some of the massage parlours and strip clubs in Nairobi are providing women from as far as India, Phillippines, South America and Eastern Europe.
The Catholic Church has condemned human trafficking and has developed social service programs to serve and protect its survivors. During Vatican II the Catholic Church reaffirmed its historic concern about forced labor, stating that “slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children and disgraceful working conditions where people are treated as instruments of gain rather than free and responsible persons” are “infamies” and “an affront to fundamental values…values rooted in the very nature of the human person”.
In the 2006 annual statement on Migration, entitled “Migrations: A Sign of the Times,” Pope Benedict XVI deplored the “trafficking of human beings — especially women – which flourishes where opportunities to improve their standard of living or even to survive are limited”. Similarly the Holy See’ emphasized related concerns in a recent address at the United Nations, stating, “(The treatment of woman), not as a human person with rights on an equal basis with others, but as an object to be exploited, very often underlies violence against women”… (a context in which) an increasing scourge is trafficking of women and girls, as well as various forms of prostitution.”
Pope John Paul II, in a letter on the occasion of the International Conference on “21st Century Slavery—the Human Rights Dimension to Trafficking in Human Beings,” stated that human trafficking “constitutes a shocking offense against human dignity and a grave violation of fundamental human rights. In particular, the sexual exploitation of women and children is a particularly repugnant aspect of this trade, and must be recognized as an intrinsic violation of human dignity and human rights.”
The Catholic bishops of the United States and Mexico have also spoken out on the issue, calling upon the governments of the United States and Mexico to work together to apprehend traffickers and destroy trafficking networks: “Both governments must vigilantly seek to end trafficking in human persons. Together, both governments should more effectively share information on trafficking operations and should engage in joint action to apprehend and prosecute traffickers.”
In Philippines for example, a serious trafficking problem of women and children illegally recruited into the tourist industry for sexual exploitation is a big concern. Destinations within the country are Metro Manila, Angels City,Olongapo City, towns in Bulacan, Batangas, Cebu City, Davao and Cagayan de Oro City and other sex tourist resorts such as Puerto Galero, which is notorious, Pagsanjan, Laguna, San Fernando Pampanga, and many beach resorts throughout the country.
The promise of recruiters offers women and children attractive jobs in the country or abroad, and instead they are coerced and forced and controlled into the sex industry for tourists. They go to the Middle East, South Africa, America, Korea, Japan, Europe, and North America. The mail-order bride business is another form of tourist destination trafficking. Fake marriages are a common form of trafficking with legitimate papers.
There are an estimated 60,000 children in tourist related prostitution, and this is increasing with the growth of poverty and the greater concentration of wealth in the hands of the few. The majority of tourist arrivals in the Philippines are single males, approximately 1.5 million annually.
People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya
Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail- ppa@africaonline.co.ke
omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org
from Yona Maro
(London) – Somalia’s warring parties have all failed to protect Somali children from the fighting or serving in their forces, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The Islamist insurgent group al-Shabaab has increasingly targeted children for recruitment, forced marriage, and rape, and attacked teachers and schools, Human Rights Watch said.
“For children in Somalia, nowhere is safe,” said Zama Coursen-Neff, deputy children’s rights director at Human Rights Watch. “Al-Shabaab rebels have abducted children from their homes and schools to fight, for rape, and for forced marriage.”
The 104-page report,“No Place for Children: Child Recruitment, Forced Marriage, and Attacks on Schools in Somalia,” details unlawful recruitment and other laws-of-war violations against children by all parties to the conflict in Somalia since 2010. The report is based on over 164 interviews with Somali children, including 21 who had escaped from al-Shabaab forces, as well as parents and teachers who had fled to Kenya.
Human Rights Watch called on all parties to the conflict, involving Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and African Union forces (AMISOM) against al-Shabaab, to release any child soldiers in their ranks, protect children formerly associated with fighting forces, and protect schools, teachers, and students from attack.
Since Somalia’s conflict intensified in 2010 and 2011, al-Shabaab has increasingly forced children, some as young as 10, to join its dwindling ranks. After several weeks of harsh training, al-Shabaab’s child recruits are then sent to the front lines, where some serve as “cannon fodder” to protect adult fighters, Human Rights Watch found. Others have been coerced into becoming suicide bombers.A 15-year-old boy told Human Rights Watch that in 2010, “Out of all my classmates – about 100 boys – only two of us escaped, the rest were killed. The children were cleaned off. The children all died and the bigger soldiers ran away.”
Al-Shabaab has also abducted girls for domestic and front-line service, as well as to be wives to al-Shabaab fighters. Families who try to prevent their children’s recruitment or abduction by al-Shabaab, or children who attempt to escape, face severe consequences and even death.
The TFG military and militias aligned with it are deploying children in their forces despite commitments from Somali officials since late 2010 to end the recruitment and use of children, Human Rights Watch said. To date, the TFG has failed to hold anyone to account for this abuse. It has also detained children perceived to be supporters of al-Shabaab instead of providing them with rehabilitation and protection in accordance with international standards.
“Al-Shabaab’s horrific abuses do not excuse Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government’s use of children as soldiers,” Coursen-Neff said. “The TFG should live up to its commitments to stop recruiting and using children as soldiers, and punish those who do. Governments backing the TFG should make clear that these abuses won’t be tolerated.”
Al-Shabaab’s violations of the laws of war include attacks on schools, teachers, and students, Human Rights Watch said. The armed grouphas deployed its fighters and heavy weapons in schools, often packed with students, and used children as “human shields.” Terrified students described to Human Rights Watch being locked in schools, awaiting often indiscriminate return artillery fire from TFG and African Union forces.
In schools in areas under their control, al-Shabaab officials have recruited children and teachers and imposed their harsh interpretation of Islam on the school curriculum. Students and teachers told Human Rights Watch that al-Shabaab banned English, science, and other subjects, and even killed teachers who resisted. As a result, many schools have shut down, after teachers fled and many children dropped out. Schools that have remained open provide little or no substantive education.
Human Rights Watch also called on the TFG, its allied militias, and the African Union troops to identify schools in areas of their military operations, including outside of Mogadishu, to minimize the risk to them.
International supporters of the TFG, including the United Nations, European Union, African Union, and the United States, have not paid sufficient attention to human rights violations by the government, including recruitment and use of children as soldiers, Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch urged intergovernmental institutions and governments, including states in the region, to place children’s protection and other human rights concerns high on the agenda when they meet in London to discuss the Somalia crisis on February 23, 2012. They should increase support for human rights monitoring and reporting and use any leverage they have on warring parties to protect children and their secure access to education.
“If world leaders meeting in London want to address Somalia’s future, it’s crucial for them to protect this shattered generation of children from further horror and invest in their education and security,” Coursen-Neff said.
Selected accounts from the report:
My 13-year-old friend was in my class. When al-Shabaab tried to take him to the camp, he said he was the only son of his mother. They said he would be killed before he could even explain. They hit him with a gun butt and forced him out of the class. The teacher intervened and al-Shabaab said he was the one telling the kids not to come. They then shot him in front of our class.
– 15-year-old boy describing a 2010 killing in El Ashabiya.
“Then they took us to fight. It was between al-Shabaab and the TFG. All the young children were taken to the first row of the fighting. I was there. Several of the young children there were killed, including several of my classmates. Out of all my classmates –about 100 boys – only two of us escaped, the rest were killed. The children were cleaned off. The children all died and the bigger soldiers ran away.
– 15-year-old boy recruited by al-Shabaab from his school in Mogadishu in mid-2010.
In mid-2010 al-Shabaab took me from my house. They were controlling the entire neighborhood and locked me in a house. They told me, “We will marry you to our leader.” I was in that house for a month. I was crying day and night. Then I said they should go and ask my father. They released me. I told my mother I didn’t want it. After that I went to live with my grandmother in a different neighborhood controlled by the TFG, Hamer Wayne. After that when they came to our house, they took my two brothers.
– 16-year-old girl from Bondhere, Mogadishu.
I was always worried when they were at school. You always worried when the day ended to see if your boy was recruited or your girl was kidnapped. Every day you get your child back at the end you are thankful. Every day there were incidents reported from the school.
– Mother whose 17-year-old daughter was taken by al-Shabaab during a school tea break in Bakara, Mogadishu.
One day al-Shabaab entered the school and went up to the first floor. They were shooting big guns from the school…. 15 to 20 al-Shabaab entered the first floor and fired. They closed the door and we stayed in the class. We were locked in from 10 or 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. – there was continuous fighting. We heard return fire but it did not hit the school, it hit all around us.
– 18-year-old student from Hawlwadag, Mogadishu describing an incident from October 2010.
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Karibu Jukwaa la www.mwanabidii.com
Pata nafasi mpya za Kazi www.kazibongo.blogspot.com
From: People For Peace
Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2012
Following my recent article on lesbian nuns in convents and how difficult it is to recover from sex abuse, one of the regular regional news readers and a parent responded: “Dear Editor, thank you for your article on Sister Jesme who was abused by her fellow nuns when she was sent to teach plus-two students in St Maria College.
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What touched me on your article and has forced me to respond to it is how Sister Jesme described the mental torture that novices are subjected to when they are abused. In the book, Sister Jesme refers to the helplessness that nuns face when they are sexually abused in a convent.
“When a woman is molested, sexually harassed, will she speak out? Only one out of a thousand will speak out. So think of nuns! They will never speak out. They fear that their nun-hood will be lost.”
You also mentioned why it is very difficult to recover from the abuse because the psychological impact is horrendous and it affects the victim to the core of their being. It has repercussions throughout their life. Without a real concerted effort of healing, the victims really don’t get over it.
Now I want to tell you a story of my own daughter who was in a boarding school and over a sudden she told us that she did not want boarding school anymore and wanted to go to day school. She did not tell us the reason why she did not want boarding anymore.
Now she is in college but we see her not herself. Could it be that she was molested in school and that is why she was insisting she did not want boarding school anymore? Again could it be if it all she was abused and shy to tell us is the reason why she looks disturbed?”
Probably before I go straight to whether girls or boys are sexually abused in boarding schools allow me to share with you a story of Michael Uka who was abused by a Dutch priest who had worked in Kenya for 18 years.
Uka was only 14 years old when the priest invited him to his room and gave him coffee, after which he took him to his room where he started touching him immediately”. When Uka tried to resist the priest forced him into sex and being young he had no alternative but to give in for it.
When Uka asked him why he was doing that to him since I have never seen this happening before, the priest who later became a bishop responded by telling me that when you meet with father Gerry in his room I am told you do the same thing I am doing on you. Gerry has since been stripped of his priesthood.
The bishop, who is now living at a retirement home in the Netherlands, continued with the abuse. This was the first Dutch bishop to be punished by the Vatican for sexually abusing a minor.
Even though he is no longer permitted to perform the duties of a bishop or a priest, Uka has never recovered from the abuse. He says he feels isolated now that the abuse has gone public.
“Sometimes I regret speaking. I don’t regret the fact that the bishop has been sent away. But it’s very hard because people talk rubbish about me. They ask me why I have spoken out about this.’ Uka also says he’s afraid his children will one day find out about his past. ‘If it weren’t for these problems following me, I would have been a good father,’ Uka said recently during the interview.
What hurt Uka most is when the bishop refused to acknowledge the abuse during a meeting arranged by the members of his congregation in Kenya before the case was sent on to the Vatican.
Uka says the bishop contacted him shortly after the meeting and offered him a cow. In Masai tradition, the victim explains, a cow is sometimes offered as compensation for wrongdoing. But the cow could not change the image of Uka.
Uka said even though the bishop’s superior helped him by offering him counselling and medical treatment and some financial assistance, Uka feesl justice has not been done. “I still have faith. I still pray to God. But not in the church anymore” Uka told the press
The abuse was confirmed by then Superior of that congregation between 2005 and 2008 during the period of investigations. Asked why it took the church in Kenya to act immediately the superior said he also wondered why. This story and others demonstrate how sexual victims suffer silently.
In Kenya and many parts of the world the abused children continue to rise. On August last year the Kenyan Education Ministry Permanent Secretary (PS), James Ole Kiyiapi was reported as saying that cases of homosexuality in Kenyan high schools were on the increase.
The PS spoke in the wake of a report claiming that several girls had been sent home for two weeks from Moi Girls School Kamusinga in late July after having being accused of “lesbianism and devil worship.
The PS’ statement triggers questions about how cases of homosexuality are handled in Kenyan schools and among the youth generally. “Are we nurturing our children by sending them home and vilifying them among their peers and by alienating them at such an impressionable age”?
Such claims of homosexuality are especially rampant in Kenyan boarding schools.
Being suspended from school because of one’s sexual expression is too punitive an action and the school administration should consider taking steps that guide the youth rather than making moves to stifle them.
A major concern that Kenyan parents should seek to tackle head on, is how to deal with our children’s curiosity regarding sex, their identities and their orientation?
Great concern, compassion and attention are necessary at this time when young people are at an impressionable age and want to explore their feelings and their changing bodies.
Pushing this issue under the carpet will not make it go away and parents or guardians and teachers need to find a space to have these conversations and provide correct information on sexuality and sexual health to the youth.
The news reports which indicate that the issue of sexuality exists and the only thing left to do is to embrace this discussion in school can tell a lot how our children are suffering psychologically.
Children are afraid to discuss sexual issues with their parents, even if they are abuse because sex and sexuality have been taboo subjects for so long and are hardly addressed at home and at school.
When they are, it is in a condemning manner that suggests that there is something wrong or shameful with being a sexual being. That explains why there are several cases of the abuse that are not reported.
The case in Mombasa, Kenya which attracted the media on Feb 8 last week where six students at Moi Kadzodzo Girls Secondary School in Kilifi County on Wednesday allegedly admitted to having practised lesbianism at the school after they were grilled by education officers can tell a lot what is happening with our children secretly.
This was revealed as the government dispatched a team of education inspectors to the school to investigate allegation of lesbianism within the learning institution. The probe team led by Kaloleni District Education Officer Julius Nkarichia confirmed that the students who had been sent home to bring their parents to school admitted practising lesbianism.
The school principal Dorcas Kavuku got reports from the general students’ body that these particular girls were not behaving according to the school rules. They practised lavish touching and kissed each other which is not normal for people of the same gender. This is because in Kenya homosexuality, lesbianism and transgender remain widely unacceptable in the society.
This latest case is yet another indication on the dilemma of handling same sex relations.
It presents an opportunity for Kenya to think of how it will handle the situation since it cannot disown the six minors who represent many others in other schools as reported.
Despite reports of increasing numbers of gays in the country, it has remained apparent that Kenya is not about to accept them. Yet it has been discovered that due to the stigma, most gay people have partners but stick to their marriages with the opposite sex to shield themselves from societal discrimination.
That is why when Prime Minister Raila Odinga ordered in 2010 for a crack down of gay people in Kenya and said those found practising it should be arrested, he had to withdraw his statement saying he had nothing against the gay community. The withdrawal indicated that he had realized that gay and lesbians are increasingly making a big number in the country.
The same year when Special Programmes Minister Esther Murugi came into sharp criticism after saying that lesbians and homosexuals should be involved in HIV/Aids programmes, Kenyans were made to believe that the practice does not exist.
It explains why parents cannot talk to their children on this matter because they assume the practice is very far from their children. They only think it involves only few people and their children are not involved.
Apart from homosexuality and lesbianism, cases of incest are also on the rise in some parts of Kenya with Nyandarua North District, with at least five reported cases of fathers, who have defiled their daughters in as many months this year according to the district children’s officer, Mr Mwaniki Kungu who says three cases were reported last year.
Incest is also rife in Nairobi among Kenyan teenagers according to a new study conducted by the National Council for Children’s Service. The study revealed that adolescents admitted having sex with close relatives like uncles and aunts.
Some cases involving fathers and daughters to have sex during the day, especially in slums is happening while the mothers are out there to look how she can get food on the table.
Most of the slums in Nairobi there is no privacy between the parents and their teenage children. When father and mother are sleeping with only curtain to cover the bed room, boys and girls are sleeping on the floor.
The problem begins when they hear their parents making love. The boys will in return have it with their sisters. Or in the case where there is only mother and she has also gone for night to have sex with men who will in return give her money for food and rent. Boys and girls will take the opportunity.
No child is psychologically prepared to cope with repeated sexual stimulation for long, especially among boys-that is why eventually they end up having sex with their own sisters.
The same applies to fathers and daughters. When the mother is not around and he is with his daughter, the consistent stimulation for sexual urge will force him to have sex with the daughter one given time.
As a result most of these children will suffer from more psychological symptoms. That is why they cannot discuss the abuse, especially when it is chronic abuse starting at early ages.
According to the research traumatic stress, including stress caused by sexual abuse, causes notable changes in brain functioning and development and if it is not healed the abused will never recover for the rest of his or her life.
People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya
Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail- ppa@africaonline.co.ke
omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org
From: Joram Ragem
Dear Jaluo dot com,
I liked the old jaluo dot com forum which we frequently used to help one another on matters about our culture and our problems.
I am writing this open letter as a cry for help, hoping someone, maybe the esteemed Luo Council of Elders, or any good Samaritan ma ja thurwa will help me.
Here we go.
And I am Joram Ragem, you are not.
Yes, Joram Kaulikazi Ragem, wuod Ndinya, wuod Onam, wuod Amolo, wuod Owuoth, wuod Oganyo, wuod Mumbe, wuod Odongo, wuod Olwande, wuod Adhaya, wuod Ojuodhi, wuod Ragem (You may be my relative, but it matters less now. This is New Kenya!)
– – – – – – – – – – –
My dad died exactly 9 years ago. Before then we had been staying in Nairobi as a family of kids including our parents.
My father however, had another wife with whom they have not been in contact with since 1986 due to irreconcilable differences. I know this because my father wrote some autobiography of sorts and I have the original copy. Numerous attempts were made later to reconcile her and her children back into the family but she bluntly rejected the offer even going ahead to marry another man.
The ancestral land that had been allocated to my father has lain uncultivated for almost three decades. Recently my mother began to cultivate it and suddenly every one’s interest is aroused. The eldest uncle in our family has attempted to beat her up, One of my fathers brother’s has thrown a panga at her on various occasions and in the most recent incident my mother decided to approach her late husband’s eldest brother to report the matter. She was chased away and told she has no property in the family and they would bring back the alienated wife and take everything that she has.
It seems we have been sitting on a time bomb and now it is almost exploding. Word is going round that they intend to chase us out of our rural home and take everything. I have tried to do my research and even logic says the family has no capacity to dispense justice without outside intervention.
The other family has expressed their intentions of not ever coming back and my uncle wants this land for himself and has said it in those blunt terms. My family is ready to fore go that land but all we want is to protect ourselves from looming eviction.
P:s My mother refused to be inherited and the other family never attended dad’s funeral. The local council of elders is defunct and if any is to be called my uncle would most probably be a member of it and this would greatly hamper justice. The local chief cowards at him and is therefore, not in a position to tell him the truth if it is against his opinion. Both my grandparents are also long deceased.
I do not know what to do my people, but to ask you for guidance. Feel free to post your opinion here and you can reach me through Ajori at joragem@gmail.com
I remain,
Very Truly Yours
Lady Ado
From: Judy Miriga
Folks,
Handcuffing a child is a serious offense and a crime that cannot be taken lightly.
We demand for the OCPD of the area to resign immediately and that the bottom of the matter is unearth and the Police Officers be be releaved off their duties and charged accordingly.
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com
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Child Handcuffed by Police
Uploaded by standardgroupkenya on Jan 16, 2012
Police are once again on the spot over human rights abuses: an eight year old boy was allegedly beaten and then handcuffed by police in kibera for not knowing where his mother was. The officers are said to have been conducting a raid on illegal brew den in the slum, when they stormed the boys home looking for his mother. KTNs Edith Kimani brings us the troubling details that took place after the boy said he didn’t know where his mother was.
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@2012Lovelace? I don’t see anything wrong with journalist airing this Lovelace .How would we have known in the first place?. I do howeve,r concur with you that cops need to change for the good of this country
matts6894 2 weeks ago
do police in kenya know? what is child abuse? Idiots lack of education
suekenya 2 weeks ago
@matts6894, dude! you sound like ignorant fool trying to tribalize everything.? Actually idiots like you will never learn from the past that madharau will get your ass kicked. Police for their part need to change and our journalist shouldn’t even be allowed to film the kid. Bure kabisa!
2012Lovelace 2 weeks ago
Where is KNHRC? Oh!They are busy using that noble organization as platform for their personal gains (political posts).This is where they should? be heard the loudest sio mambo ya kibila hili imekula sana sasa ni wengine blah blah…
phatriott 3 weeks ago
the police need to refresh themselves with the new dispensation? ..the bad thing is most of them were herdsmen in Baringo
matts6894 3 weeks ago
Now WTF is this? Do those police? officers have brains? Apart from the constitution this is a matter of common sense. Yani they saw nothing wrong in handcuffing this child?
from Yona Maro
The NSPCC has produced a report highlighting the importance of early intervention to help children get the best possible start in life. The report includes new analysis into the number of babies under one year who are affected by parental substance misuse, mental illness and domestic abuse which are all important risk factors for abuse and neglect. The report sets out the evidence by drawing on research, consultation and original analysis to examine the disproportionate vulnerability of babies; the causes and consequences of infant abuse and neglect; and effective and promising interventions during pregnancy and the baby’s first year.
http://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/resourcesforprofessionals/underones/all_babies_count_pdf_wdf85569.pdf
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Karibu Jukwaa la www.mwanabidii.com
Pata nafasi mpya za Kazi www.kazibongo.blogspot.com
By Bob Agwanda.
When Golda Ayodo was invited for the first time at Amilo Primaty School within Muhoroni District for a prize giving day, something struck her which she could understand in regard to the event and while heading home she was disturbed why during the entire exercise there were no girls pupils who were rewarded.
She saw first hand those girls who were being rewarded were being given prices just for the sake of it that they never deserved. “When I asked why, I was told that girls were dropping out of school and they never deserved any reward. Hence I was left with a homework of what I can do and change the whole scenario” Ayodo adds.
Ayodo, who holds masters and is presently pursuing her PHD at Kenyatta University in Kenya, says she was pained so much and it resulted to her calling friends and together they formed Golden Girls Foundation which agitates and helps educate girls within the region.
“The club was my brainchild and basically it is about giving girls better conducive atmosphere for learning as after my research I discovered that they said girls major problems were uniforms, sanitary situations and lack of talks between them and their mothers which resulted to their dropping out. We started collections of clothes, sanitary towels, and uniforms, to give to the girls who were schooling there” she adds.
She says that so far they have contributed school uniforms, panties, and slippers, for all the girls within the institution, together with home clothes, saying most uniforms are always at the same time are used as home clothes .
“Looking back I can say that we have made a mark. Though the girls are home based, we always have weekly mentoring sessions with professionals who are members of our group, like doctors, teachers, lawyers etc etc, and surprisingly one of our product managed 430 marks in last years KCPE national exams, and her follower, another girl, got 312 marks. They have all been admitted to Provincial Secondary Schools and we are presently raising funds for their education” she adds.
“The young girl whom led the exams called Cynthia Midira’s mother is blind and her father is just an ordinary farmer, she has done us proud together with Beryl Akinyi who is part of our programme. We started this programme with seven girls and we managed to maintain that to date. But lamentably, Beryl got pregnant after exams and we are to take her back to school once she delivers”says the school’s Headteacher Mr.Auma Ouma adds.
Presently at Amilo Primary school the pupil populace has doubled from 392 to 456 as a result of what the area residents sees as achievement and motivation of girl-child.
“The community has really embraced their effort as the school was 10th within the zone in 2010 but during last year’s exams it became number five which is real motivation” the headteacher said. He adds that his school was supplied sl with revision papers and we tried to make sure that they did not have any societal limitation,
“Amilo is a pilot project but we are moving on though we do not have funds as we deep our hands in our pockets and contributes” Ayodo says ,she however laments. that presently thy are looking for people who can sponsor a single child at Kshs 1,500 per year to enable her to learn or any form of contributions be it material or finance.
“One thousand five hundred per girl per year is not much, its something anyone can afford , we do not have donors ,however we expect donors to really help us as we are really constraint, while empowering the girl, parents must also be involved “Ayodo says.
She laments that girls within the luo culture setting are really over burdened, as she goes to school, after that does domestic chores resulting to very limited time for studies if any.
“Its not the girl’s responsibility to cater for the family. Let girls be girls. We should always encourage them because girls are softer at heart and needs a lot of understanding” she adds. She also says that the major resistance to girl child education presently within the larger luo Nyanza revolves around culture, infrastructure, and lack of concentration while they go to school.
“This is one pupil who passes through cane plantation while going home and market places while hungry; surely she will be lured to any form of a vice which might jeopardize her schooling” Ayodo adds.
She says that though million mile journey begins with a step, they are determined to concur the entire luo Nyanza with limited resources and faith they have.
Ayodo began her schooling at Maseno Girls Primary Boarding School before going to St.Albert’s Ulanda for her secondary education and later left for Southern Adventist University in Ternnese USA where she graduated with Bachelor of Business Administration(Accounts) before doing her Masters which rsulted to her graduating in Accounts and Marketing, she is presently persuing her PHD at Kenya University in Accounts and Management.
“People thought I did social work, I think God made me do Accounts so that I could account for girls who has problems studying”, she jokes as we ends up the interview”
ENDS