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KENYA |
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KENYA |
KENYA
(the logo is a symbol of the Kenyan
RNDMs charism and spirit)
The Base: This is the earth – everything about the pot is from the earth. We need a firm foundation on which to rest stones, just as we need a firm foundation on which to base our lives as RNDMs. For us God is our earth.
The Stones: In Kenya the pot always rests on three stones. Our lives as RNDMs rests on the three vows of Chastity, Poverty and Obedience as well as the three aspects of our spirituality: Communion, Contemplation and Mission.
The Fire: From fire comes warmth. It heats the body and the food in the pot of the fire. Seated around this fire there is the warmth of friendship as people share their lives. It gives a sense of unity. The fire for us as RNDMs speaks of the movement of the soirit, fostering the values left us by Euphrasie – the warmth of our zeal, simplicity, hospitality, prayer, availability, compassion, in the attitude of Mary. These are passed into the pot to be made ready. Our unity is expressed in these virtues.
The Pot: Nourishment and strength of body and spirit come with sharing from the pot. Each one of us is a "pot". We gain nourishment and strength from our faith sharing and community living.
The Emblem: From the pot comes our emblem – the sign of who we are. It is our going out to others living out our charism and the vows.
Kenyan
Sisters
We have five communities in Kenya: 2 in urban Nairobi; Karinga, Gatundu; two houses about 70kms south east of Nairobi and one about 100kms south east of Nairobi.
We arrived in Kenya in 1967. There has been gradual expansion over the years and a novitiate house for formation to religious life was opened in 1985. Presently there are 32 RNDMs in Kenya of whom 18 are ffrom other countries. One sister is study ing in the British Isles and in 2000 4 Kenyan sisters will be internationally missioned to other countries.
Education: in schools, informal education
centres, handicapped, health education
Class in Kenyan
School
Health: dispensary, maternity Programmes with women and youth
Physically Challenged: integral project for the handicapped
Catechesis
Pastoral Work: home visiting
Justice and Peace involvement
Report from Kenya - The Handicapped in Matuu <from Sisters Pauline, Jacinta and Josephine>
Matuu is a very dry and poverty stricken area in the Machakos
diocese. The local people are firmly rooted in tradition, and medical and other welfare
facilities are quite rare, with the result that there are many physically and mentally
handicapped to care for. Some years ago a woman volunteer from Holland started a programme
which today provides wheel chairs, surgical boots, medical care for epilepsy, and home
visits. Our Kenyan Sisters coordinate the programme which is funded by donations from
Holland. Photo – left : Another tricycle 
goes
to a happy customer.
Left: ready to take a new-born baby home
Report from Matuu, Kenya <from Sister Helen >
Matuu is a rural area town of about 50,000 subsistence farmers and small
traders – 75% of whom live below the poverty line. For many years now our Sisters
have run a dispensary and maternity centre here that caters for the town and for some of
the surrounding rural area. 
Famine and the lack of a water source impact on the everyday life of the people – particularly the mothers of families. The Mother and Child Health programme provides pre-natal, maternity and post-natal care, regular immunisation and curative treatment – and, just as importantly, teaches the rules of basic hygiene. As well as the workload at the home dispensary, which has recently been replaced by a larger building, the dispensary staff undertake five outreach safaris which take immunisations, curative and ante-natal fieldwork out to some of the villages.
Part of the old dispensary has been converted into an approved laboratory to enable immediate diagnosis of doubtful cases. The centre is also addressing the widespread difficulties of AIDS problems and prevention. The Centre and the outreach programme to the handicapped of the district work in close liaison and maintain contact with other local agencies.
This work has attracted funding from Ireland and England as well as from various agencies.
Photo: Sister Brigid is so grateful for the new dispensary.
The Tunza Dada Centre <from Sister Felicitas>
‘Tunza Dada
‘ is a Kiswahili phrase meaning ‘Take Care of a Girl’. Tunza Dada is a
rehabilitation centre, started by a Kenyan woman, for destitute and and less fortunate
girls - mainly from single mothers who cannot support them financially. The Centre helps
to improve the living standards of the girls by an informal education in a context of
counselling and self-discipline, and by the teaching of skills like embroidery, knitting
and dressmaking so that they can make things for sale. ‘Since I started going to
contribute my time, presence, energy and gifts to these girls, I have received and
discovered a lot from them. They are beautiful girls and I love them the way they
are’.
Photo – Tunza Dada girls share their cooking with some handicapped friends.
Our young Sisters are working in a primary school started by a Kenyan lay woman, Masila, for the children of the Kibera slum. Masila wants to give these children a chance to overcome their social and economic disadvantages so she is building up this little school, in some mud houses, out of her own resources. Thanks to local donors the children receive a simple meal each day. But nearly half the 120 youngsters have no desk and there is only one toilet for everyone – staff and children.
Young women at the Baraka
Za Ibrahim school, Kibera.
The
RNDM Solidarity goal is US$5000 to provide the extra desks and toilets for this school.
If
you would like to support this project, please give your donation to any RNDM Sister or
email:
rndmfundraiser@worldonline.fr.
There are opportunities available for volunteer services
especially in the medical area or working with the handicapped. For more info
contact: 
Sr.
Margaret McInerney
PO Box 66235
Nairobi, Kenya
East Africa
There are three novices in Kenya.
For more info contact: Sr. Mary Regina McCullagh
PO Box 1052
Machakos,
Kenya
East Africa
