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A Million Orphans
in Kenya
Father Jim Swift, my provincial superior,
was telling me about his last visit to Kenya. He shared with
me how he had seen first-hand the incredible poverty of Kenya,
especially in the Kibera slums where our Vincentian
priests and brothers work as missionaries. The Kibera
slum is the largest of five slums in the city. It alone
houses an estimated 80,000 orphans and a million people
living in poverty!
How
do you help a million orphans—or
even 80,000 orphans?
That
great number of orphans is just one example of the poverty in
Kenya. Even though the Vincentian missionaries work primarily
in evangelization and with the clergy, we also pay attention
to the poverty literally at our doorstep. We help other members
of the Vincentian family, like the Society of Saint Vincent de
Paul, in their work with the orphans. And they have the answer.
You help those orphans in the same way you help anyone
in need—one
child at a time. Each child you help is better off for your help.
One at a time, they get a good meal. One at a time, they get
ready for school. One at a time, they discover the love of God
as we see in each child the face of Jesus Christ. One
child at a time!
 Nine-year
old Veronica is one such little girl in the Kibera
slums. She has a five-year old brother, Dorcas, and
a sister, Elizabeth, who is four…and HIV positive. Three of their other
siblings have already died. Their mother died last year,
and their father is very ill and dying. She came to the
attention of the Saint Vincent de Paul Society just recently.
The Society has adopted Veronica and her family. Veronica
acts as the mother to Dorcas and Elizabeth. As you can
imagine, the children’s loss is devastating.
The Saint Vincent
de Paul Society members who were helping the poor
at the local parish created the Saint Vincent de
Paul Daycare Center to serve families like Veronica’s.
It is located in the heart of the Kibera slum.
There are 93 children
like Veronica enrolled in the daycare center, and
the center would love to serve more. They feed the
children in the morning, and they provide trained
teachers to prepare the children for primary school.
The children learn the value of studying, hard work,
and self-reliance. Education is the only way out
of the slums. |
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Father
Gary Mueller, who is pictured to the left with
Jackie Mwangi, (a member of the Kibera Saint Vincent de
Paul Society)
works with the orphans in the Kibera slums. He shared
with me how the children at the Saint Vincent de
Paul Daycare Center were excited to send their artwork
to their friends across the sea. |
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The
children at the Saint Vincent de Paul Daycare
Center hope you enjoy their artwork!
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A Call for You
In the past, the Association has helped American missionaries in Taiwan or Kenya and
other worldwide missions of the Vincentians. If you would like to make a donation to help
the foreign missions continue their good work, you can do so by contacting the Association.
It is an opportunity for you to answer Christ's call to "make disciples of all nations."
Jesus said to his disciples, "But when the Son of Man comes,
will he find faith on earth?" (Luke 18:8) Vincentian missionaries bring the faith to the
remotest and poorest places of the earth. And you can help them.
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