Deaf School in Theraka, Kenya
October 2011
At the end of September 2011, we went to Tharaka to visit Helen Moorehead, a mission partner from Ireland. Helen came to Kenya to work with the Deaf. She was originally assigned to Kaaga School for the Deaf in Meru. From the Educational Officer she learned that the Tharaka area had no school for the Deaf and after much prayer she moved to Marimanti and started a school on the grounds of the Methodist Primary School. She has taught the same class for the last 6 years. She has done this as most Kenyans believe that the Deaf will never be able to do any significant work and even after school will return to their village to either herd cattle and goats or carry water. Helen wants to demonstrate that if the students are well educated they can do a variety of paying jobs like computer programing or accounts.
We stayed at the Rural Training Center Guest House. The next day we spent at the school for the deaf with Helen and her students the other teachers and students. We were so impressed and awed by the work done and by the lives that are changed so radically. Helen told us a story about one student that when sent home in August for his holiday, continually ran away from home. He was hungry and wanted to eat and he wanted to learn and be with other deaf people.
All the classes were a joy to see and the school was as different as the 3 schools I sent you pictures of last week as night and day. There are so many people making such a huge difference in the lives of the young and the old, the least, the last and the lost. We thank God for Helen and the work of the school and the young people that experience love, learning and hope!
By Jerri and Bill Savuto
Maua Methodist Hospital
The entire trip was a learning experience. The road we took to Marimanti went through Meru and then on a road out of Meru we didn’t know existed. It was a paved road for about 15 km. and then dirt for 50 km. The first villages we passed through on the dirt road had fertile, black soil and were growing bananas and other crops. Slowly we left that soil to see red, clay soil but still the people were clearing the fields to prepare them for the rainy season we are all praying will soon come and be very good.
Soon the terrain changed again. There was dry land with dirt, no soil. Herding goats and cattle where being done but the cattle were so thin it hurt to see them. The school for the deaf had just received a cow from the Kenyan Government bought for 8000 Ksh, about $80, as the cattle are dying and the Government is buying them and giving them to needy schools and organizations to slaughter before they die of starvation and cannot be eaten.
Marimanti is hot, dry, remote and isolated. Helen lives in a home on the Rural Training Center compound. As we were coming to Kenya in 1998, John McCullough, who worked for the GBGM then, shared with us that he and his wife had been assigned to Marimanti and their house had been burned and they left the area. Helen was living in the house officially dedicated to Joann and John McCullough built in August 2002. What a small world.
We watched as Helen taught her students with such joy and enthusiasm and as they did algebra with Bill that was beyond what they had done but was completed correctly and with great joy! We watched as the students practiced a song they would sign at a Saturday prayer meeting they had been asked to attend. The smiles, the love, the joy in learning were so hopeful and the faithful work of Helen so inspirational.
Last Monday the hospital started working on the new kitchen. As many of you may remember money sent for my mother’s memorial fund was going to be used to build a new kitchen. Just recently the administration told us the cost. We had raised about $15,000 and the cost is double that, $30,000. Some friends recently sent us $1500 so we are about $13,000 short. I had hoped I would not need to share this need but we are very hopeful that we can raise all the funds to build the kitchen in memory of my mom. If you would like to send funds for the kitchen you can send them through the Advance Special # 09613A – Maua Hospital Service Fund, Kenya NOTE: Kitchen or Brock Memorial. The wonderful thing about sending the funds through the Service Fund is we will first use the funds to pay for our poor patients who cannot pay their bill and this frees up money to build the kitchen — one of those two-in-one deals! Thank you!
We are traveling some to see other projects, writing our supporting churches, beginning to pack our goods and helping our replacements in any way possible. We are so grateful to each of you for your prayers and love. I am thankful to say that handing over has been much easier than I ever dreamed. I have so much confidence in Sabera and wonderful people like Mary and Stanley Gitari, Reegan Kaberia and the list could go on and on. We have had your prayers which have helped so much. We are so blessed and so grateful.
