New Ways: Protecting and sustaining life in Turkana, Kenya

Class 3 at St Joseph's - Image: New Ways

Something really beautiful is happening in the remote region of Turkana, Northern Kenya. Through floods and famine, drought and conflict, new life and peace are being brought to the fore by the Missionary Community of St Paul the Apostle (MCSPA), with the assistance of the charity New Ways.

New Ways volunteer and CEO for almost 30 years is Angela Docherty. Passionate about supporting the poor in Africa, Docherty speaks of how New Ways has at its heart lasting sustainable projects, developed through partnership and local expertise, and nurtured through generous donors and the commitment of MCSPA, their partner organisation..

Father Joseph Githinji and Father Denis Odongo, are two members of MCSPA who recently visited the UK.

Angela explains how these two priests together with other religious men and lay women who make up the MCSPA, serve local people protecting and sustaining life from conception and childbirth, through childhood, adulthood, and through to natural death.

In places where extreme weather conditions have threatened lives and livelihoods, New Ways is funding schools and feeding centres, where children's education is both sustained and delivered by their partner organisation.. This involves feeding the children in the Lobur Mission, with two nourishing meals a day, in places where even the basics for survival are lacking due to extreme poverty.

Angela explains that "through providing nourishing food for the children, we can nourish their young and developing brains, helping provide the best conditions for learning."

Fr Joseph says: "The aim of our mission is to see the Turkana community especially where the MCSPA are working having good living and better future like other communities in Kenya.

"With all the many things we have already done in the development field, without also encouraging and empowering Peace and Education especially in areas covered by Lobur mission, life for the future generations will continue to suffer. Thus, education is critical to our future and those who we help.

" 55 to 60% of our children have started to realize the importance of going to school. But due to harsh climate conditions and drought, sometimes the number goes down but this doesn't hold us back and we continue supporting our children."

In Nariokotome in central Turkana, the Missionary Community also run a nursery and primary school called St Joseph's, which care for children aged 4-15 years old, among many other projects.

The school is a hub of learning, feeding, formation, and care for 70 nursery aged children, and 180 primary school children and is supported by donors to New Ways, plus a handful of NGOs.

Families are provided with assistance to purchase learning materials, and school uniforms, so that their children can be provided with education, dignity and standards that are often difficult to maintain in poverty. The charity very much hopes that many of the children will also go to secondary school and if possible tertiary education.

From educating young people, a virtuous circle is created. The young people develop with well formed minds and characters and have the skills when they graduate to help their communities.

New Ways also supports women and girls. Part of the charity's work is to provide microloans for the women so that they can set up businesses with financial help and training from the Mission Community, and then by means of training, gain their independence to pay back the micro loans and support themselves and their families.

This is one way in which women are being empowered to make a valuable contribution, using their skills and talents, thus being raised out of poverty.

Another way that New Ways, through the Mission Community helps protect and empower women and girls, is by education of the girls. By working with families and communities, coming along side them and helping to empower the women, the Mission Community has offered families an alternative to child marriage.

Angela explains: "Twenty years ago a girl would have been married off to an older man when she was aged 13 for their dowry. Their families were persuaded that education was better way forward and we devised, in partnership with a German NGO, the Girls Sponsorship Programme that has been running for 12 years, to sponsor girls from school age until their graduation from university or college".

Angela says this is "changing the outcome for women". Families realise that an education is so important, and the fact they can make a living and sustain their own families and their community."

Two girls, educated by New Ways, who were sponsored by an NGO, have just recently graduated and will now have the opportunity to seek employment using their degrees, and contribute to their families' wellbeing.

Fr Denis says: "At St Joseph primary school in Nariokotome, we believe that the education we provide, will not only open doors to the children who attend the school, but the local communities will be uplifted as well. The children will be the agents of positive change and may help break the poverty chain. The human values promoted through the school will ensure a more just and harmonious society. The school is a source of hope for the future as already there are positive signs from those who have graduated from our school. They are getting good grades in the secondary schools where they are and shown high levels of discipline. They are opting for careers in education, health, engineering and technology which will be the driving force in creating a better society."

The mission community protects the welfare not only of children through feeding and education, but also by working with local tribes, often in conflict because of resources - water and grasslands for grazing, that are diminishing dur to climate change. MCSPA teaches them sustainable methods of fishing, mending, water sourcing, farming. Some of these skills and methods begin with school-aged children. For example, at some schools there are agricultural gardens where children learn about planting and growing food that can be harvested for their families.

Pregnant women are given prenatal check-ups and treatment in needed, to ensure their children are healthy. The elderly in communities are also cared for with appropriate medical treatment from the dispensaries and medical hubs, outstations, and outreach that the mission community run.

Angela says: "When we work in the communities, we see what is the need, and try to create projects that do something to help and empower the families."

Find out more about the projects supported by New Ways in these videos:

St Joseph's primary school: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsBBntLxq7E

Feeding and education projects: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN1vyft-m1I

DONATE to the children's feeding programe here: www.justgiving.com/campaign/nutritionalnurseries2024

For more information about New Ways, or to sponsor a child or family, see: New Ways - Helping communities to thrive