September 2012 Newsletter

MCO : QUARTERLY
Mathare Community Outreach
NEWSLETTER
In this issue we
focus mainly on
the OVC programs , its milestones and challenges. The Key
story featured
is the Widows
program newest of all under
the OVC Programs.
program
The
im-
proves the lives
of
Orphaned
and Vulnerable
children
equipping
by
wid-
ows with a life
skill
INSIDE THIS
ISSUE:
Maseno Camp
1
Discipleship
camp
2
Insecurity in
Mathare
3
New Staff : Pst
Alfred
4
Praise & Prayer
Items
4
Kids Sports :
Soccer tourna-
5
Update
S E P T E M B E R
I S S U E
1 5 / S E P T E M B E R / 2 0 1 2
Widows Program
In the month of May 2011
MCO in partnership with
Miriam Neff of Widows connect as well as Bright Hope
international carried out a
widow’s survey which led to
the setting up of
a
widows
skills training program.
The program
has had two
major activities which
are counseling and tailoring / sewing skills. Eight widows have
been part of this program that
started in February 2012.
Wilfred Adhiambo is one of
the beneficiaries of this program; we had a talk with her
to find out how the program
has impacted her life: She
works 8 hours as a cook in
one of the MCO schools and
attends the skills program
thrice a week. Wilfred is 47
years of age, was widowed in
the year 2005,
she has 6 children and 3
grand children
all but one
still under her
care.
When asked
why she took
an interest in
Wilfred : practicing the skill
the sewing program, she had
this to say:
“This program will be helpful
for me to learn the skill so
that I can run a sewing business and support my children
through what I make. My
hope is to be able to get a
sewing machine then relocate
to the rural area where I can
run a business.”
During the August Holidays
when she was not at work,
Wilfred using the little skill
that she had already obtained
to make boy shorts, this she
later sold to earn her a little
income.
The program intends to
graduate the first lot of trainees in the month of November. Its our hope that we will
find partners to assist this
group to acquire implements
of work.
Maseno Camp
On the 6th of August the OCC
church was a stir with activities: a group of 51 children
and teenagers of ages 10 – 14
were preparing them for a
camp. A whole day journeyed them to Maseno a town
in Nyanza province in Western region of Kenya. The
camp was being hosted by
Fame Children’s home in
Maseno.Though
exhausted
from the journey of about 7
hours on the road, the campers were delighted at this rare
opportunity, in the coming
week; they were anticipating
learning a lot in a fun envi-
ronment. The week that ensued was a buzz of very interesting and challenging activities that stretched the young
people physically as well as
spiritually. Some of the activities the children engaged
in included Group bible study,
family group time, games,
PAGE
2
Bible study was a
key part of the camp
With the
establishment of a
discipleship camp,
MCO will equip at
least 20 young
people with
discipleship skills
every year. This will
be in addition to
those sent to other
discipleship programs
Maseno camp
afternoon trips, entertainment session and
exciting of all camp
fire bonding.
Apart
from this the children
had nature walks, boat
rides as well as thrilling beach games.
The theme of the camp
was drawn from the
Book of John 1: 14
“yet to all who received him he gave the
power to become children
of God.” One of the greatest outcomes in the camp
was that 30 children made a
first time commitment to
the Lordship of Christ,
while six made a
recommitment to
following
Christ.
We thank the
Lord for Eleanor
Clucas
who
spearheaded
the
camp; she together with her
friends Pete and
Will not only funded the
Discipleship : Camp Moriah
ing between 8-15 youths to
discipleship programs every
year. Preciously MCO has
worked with HELD camp
as well as Camp Jabez to
facilitate discipleship for
some of its alumni. Every
year MCO has more aspiring participants’ than can
be absorbed by this partner
discipleship programs. This
need is what has birthed the
Vision to establish a disci-
pleship camp that will have
a greater capacity and ability to meet the demand at
MCO.
With the establishment of a
discipleship camp MCO
will be able to equip 20
young people with discipleship skills every year, this
number will be in addition
to those sent to the other
discipleship programs that
MCO are already in part-
Inset left: A view of the
Mathare Valley , the
home of most of the
young people targeted
for the Discipleship
camp
Right : Paul Mwangi
the Key Staff behind
Camp Moriah Discipleship Program
MATHARE
camp but also took part in
planning for all the details
of the camp. May the lord
bless them for enabling
such a wonderful experience for the children.
The entire
camp was a blast
bearing that Mathare
children rarely get
such an experience.
Discipleship
being
one of the key tenets
on which the MCO
program is founded
upon, MCO has been send-
COMMUNITY
OUTREACH
nership with.
This program dabbed “
Camp Moriah” is being set
up in Partnership with GDF
– Global Discipleship Fellowship. GDF will fund
49% of the program in the
1st year, 30% in year 2 and
15 % in year 3 after which
the program will be expected to be self supporting
and sustainable.
The discipleship camp will
SEPTEMBER
ISSUE
offer young people straight from
high school with 6 – 9 months
short term experience in ministry while learning to raise their
own support through life skills
such as farming, bead work,
décor, baking etc.
The intended outcome of this
program is young people who
are both zealous and Knowledgeable on the word of God,
able to teach the word of God,
and disciple those that are evangelized. The young people are
also expected to be economi-
PAGE
Some of
the key
leaders at
OCC
cally self reliant as
a result the life
skills that they
will have gained
through their experience in the
discipleship camp.
To Run the discipleship camp,
MCO
will
require
Kes
1,812,000 an equivalent of
22650 USD.
Currently the
situation is
such that the
Insecurity in Mathare
staff cannot
walk in the
slum freely
especially when
In the last three months,
Mathare has experienced an
upward trend on insecurity,
there have been a lot more cases
of thefts, and muggings and
rape. Having worked in the
slum for more than 5 years, I
observe that the kind of hostility
we are experiencing now is
something we have not experienced for a long time.
As much as insecurity is an all
time high in slum areas Mathare
being one of them, it is rare that
members of the community are
victims this goes for community
workers as well. Currently the
situation is such that the staff
cannot walk in the slum freely
especially when in possession of
any valuables. There are increased cases of phone snatch-
ing, pick pocketing as well as
violent robbery where the victim is threatened with a pen
knife, gun, machete etc.
Barely a week now one of the
MCO staff was attacked , early
in the morning while coming to
work, a group of 4 young men
surrounded him wielding different weapons , the robbed him of
all the money he was having a s
in possession of
any valuables.
Inset: Kavai one of the youths in our
program: education keeps the young
men from crime
well as a laptop computer.
Most of the perpetrators of this
violence are young people still
in their teenage years. A talk
with one of the youths on these
revealed the following: “Most
of these muggers are very young
boys from ages 14 -19, most of
them are young people we know
and went to school with, most
of them dropped out of school
and currently have no source of
income.”
The situation in Mathare has
been a pointer to us as a project
on the need to strengthen mentorship especially for young
people, perhaps through this we
will be able to prevent some
youth from ending up in crime.
3
PAGE
4
New Staff : Pst Alfred Osoro
Alfred Osoro a pastor by
profession joined the management team in the month of
September. Alfred will be
coming in as the MCO Chaplain and youth Pastor.
Some of his key roles will
include
Inset: Pastor Alfred
at Work
Co-ordination of all spiritual
development activities for the
children and youth in MCO
Program
Establishing and Pastoring
BIBLE VERSE FOR
THE QUARTER
Isaiah 40:28
Alfred is a graduate from
PanAfrican Christian University
with B.A . In Bible & Theology
His Passion:
Alfred is passionate about
prayer, youth ministry , he
loves Music , writes songs and
enjoys Ministering by teaching
Hobbies
Alfred Loves designing and at
his free times gets engaged in
graphic designing.
His Vision
For MCO is to raise the standard of youth ministry to another level. He also hopes to
use his gifting and ministry to
impact the lives of the people
he will be serving.

We thank God for the maseno camp that had a great impacts in the lives of the participants, we
also thank God for Elenor Clucas who made it possible through herr generous contributions
planning and spearheading the camp

We thank God for the widows program that is making a difference by imparting skills and enabling participant to be equipped for economic sustainability

We thank God for the children’s participation in extra curriculum activities : MCO joy did very
well in the music festivals, they took one item to the Nationals and emerged second position.
We also thank God for the CDC Project children who participated in the soccer tournament
and did well.
The Lord is the
everlasting God , the
Background
the Word of God.
Praise Items
Do you not know/ ?
Have you not heard?
youth Church and coordination of the youth ministries of
the church
creator of the earth.
He will not grow
tired or weary and
his understanding no
one can fathom. He
gives strength to the
weary and his
understanding no
Prayer Items

We Pray for safety and security within Mathare Valley, we trust God that he will touch and
change the lives of the young men and women who are involved in Crime. We pray for their
salvation and redemption from this destructive lifestyle.

We pray for the plan to Establish a discipleship Camp, we pray that the Lord will provide the
needed finances to establish it and to enable it start as par the timeline and also the right staff
to run the program.

These quarter alone we have lost two parents of children in our programs, Parent to Linet
Njahira form 1 and Parent to Justus Otieno form 3 . We pray that the Lord will comfort the
bereaved children and their families
one can fathom.
NEWSLETTER
TITLE
Mathare Community
Outreach
Our Vision
Responsible communities empowered for the glory of
God.
CONTACT US
ADDRESS
The mission of MCO is:
To reach out to communities in poor circumstances; provide spiritual, educational
and physical support to the associated children so as to help them become responsible
and empowered adults for the glory of God.
P.O.Box 71389-00622
Juja road , Nairobi
Phone: 555-555-5555
Fax: 555-555-5555
E-mail: [email protected]
Empowering Communities one child at a time
Www.mathareoutreach.org
Kids –Sports : Soccer tournament
On the 15th of August 2012 one of
our projects MCO CDC, participated in the 6 aside Nairobi region
soccer tournament organized by
Compassion international.
The theme of the events was :
Strength for the journey” Drawn
from Isaiah 40:31.
A total of 24 projects took part in
this competition, the projects were
from East and West of Nairobi. The
project took 4 teams to this tournaments: this included senior boys and
girls as well as junior boys and girls.
All the teams showed very good performance with the senior boys going
all the way to the finals. The boys
ended up second position in the Nairobi region and won themselves a
trophy.
Inset: The senior team after receiving the trophy for senior boys: Top
right mixed girls team , below senior
girls team in action