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Our latest accomplishments, progress reports, & musings.
Thanksgiving Prayers?
We’ve all no doubt prayed a version of this Thanksgiving table blessing, “Lord, as we are blessed with this amazing feast before us, we are mindful of the many that don’t enjoy such abundance. We pray that you will bless them so that they will get the food they need, Amen.”
True mindfulness doesn’t exist for its own sake but leads to some kind of action on the part of the conscious such that we take steps to address the subject of our conviction. In this way, we acknowledge that the gifts of blessing are not ours alone but are the nature of the Universe and intended for all of creation.
At Africa Exchange we strive to be one instrument God uses to answer the prayers of many, restoring the flow of blessing so that all might thrive.
Recently, to our great joy, we were enabled to facilitate the much-needed flow of blessing to Lochor Esekon, a community in the arid lands of Northern Kenya. The Turkana people are constantly challenged by drought in their harsh environment, particularly so now as the last 5 rainy seasons have failed, leaving them especially vulnerable. The construction of our 12th Integrated Child Development Center (thanks to the Baugh Foundation and others!) will enable us to provide the critical services of early childhood education, clean water, nutrition, specific community health intervention and environmental restoration to this community. The devastating drought also calls for emergency food relief for the entire community.
With your support, we can continue to be an agent of transformation that God uses to answer Thanksgiving prayers!
Lochor Esekon Dedication
Africa Exchange Appoints Sam Harrell as Full-Time Executive Director
It is with excitement and anticipation that the board of directors of Africa Exchange announces that Sam Harrell will fully inhabit the role of Executive Director as of August 1, 2022. Sam and Melody Harrell founded Africa Exchange 25 years ago and have led in a voluntary capacity since its inception. However, expanding to further meet the needs of marginalized communities across Kenya requires a full-time Executive Director. Sam transitions to this role from his position as Associate Coordinator of Global Missions with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF), a position he has held since 2015 following 16 years of field service with CBF in Kenya.
Africa Exchange has thriving programs in 12 project locations under the leadership of Mr. Mark Okello, our Kenya Program Manager. These programs leverage a crucial network of project committees and meet the needs of vulnerable children in every province of Kenya through the development and support of Integrated Child Development Centers.
In his new role Sam will focus on expansion, increased capacity, and organizational development. “With the excellent support of our Program Manager and the recently established Africa Exchange Advisory Group in Kenya, we are uniquely poised at this critical juncture to expand the work of enhancing the resilience of vulnerable children, communities and the environment in marginalized areas of Kenya,” says Sam.
As Africa Exchange begins to celebrate its 25 years of impact, we hope you will join us in affirming this new development and these growing responsibilities by supporting the important work that is to follow.
Charles Evans, on behalf of the Africa Exchange board of directors.
Kutana Kenya '22
KUTANA KENYA ‘22
Kutana Kenya is an experience like no other. Gathering around how environment, development and mission intersect in the context of several communities and ecosystems in Kenya offers a most unique two week + exposure to places and people, issues and relationships. Kutana means “to meet”, recognizing that meeting is never a one-way street. The priority of mutuality that undergirds all of the work of Africa Exchange is foundational to Kutana Kenya.
This year’s group of 9 participants ranged from a divinity student, a New York City landscaper, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship staff, a Kenyan university graduate, a theology professor to a newly graduated engineer. The group coalesced around our common goal: taking in each day as it presented itself through the lens of “What do I see? Who is here? What does the earth seem to be saying? How Is this community thriving? Or not thriving?” And perhaps most challenging of all, “What does this mean for me living in the world?”
We saw natural beauty in the forests of the highlands of Limuru, family warmth and ingenuity in rural homestays at Kipkaren River, community engagement and care for the youngest among them in Wamaganga, and community progress and tenacity in the hotter climate of Sist, Pokot. We spent 3 days embedded in Kakamega, damp air on our cheeks and spongy paths underfoot as we made our way through the rain forest, learning about birds, butterflies, trees and monkeys and witnessing interactions with the communities living close at hand. We looked out over Lake Baringo in its vastness, the wind whipping up in the evenings and becoming still in the mornings, discussing the idea of Gratitude from Wangari Mathai’s book “Replenishing the Earth”. We spent out last Sunday worshiping In Nairobi at a thriving urban Baptist church, mingling with members and leaders and sipping tea with other visitors after the service was done. And we bumped across the Masai Mara in a tour van, the pop top allowing for standing room and visibility, revealing the interconnectedness of the grassland that sustains incredible diversity of life.
Our hope is that those who experience Kutana Kenya come away with a new understanding of how deeply we are connected to all living things. And that they find ways where they are to nurture those connections going forward.
Making Lemonade!
You’ve heard the saying, “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade!” That’s exactly what we tried to do in 2021 during another long year of the COVID pandemic. As school schedules continued to be disrupted, we took the opportunity afforded by the mandated closures to renovate 6 of our Integrated Child Development Center units, construct 2 new classrooms, 12 pit latrines and 1 new kitchen! We also wrapped up installation of our 3rd “Trees for Life” tree nurseries, all of which enabled us to plant 1200 trees in project locations. Finally, we were able to upgrade an existing borehole with a new solar pump and array and facilitate the refurbishment of “Luca’s Crossing,” a vital suspended bridge crossing the Talek river in the Mara region that had been slightly damaged by flooding the year before,
The pandemic related closures and adjustments have been hard on communities, leading us to respond to food insecurity related needs with distributions of 31,000 kgs of maize and beans plus 520 liters of cooking oil, this in addition to our usual fortified porridge, school supplies and mosquito nets. In the midst of all of this, our ICDC units combined eventually managed to “graduate” an additional 300+ students toward primary school!
All of this has been made possible because of the consistent, generous support of our partners. Thank you!
Lemonade is good!
2020 - Year of Pandemic and Possibility!
2020 - From Pandemic to Possibility!
In the “Year of COVID” we’ve done our best to maintain our 20/20 vision for the future!
TREES FOR LIFE - The year started with ambitious plans for implementation of our Trees for Life Project (TFL) at four Integrated Child Development Center Sites. TFL seeks to combine community environmental education, reforestation, climate change mitigation and carbon sequestration into one effort. Our goal is for each child and their family to plant one tree each term at each ICDC unit. When fully implemented this will translate into 3000 trees planted each year! The program provides income generation opportunities for both ICDC units and recipients. We are grateful to the Baugh family for a grant that will enable us to complete the first phase of implementation.
COVID-19 RELIEF - By March it became clear that COVID-19 was in Kenya. The government responded by closing schools for the remainder of the year. With the assistance of a relief grant from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship combined with ongoing nutritional support from the Kenya Health Initiative of Knollwood Baptist Church, we mobilized to provide emergency food rations at each of our project locations throughout Kenya. Our goal was a stop gap measure until schools reopen in January 2021.
RENOVATION AND CONSTRUCTION - With schools closed we took the occasion to move forward with renovations at three ICDC units. This included refurbishing or replacing pit latrines and water collection gutters and tanks where necessary. The Gary Moser Fund generously provided funds for a brand new block of classrooms for our Sisit ICDC. This new facility provides a dedicated space for early childhood development for the first time! In Kasei, we were privileged to be able to build a new building to replace the church that had collapsed during torrential rains. The new building will serve as both a church and a meeting hall for our ICDC unit and the larger community.
PSIKOR BRIDGE REBUILD - A suspended bridge that we had previously constructed over the Wei Wei river had faithfully provided safe passage to and from market, school and clinic for the Sangat/Sisit/Tamkal communities for several years. Until 2019 that is, when unprecedented flooding swept away virtually every bridge and crossing in the region, including road bridges. With the know-how of our long time partner Bridging the Gap and your support, we were able to rebuild this essential crossing and the new bridge was opened in November!
BULA IFTIN WATER CATCHMENT - Our Integrated Child Development Center in Garissa sought to take advantage of the annual flooding of the Tana River to provide dry-season irrigation for the school farm. Led by Rukia Afey Mohammed, the project took shape with funding from BGAV Hunger Initiative to construct a water catchment. Immediately after the earthworks were complete, the rain came down, flooding occurred and the design worked perfectly! Now the community will benefit from an extended growing season through irrigation.
SCHOLARS - While primary and secondary schools closed due to COVID, our three university students continued to progress through their respective programs. In December we celebrated the graduation of Elizabeth Adeya from the Nursing Program at University of Nairobi, the result of sustained support from Peoria Christian Fellowship to see her through!