News at Laudate Jesu

To all Laudate Jesu Children’s friends, colleagues, and partners, we hope that you finished the year well and are in to 2024 with a good spirit.  We are grateful for the gift of life, aa well as the gift you are to us and our children at LJCK. As we forge forward, we look back with gratitude for all that we have accomplished together. It is all because you cared enough to support us in our lives and projects that we have made some progress. Our mission of supporting and giving hope to the most vulnerable members of our communities is bearing fruits. We have educated and trained and enabled 60 individuals to be self-sustaining. In the past 8years we have achieved the following:

 

Education

We have had two of our LJCK students graduate from the university in December 2023, which is a big accomplishment. Nico graduated with a BA in IT Studies and Hillie graduated with a BA in Community Development and Social Justice (BCDSJ). Currently we have one student in his third year at one of the national universities in Kenya. Initially we planned to only provide education up to vocational training level. However, we have opted to give opportunities to students with exceptional grades when funds are available. If they earn it, we think they deserve the opportunity. This year we have a total of 29 students: University 2 students, high school 10 students, primary 17 students. 

December 2023 Graduation, we had 9 students who successfully completed grade school. Eight of them will go on to vocational training, while the student with excellent grades is headed for university by September 2024.  He needs our support and encouragement.

 

Vocational Training

There are five (5) students in vocational training in areas of masonry, carpentry, plumbing, electrical, and catering. This year we are happy to send 8 more students into vocational school.

Entrepreneurship: Last year six (7) young women and men started their small businesses with support from LJCK. Out of (7), two specialize in selling baby’s and children’s clothing. The other two buy and sell phone accessories, another one sells cereals, charcoal, and firewood. The last two are doing piggery and vegetable farming.

 

Health care services

Last year we had many health care issues that we took care of and incurred heavy costs. We thank God for restoring their health and for his graces upon us. The following are health care problems that we funded: a couple involved in a road accident, both woman and son’s hospital bills, a lady rescued from a burning house, a youth with asthmatic issues depended on inhaler, and a woman who underwent a back surgery. 

 

On-going projects.

The rental tents are doing okay. We get about 3-5 orders per month. The catering services have slowed due to back-to-school activities. They are expected to pick up around May-June graduations. In our part of the world, there will be an additional cerebration going on this year because every “even” year we have initiation ceremonies. The initiatives are a good catch for our catering sector to make some additional income. The rental farms were affected by the torrential rains and hailstones. The yields did not turn out as anticipated.  It is hoped that the year 2024 will be favorable for the crops to get a good yield. 

 

The Fish Farm

The fish farming is doing very well. Both Tilapia and mad fish are healthy, growing and giving a good yield. We are delighted that we have already started harvesting. There is a ready market for fish and our product is in high demand. We hope to increase our supply sources in future or as soon as we can.

 

Christmas With LJCK

 This year, LJCK blessed 15 families at Christmas in a special way. The LJCK Santa walked miles to different families distributing food and clothing. Due to privacy, some families declined to be photographed and their wishes are respected. A few pictures for those willing are available in the gallery. 2023 has the highest number of families who received food and clothing for Christmas from LJCK. We hope we can do more in 2024 if funds are available.

Housing Project

I want to thank all of you and everyone else who participated in making it possible for LJCK to provide housing for 5 families. I am grateful to all of you for the sacrifices you made to provide homes for some people who were affected by the floods of 2019-2020. Since I reached out in 2019 for support, (5) families with 21 family members have received a roof over their heads because of your generosity. They are indeed happy and grateful to you; it couldn’t be better.

We are now hoping and looking forward to completing houses number 6 and 7 when funds are available. After the floods we identified 7 families in crucial need of housing, so far, we have constructed and completed houses for (5) families. We still have two families to meet our target of 7 houses. Thank you all for jumping on the band wagon to answer in response to our call. Indeed, great things happen when we come together for a common purpose. Last year 2023 we raised $4,240 for house number 6 for window and 6children; we still need 5,760 to build the house. We need to build a house for family number 6 before we can start working on house number 7 to close our list of 2019 episodes. We have done it together in the past 4 years and together we can do it again. We are so close to the finish line.  I believe that making someone’s life better and putting a smile on their face is a blessing. It is special, it is making a difference in one’s life and the whole world.

 

 

What is Unique about LAUDATE JESU CHILDREN OF KENYA

The program discourages individuals/members from expecting and relying on handouts. Individuals and families are trained to be innovative and creative in utilizing local resources. The emphasis is upon building on the strengths of people by teaching them skills for growth and development.  Most of all we employ the spirit of Ubuntu where selfishness is not tolerated. UBUNTU means (a person is a person through others) - (Archbishop Desmond TuTu) We  adopted Ubuntu for our philosophical doctrine or approach to life that emphasizes social unity and generosity of spirit; a quality that includes the essential human virtues; compassion and humanity as explained by Nelson Mandela. We chose the spirit of Ubuntu, because we realized that alone, one cannot do much but, together we grow and develop for the common good.  We inspire and teach each other to work collaboratively for the common good; at the same time, we encourage people to think independently and to contribute ideas and talents for group activities.

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In our program, members work together on an identified project and the proceeds are pulled into a common bag from which members benefit equally. For one to be a member, one must be active and hardworking, laziness, tardiness, late coming for group activities or individual assignment and rumor mongering are some of the grounds for dismissal from membership. Besides, members do not only rely on the common projects but also establish and own projects through which they take care of some family needs and make member contributions to the common bag of the program.  

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Membership demands of them to nurture and care for each other, to foster unity and promote peace. The experience of many ruthless killings in our village set me thinking of what I can do to help my people. I heard Mandela and Bishop Tutu talk about ubuntu, which got me interested in reading about it. I love ubuntu philosophy, I decided to use it as my strategic approach of tackling the problems of violence and unnecessary deaths in my village.  In attempt to restore peace and unity among villagers, we launched ubuntu practice following the brutal murder of my brother in July 2015. His death was a wakeup call when I realized that it is not enough to try to fight poverty and ignorance as individuals.  I knew that no one would come to give us a solution, hence, the decision to re-create the ubuntu philosophy in which the humanness (essence of life) is valued and shared among all members of the village. The Ubuntu spirit compels one to extend to another person the good one wants for self. I felt that the solution lies among my people themselves. Fortunately, the spirit of ubuntu spirit is positively changing the way most of our villagers think and act. 

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Since the inception of Ubuntu in 2015, people in my village are becoming dynamic, cooperative, more caring, respectful of each other and looking out for each other’s good. Many youths unlike in the past, are now engaged in collaborative activities in the program. The youth have formed their own entertainment group for public functions such as pre-weddings, weddings, graduations, and funerals. Funds raised are used to purchase school uniforms and shoes instead of relying on parents and guardians for every material need.  In addition, the youth have introduced the fight against mosquitoes by cutting grass for a fee, which serves as additional resource toward their school uniforms and supplies.  As a result, the youth are channeling their energy through positive causes reducing violence in our village. The more we engage people in the LAUDATED JESU Children program the more united and peaceful environment we have. We hope that our program will continue to grow and become a model that we can extend to other villages. Our program is striving for collaboration, more growth and development to be achieved.      Stay tuned for more from LJCK