Fuhomi...

This past week was a groundbreaking one for the Fuhomi Project, one of the projects with which Mission Care International is involved here in Naivasha. I haven't written very much about Fuhomi on my blog, but it's time I did - so let me fill you in!

You can find out more about the Fuhomi Project on the new Mission Care website, but the basics are that Fuhomi is a project for young people in and around the town of Naivasha. Much like anywhere else in the world, teenagers here are questioning their identity, trying to find where the fit, and often society, culture, the media and their churches and schools only make this process more difficult. Given the current circumstances, with the tribal clashes and ethnic cleansing taking place across the Rift Valley, young Kenyans (many of whom were involved in the violence) seem even more lost, hopeless and directionless, and many have a false sense of identity.

Fuhomi seeks to empower these young people to believe in themselves, to take pride in themselves and to enable them to encounter hope for a brighter future. Fuhomi seeks to impact the community through visiting secondary schools - educating, encouraging and equipping students before they make decisions that impact the course of their lives. The project also seeks to build relationships with young people who find themselves separated from normal society, who are broken, suffering and lacking support and guidance.

Currently, the main focus for the work with the second group of young people, are the young sex workers in Naivasha. While the Sunshine Centre works with boys who need support, there are also many girls who have been orphaned or who have no other choice but to go to the streets - and the girls too are segregated from the world. I cannot begin to describe every day life for these girls, but the suffering that they encounter on a daily basis is not only injust, but also inhuman. Fuhomi seeks to offer hope to these young girls and young women. During the past month eight of the young commerical sex workers, all in their teens, have been meeting with our four volunteers - the girls who are doing a gap-year working with the project. We praise God for the opportunities that this is bringing us to bring hope to these broken lives.

The groundbreaking step for Fuhomi this week was our first school visits. We are sending teams to spend time with a select group of students - boys and girls - who will both understand our message of hope, and also help to spread this message to their friends. The educational programme that we are using focuses on areas such as sexuality, HIV/AIDS, drugs, peer development, human rights and career choices. The teams are visiting each school for one year. The aim is that the young people will feel important, accepted, cared for and empowered to value, respect and love themselves.

Our first visits were inspiring and most importantly, the young people were all excited by what they will be taught and are looking forward to taking up the challenge of being ambassadors in their schools. It is very early days, but we are hopeful that we can inspire a generation of teenagers who can change their communities.