Pictured above: Caregivers participate in a session on the importance of clean water and hydration in preventing diseases.
Founded in 1988, POMC Najile Church has partnered with Compassion International since 1989. It supports a child development center, POMC Najile Child Development Center, where 334 school-age children currently participate in a wide range of activities targeting their physical, cognitive, social and spiritual development. They benefit from medical checkups, recreational sports, Bible lessons and family activities through Compassion’s sponsorship program.
Your gift safeguards mother and baby care services at POMC Najile Church. The church is located in the community of Keekonyokie – Maasai in the south-western region of Kenya. Because of your generosity, mothers and their babies will have access to critical medical care, improved nutrition, learning opportunities and spiritual formation. Moms benefit from one-to-one counseling from a trained Survival specialist as well as enjoy group activities with other mothers in their community. Babies, up to one-year old, gain a strong healthy start to life under the watchful care of Survival staff. Celebrating the first year of life is a great achievement!
Survival Statistics at POMC Najile Church (January – June 2019)
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- 40 mothers and their babies received Survival support
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- 4 new pregnancies were reported
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- 1 baby, on average per month, treated for malnutrition
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- 25 children transitioned into the sponsorship program
Recent Survival Activities at POMC Najile Church
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- The caregiver on the left works hard at creating a beaded box, while the caregiver on the right puts together a spoon holder. These projects are taught to women in the program so that they learn income-generating skills.
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- Survival caregivers having a group discussion on child protection and abuse. Through this, they are able to understand what child protection means, how they can protect children from abuse and how they can handle issues when they arise.
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- A Survival caregiver sharing an experience with the rest of the caregivers. This helps mothers gain confidence to share and tackle issues concerning their children. Through this discussion, mothers build and gain trust for each other.
A Letter from Esther, a Survival Caregiver
Dear Friends,
On behalf of all Survival caregivers, I want to thank God for the gift of life and strength to write this letter to you. It is by the grace of God we have come this far. I also want to take this chance to thank Compassion for giving us this opportunity to be a part of this program. We count ourselves as loved and valued.
Secondly, I want to thank you for your generosity and your decision to share what God has given you with us. We are fed, clothed, and have access to medical assistance just because you chose to share. Thank you so much; we can only pray that God will bless you and your family. The Survival mothers are always praying for you.
At the Survival program, we meet once a month and start with devotions. We share the Word of God, we pray for our loved ones, different needs, and we take turns talking about what God has done in our lives since we last met. After this we go to breakfast, classes, skill seminars, lunch, and then we depart.
In our classes, most of the lessons are about our children. So far, we have learned how to take care of our children at different stages of growth, how to feed them, and we learned about hygiene and child protection. These have been very helpful lessons to us especially since a lot of us did not go to school, so this is the first time we are learning these things.
In our other seminars, we learn income generating skills such as tailoring, bead work and basket making. Some of us are now able to make table mats, pen holders and handbags for sale and to use at home.
Our lives have changed since we joined the program. We can learn about the Word of God and personally, this has really transformed my life. The skill lessons have sharpened us, and we are able to use them as a source of income. We receive medical screenings, and the doctors can identify diseases early. The center always takes immediate action. Our children are healthy because we receive food supplements, which most of us never used to be able to afford. Thank God our families are always well-fed and healthy.
Yours faithfully,
Esther