We know that God is working before we arrive and will continue to work after we depart. Our goal is to support and encourage the local people who are at work showing God’s love to their community. Our hope is that our presence can help the Sodzo staff and the people they minister to feel loved, seen, heard, and valued.
Prayer Guide
Below is our schedule. We ask you to come along with us and support us through prayer. Each day has prayers specific to what the team will be doing or the people that we will meet. We encourage you to lift our team up in prayer and be the Church together with us!
Here is a list of the team participants so that you can pray for them specifically during the trip: Ryan Saunders, Jerry Helm, Loise Hundley, Carl Hundley, Lisa Wilson, Larry Perdue, Tammy Lawhorn, Carolyn Leachman, Bill Hartsfield, Honor Hartsfield
Friday, September 13: Our team will begin to travel today. We will drive to Washington DC and then fly to London. Please pray for a safe, smooth journey.
Saturday, September 14: Our team will continue to travel today. We will fly from London to Nairobi. Please pray for the team members from Bonsack. Pray that we will grow in our appreciation for the global church, and that we can see God at work.
Sunday, September 15: Our team will drive from Nairobi to Maua. Maua is the city of roughly 50,000 people where our team will stay and work. Pray for the people of Kenya that we will interact with this week. Pray that we will be a helpful encouragement to the people of Kenya and pray that God will continue to bless the work that is happening through Sodzo.
Monday, September 16: In the morning we will visit a family strengthening group that is comprised of all men. Most of the groups are all women so our job will be to encourage and share with men who are stepping outside of cultural norms to help their families and communities. In the afternoon, we will visit the rescue center. We will share our stories with the kids and have the opportunity to hear theirs. We will lead a devotion and play games. Pray that the men in the groups and boys at the rescue center feel heard, seen, and valued by us. Pray that we are able to see them as God does.
Tuesday, September 17: This morning we will visit family strengthening groups comprised of women. We will interact with around 15 groups that all contain 20 women. In the afternoon we will return to the rescue center to help in the painting of part of the facility. In addition, we will meet with the social workers who operate the family strengthening groups to learn from them and share with them. Pray for the family strengthening groups. For the men and women who are seeking God and seeking a way to aid themselves, their families, and their communities. Pray for the social workers employed by Sodzo that do the difficult work of ministering to and supporting their fellow community members.
Wednesday, September 18: We will wake up very early in the morning and accompany the boys from the rescue center on a field trip to Meru National Park. These kids live very near safari locations like Meru National Park but many of them never get to experience them. Pray that the boys can see the beauty of God’s creation. Pray that they can experience joy and wonder.
Thursday, September 19: Our team will visit Clark Academy, a private school that operates as a partner to Sodzo. The school is for kids who cannot access public school. The students are given scholarships from other Kenyans and foreign supporters. Our team will then have a walking tour of one of the outlying towns that many of the boys at the rescue center come from. Pray for the teachers and students of Clark Academy. Pray for our team to have open eyes and hearts as we see first hand what poor, rural towns look like.
Friday, September 20: On our last day in Maua our team will visit a family strengthening group that supports HIV affected people and their families. This is an extremely marginalized people group in Kenya. Pray that feel heard, seen, and valued by us.
Saturday, September 21: We will drive from Maua to Nairobi. Pray for our team to embrace this last opportunity to learn about the people and culture of Kenya.
Sunday, September 22: We will fly from Nairobi-London-DC. Pray for safe travels and for thoughtful, meaningful reflection about what we have seen and experienced.
Sodzo International
“Our mission is to advance the well-being of the world’s most vulnerable children.”
“We envision a world where all children possess the opportunity to discover and actualize their God-given potential.”
“For every child everywhere: a safe place to become.”
Sodzo’s Focus:
1. Kids on the street
Homelessness is a state in which tens of thousands of vulnerable children find themselves in Kenya. Our social workers enumerate these children in our areas of operation and uncover what difficulties led to them entering the streets.
The longer children remain on the street the more “hardened” they become, often resulting in drug use and delinquency. Industrial glue is a commonly abused substance among street children in Maua, Kenya.
2. Direct reintegration
Staff will first attempt to return children to their homes. This can involve meeting a wide variety of the child’s family’s immediate needs, including concerns over food security, illness, and domestic violence.
About 70% of children found are returned via direct integration. This is the preferred method, as it reduces the level of trauma children experience on the streets and conserves scare resources for those in greater need. Many of these families also join the family strengthening program.
3. The rescue center
Street children who cannot be directly reintegrated are enrolled in the Watoto wa Ahadi Rescue Center (ARC). There they are cared for while the social workers and community advocates work with the children’s families to improve conditions in the home and prepare the children for reintegration.
In addition to meeting physical needs, the ARC provides trauma care, education, and a family structure. The ARC also employs a chaplain to provide spiritual guidance and counseling to the children and their families.
4. Family Strengthening
To stop the migration of children to the streets Sodzo target the upstream causes of child homelessness and vulnerability using a novel, community-based approach. The Kuja Pamoja kwa Jamii (“Come Together”) program recruits families with children affected by homelessness and their neighbors to meet in a weekly support group of 25-30 families.
In these groups they provide each other:
weekly microlending opportunities
emotional and spiritual support
subject matter expertise on common issues (sanitation, HIV care, domestic violence mitigation, etc.)
social capital and other benefits
— all as a means to uplift the community and correct the factors that pushed the children to the street.