Dear Friends,
Greetings from Kenya! We trust that you are doing well in the Lord. As we reflect on the past year, we are humbled by God’s faithfulness and providence. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic that changed the way people do life all across the globe, we as MOHI still have a lot to be grateful for.
While as an organisation many of our programs were affected due to the pandemic, we were still able to realise many achievements, and we want to briefly share a few of these successes with you.
MOHI educates over 18,500 children in urban and rural areas throughout Kenya. These students receive spiritual guidance, quality education, medical care and two meals a day.
We are pleased to announce the official launch of the Coram Deo center in Molo that happened in February this year.
Wallace and Mary Kamau at the Coram Deo launch
This year, our school calendar was affected after the government directed that all schools be closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. When this directive was issued in March, our first term activities all came to a sudden halt as we moved to comply with the requirement.
One of the activities that was affected was the inter-school track and field competitions which are held every first-term. This year, 247 of our students had participated in these events and out of these, 91 had qualified to compete at the county levels. With schools closing, the games were put on hold.
To keep all our pupils engaged while at home, our teachers adopted online learning using the WhatsApp platform as well as making home visits to issue hard copy learning materials.
In October, the government directed that all grade four, grade eight and grade 12 students report back to school until December. Our social workers have gone all out to reach out to our learners and we had a 98% return rate.
Students reporting back-to-school in October
When the year started we anticipated that we would have graduations at the end of the year and students transitioning from one class to the next.
If all matters had held constant, we expected to transition 1,665 pupils from kindergarten to grade one. Some 1,225 grade eight students (599 girls, 626 boys) were expected to sit for their national exams and move on to grade nine, while 498 grade 12 students (259 girls, 239 boys) were expected to complete their high school education. We expected 321 of our alumni students to start their tertiary education (91 in university, 230 in middle level colleges).
Following a nation-wide change of the academic calendar, we look forward to having these students graduate in April 2021.
Also in the coming year, we will be launching a new center at Namarei and we have already recruited 139 kindergarten pupils who will start learning in January 2021. We are currently engaging with these pupils through a feeding program and as the students come to the school we also teach them various skills and engage in VBS.
Beneficiaries of the ongoing feeding program at Namarei center
We are happy to report that we were able to complete construction of classroom blocks, staff housing and a guest wing at the Olturot and Namarei centers. We also have ongoing construction projects across several of our centers.
At Mabatini, Area 2, Kosovo, Gitathuru, Joska and Ndovoini we are putting up tuition blocks. We are putting up a classroom block at Morokani, a dormitory block at Napuu and Joska as well as toilets at Namarei.
Ongoing construction at Gitathuru center
In addition to these completed and or ongoing projects, plans are underway for construction to begin in Kibarani (Kilifi) and also in Kiwandani and Mitangoni (Kwale).
We also broke ground for our Angaza Discovery Camp. Situated on the Kenyan coast in Kilifi, near protected forests and marine life, the MOHI students who attend Angaza will have hands-on experiences in innovative earth-keeping. Aganza means to “ignite or illuminate,” and the hope of the camp is to provide answers to ecological problems and other issues facing the MOHI families in Kenya. The answers will vary and will come out of commitments to the Creator and living in awareness ecologically. The Angaza Camp is founded on a promise of a bright and hopeful future for MOHI students and we look forward to its launch in September of this year.
With ICT being an integral part of every work space, this year, deliberate steps were taken across our centers to improve in this area. This was done through a process driven by the IT department and which entailed staff training, automating processes and improving available infrastructure.
Our Business Development Services department had a wonderful year! We had a portfolio growth of 49% with 523 new clients coming on board hence bringing our total number of clients to 7,154. Approximately $793,000 was distributed in loans helping thousands of small business owners from the communities we serve are now on a path to breaking the cycle of poverty.
Sylvester got a loan to fund his business
At the MOHI Technical Training Institute (MTTI), we currently have a total of 125 students spread out across MOHI’s Kariobangi, Pangani, Joska and Napuu centers.
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This year, we had 177 students graduate from MTTI. Seven of these studied welding and plumbing, 70 studied (ECDE), 4 studied knitting, 28 studied bakery and pastry, 5 studied beadwork, 30 studied fashion design and in the hairdressing and beauty department we had 33 graduands in total - 16 from Kariobangi, 10 from Pangani and 7 from Joska.
MTTI graduation ceremony at Kariobangi center
With the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus, we started production of 3-ply, non woven material high grade face masks at our Kariobangi center. Also, to keep learning moving forward despite being halted after the pandemic, we used the online platform to keep our ECDE learners in session and we were able to engage with 100% of the class.
Our former students are also reporting to us that they are getting jobs in the fashion design, welding and plumbing industries, as well as securing jobs in hair salons across the city. As we look forward to next year, we intend to further diversify our course offering by teaching carpentry, electric wireman and motor vehicle mechanics at our Kariobangi center.
Agribusiness continues to impact the students, their families and the community. Through agricultural clubs within our schools, students acquire skills in farming God’s way. These skills are transferred from the students to their families and other local community members.
The Joska farm
In 2020, we treated 10,335 patients through MOHI’s clinics. Of these 4,556 were treated at Pangani, 2,485 at Joska, 1,243 at Ndovoini and 2,071 at Napuu.
We held three medical camps for children with special needs. One in Kargi where we attended to 39 children, another in Morokani where we saw 35 children and in Baba Dogo where 44 children were seen. Out of these, nine children from Kargi, six from Morokani and five from Baba Dogo were referred to a local hospital for specialised care.
Medical camp held in Baba Dogo
We held a reproductive health training for girls in Nairobi and issued reusable sanitary pads to 180 girls. We have also started providing ultrasound services at the Pangani clinic and we have so far performed 12 obstetric ultrasounds. Our maternal child health clinics now also provide immunizations, family planning, ante-natal as well as postnatal care and we have served 1,025 clients so far.
To shore-up our clinics’ service provision, we have installed electronic medical records (EMR) for our Pangani and Joska facilities. We also received an Orthopantomogram (OPG) machine which will be used for dental X-ray and scans. We held training, for all our health staff, on Integrated Management of Childhood and Neonatal illnesses.
Temperature taking at one of the centers
The core of everything we do hinges around giving hope to the communities we serve by sharing the love of Christ with them and modeling it in practical ways. All our spiritual programmes are therefore geared at presenting the true Gospel of Christ so that everyone who hears will receive Him as Lord and Saviour of their lives.
Despite the challenges it presented, Covid-19 gave us the opportunity to model the love of Christ in practical ways. MOHI had a three phase food distribution process where a total of 25,865 food baskets were given to 12,150 MOHI families, and other community members, who had been adversely affected by the pandemic.
Food distribution at Bondeni center
This food distribution process provided us with the unique opportunity to share the gospel with those who came for the food and as a result, 478 people gave their lives to Christ. Our spiritual department has been working closely with these converts.
With the changing times, this year’s women’s conference was done online. Held on October 3rd, 314 of our ladies logged in and participated in the event hosted by Crossroads Christian Church whose theme was ‘Redeemed’.
Since it was not possible to have physical devotions during the Covid – 19 lock down, we started weekly online devotions which enabled us to stay connected with staff members. Starting November, we came back to the face-to-face arrangement but once a week and while observing all government protocols.
Before Covid-19 happened, and hampered travel across the world, we had received 98 visitors who came as part of teams from six partnering churches and others who came on an individual capacity.
These visitors partnered with us to offer teacher training as well as welding, tailoring, beadwork, craft and soap making training. They also held VBS sessions with students from Gitathuru, Kosovo, KB and Area 2; they sponsored field trip visits to various sites in Nairobi, conducted home visits and distributed food baskets. The community around Gitathuru, Area 2 and Korogocho Nyayo also benefited from an eye clinic that was held at MOHI’s Gitathuru center.
We are truly blessed to have faithful friends and partners and we look forward to even more fruitful interactions in the coming year.
2020 was a special year for MOHI - we marked 20 years since this ministry was launched. To mark this great milestone, we held 20 days of celebration where we shared devotionals, transformation stories and various cultural activities.
We have a God-sized goal to sponsor 100,000 students, build 100 schools, and plant 100 churches by the year 2030. And as we work toward this goal, we’ve realized that the future of MOHI calls for greater flexibility and autonomy over U.S. operations. After a large amount of prayer and careful planning, we transitioned MOHI's U.S. operations to an independent and dedicated MOHI team located in Phoenix, Arizona. This means that MOHI’s US operations are now functioning as a separate entity from CMF. You can learn more about the transition and the MOHI U.S. office, including contact information, here.
MOHI U.S. office staff
Wallace and Mary Kamau, Founders and Directors
This has been a journey of faith and what a privilege to be at the forefront witnessing God’s unfailing faithfulness over the last 20 years. We are truly grateful for your support and partnership over the years.
As we move ahead, we look forward to continue working together this coming year as God continues to transform lives through the hope of Christ in disadvantaged communities in Kenya and beyond.
Blessings,
Wallace and Mary Kamau
Founders and Directors
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