April 2010 Update  

Greetings from Kenya in the name of our risen Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who offers not only forgiveness of  sin to everyone in the world who puts their trust in Him as saviour, but also His Father in heaven adopts them as His children.

News

End of term one (Jan-Mar) has come, and ten of the boys from boarding school descended on the 20 who live there full-time. During the month of April, we have a “revolving door” and boys come in and out, going back and forth to their schools for mandatory tutoring, a dozen to camp for one week (thanks to a donor), and most of them going to visit a relative at least for a few days.  This is a challenging time for staff, keeping track of everyone and a stressful time for the Ahadi pocket as we pay transport for all of this coming and going, about Kes.350-1,500 per boy ($5 to $20) plus “tuition” for 2weeks usually costing Ksh.2,000 ($30) each!

We celebrated their “home-coming” end of term with a party at my house. They were treated by Lukenya Getaway to an afternoon at the pool, then came to our house for treats, a talk about Easter, and a special speaker on Peer Pressure. Just before returning to school for second term, 1 May, we will have a soccer tournament with 3 other children’s homes, and the mayor has promised to supply a trophy to the winner. We also will have an Open House on 2 May at which time the boys will receive prizes for various best behaviours and for good grades in school. At that time, we will also show our current plans for our new Ahadi home.

We are applying for a grant from a foundation so we can get started with a installing a fence, planting a hedge, buying a care-taker’s temporary house, etc. at our new property. Pray that we will succeed and will be able to begin thus “staking out” our new territory. We would also like to soon begin planting trees. A volunteer architect has met with us a few times to help us make some beginning sketches, and these will be unveiled at our Open House on 2 May. We also need to connect to town water but need neighbors to join us to pay for piping and keep cost down.

BOSTON MARATHON is in two weeks, and we hope to once again raise enough money to cover our second term school fees and other expenses. We are grateful to the members of the missions committee at Fairlawn Christian Reformed Church who really work hard to get people to pledge for this event and of course for the runner who is a relative of the first person who ran for us.
“The Community’s Role: Caring for Orphans and Vulnerable Children of Athi River District” on 23 March was a huge success.  Over 100 community leaders attended.  One of the District officers said he would like to see such conferences replicated all over Kenya. At the end of the conference, attendees said they wanted to see this be an annual event, and a dozen people volunteered to be on a steering committee to see to it this would happen. We now have the backing of those serving in District offices and heads of schools.  One of our Ahadi alumni sang and gave his testimony, and most people had never heard a former street boy talk about his life.  He was eloquent and made a big impression. The deputy police officer said she felt bad that she had just arrested street kids without realizing what they were going through. Thanks to some donations, we were able to allow many of these community leaders to attend at no expense, and thank you to one individual who provided the seed money that gave us the courage to move ahead and take on such a big undertaking.  We collaborated with the Daystar University Child Development Program and Vulnerable Children Caregivers of Athi River in putting this on.

                                                                 University Sponsorships

Several of our boys qualify for university, but we must have individual sponsors in order to let these boys take that big step.  For most, they can attend university for around Kes. 450,000 ($6,000) per year including transport, pocket money, textbooks, everything. We have 12 in university and college right now.  If you can help us get the others who are waiting, into university or other tertiary programs, we would be so happy.  Some are on semester and other trimester and have easy payment plans if needed. Please prayerfully consider it and let me know if you would like more details. Most programs start in August. 

Financial needs

We have used up the generous donations from last month and are once again in need of immediate help to pay the mandatory tutoring fees and transport mentioned above!

A Case In Point

Robert’s mom came from Uganda to Kenya as a young single lady and got a job as “house-help.” Soon, she became pregnant and gave birth to Robert but did not disclose who the father was.  After a short time, she became ill and died, leaving the toddler, Robert without anyone to care for him.  His mother’s employer was “stuck” with him and began abusing him so much that the neighbors reported the case to the children’s department.  Robert was then put in an orphanage where he was also abused for years, and he ran away.  He was found crying on the street and someone brought him to the children’s department who brought him to us as a pre-adolescent.  He is a likeable and very bright young man of 20 now but is not living up to his potential, partly because he has no one in world that he can call a relative.  He essentially doesn’t know who he is and is scared to grow up. He is in second year of high school, and we have decided to have him live at Ahadi  instead of being in boarding school because he needs to know we really care about him and are there for him. Every now and then we get special adolescent counseling for him.  We believe he will be venerable person some day, not a vulnerable child, God helping him.

Prayers and Praise

1.      Immediate needs for funding to send boys back to school for mandatory tutoring and home visits.

2.      Boston Marathon pledges that will pay second term school fees and other expenses.

3.      Grant to fence the property and provide housing for a caretaker.

4.      Thanksgiving for a successful conference and impact on the community.

5.      Thanksgiving for upcoming Open House and unveiling of our future plans for Ahadi

6.      Sponsors for our university boys.

7.      “Robert” who needs to have confidence that he can succeed and trust in God

In Christ,

Phyllis Masso, Ahadi Mom

 Financial contributions in the US may be made to our tax-deductible organization SCREAM--USA and sent to Dave Wassenar, 85 Heights of Hill St., Whitinsville, MA 01588 or contact him at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  for wiring info from other countries. 

PayPal can also be used using our  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  account. We have successfully received donations so far from England and Australia using PayPal.

Donations in Kenya can be deposited in our NIC Bank account, NIC HOUSE branch. Contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it for details.