I Don't Have Anyone Else: Education and Faith Are the Key

By Michael Mbito

I dont have anyone else, Jane Nungari said to me in 2006 when I visited her school and sought to speak with her and the other orphans who were in class eight. Janes saying this to me, as she plaintively looked up into my eyes, has stuck with me. She became the symbol which drove me to start up Child Aid Africaso that those academically gifted children who can not continue their education without a sponsor can find a special someone. Just as I did when I didn't have anyone else. From my own childhood, I understand the drive to lift oneself up out of the cycle of generational poverty. That cycle which, through no fault of ones own, keeps spinning around and around, with no way out. Ones only resources are prayer, perseverance, and patience. Yet with Gods guidance in the form of a miraculous bringing together of the need and the servant heart, those three resources prove enough. This is the mission of Child Aid Africa: we locate the children who dont have anyone else and offer them the gift of using their drive to excel in their education. We give them a chance to break that cycle. You are welcome to come, read, feel and see the place of I dont Have Anyone Else.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 28, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491867228

Michael Mbito

Michel N. Mbito PhD., C.F.L.E. Dr. Michael Mbito’s career history is in teaching as well as community development. He is the founder and director of four organizations: the Center for Adolescent Health – Kenya, IMANI Immigrants Ministry Knoxville, Tennessee, Child Aid Africa Inc., and Mission to Help LLC a global cross-cultural education and service program. Dr. Mbito’s credentials include: Ph.D., Human Ecology and Public Health, University of Tennessee U.S.A. 2004; M.S., Child and Family Studies University of Tennessee, U.S.A. and M.Sc., Populations Policies and Programs, University of Wales college of Cardiff U.K. Dr. Mbito initially trained as a secondary school teacher at the Kenya Science Teacher’s college Nairobi. Dr. Mbito has held college teaching and research positions in Kenya, the United States, and in the United Kingdom. His latest appointments was an assistant professor of Human Development and Family Science at Messiah College, P.A; An Assistant Professor Social Work, Sociology, Criminal Justice and Family Science and the Family Science Program Director at Anderson University, IN. Dr. Mbito’s research focuses on: Parents’ Influences on adolescents’ development of social competences, Ritual in Human Life Course Transitions as well as Population and Family Health. His latest books include: Parent-Child Relationships in Sub-Sahara Africa: Adolescent Development of Social Competence and the Kikuyu Circumcision Ritual, Irua Ria Anake. In the Population and Family Health arena, his works include – research onto the Constraints to the Adoption of Modern Contraceptives in Sub-Sahara Africa - The Need for Population Education in the Context of Social and Cultural Shifts.

Book preview

I Don’t Have Anyone Else

Education and Faith are the Key

Written by Michael Mbito

Edited by Helen L. Walker

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© 2014 Michael Mbito. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 02/26/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4918-6723-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-6722-8 (e)

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Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Acknowledgements

Chapter One The Story Of The Boy, Michael Mbito

Chapter Two What Is Child Aid Africa?

The Applicants To Caa: Their Stories Before Caa

Faith Ongiri

Constance Chihanda

John Ateleng

Stephen Njota

Charity Wanjiru

Jacqueline Nthenya

Careb Mboya

Washington Abuto

Crista Nduta

Idah Kiama

Rahab Murugi

Jennifer Waringa.

Edna Akinyi

Mariam Nthnya

Julian Wamucii

Mercy Watau

Ladiah Gachina

Peter Muriu

Leonard Ngaruiya

Peter Mwathi

Rahab Chibunze

Simiyu Musumba

Chapter Three The Caa Kids: Their Stories

Francis Opiyo

Chege Gathuku

Janet Rombo

Ezekiel Ngacha

Eluid Amata

Ezekiel Kanyanja

Pauline Litondo

Nathaniel Opiyo

Paul Ngari

Edward Maingi

Rahab Wanjeri

Chapter Four What Can Happen With An Education: Mbito’s Story As An Adult

Chapter Five What Next? The Future Of Caa

Child Aid Africa’s Immediate Need

You Are Invited To Join Caa In A Trip To Kenya

About The Author

FOREWORD

I don’t have anyone else, Jane Nungari said to me in 2006 when I visited her school and sought to speak with her and the other orphans who were in class eight. Jane’s saying this to me, as she plaintively looked up into my eyes, has stuck with me. Even today I can hear her voice and see her face. She became the symbol which drove me to start up Child Aid Africa—so that those academically gifted children who can not continue their education without a sponsor can find a special someone. Just as I did when I didn’t have anyone else. This sponsor must of necessity be outside family and friends because there are no financial resources there.

From my own childhood, I understand the drive to lift oneself up out of the cycle of generational poverty. That cycle which, through no fault of one’s own, keeps spinning around and around, with no way out. One’s only resources are prayer, perseverance, and patience. Yet with God’s guidance in the form of a miraculous bringing together of the need and the servant heart, those three resources prove enough.

This is the mission of Child Aid Africa: we locate the children who don’t have anyone else and offer them the gift of using their drive to excel in their education. We give them a chance to break that cycle.

INTRODUCTION

Child Aid Africa is founded on the model of my life. Faith gave me meaning and purpose. Education held the key to the greatest levels of individual growth I could imagine. I discovered this while at Muongoiya Primary School. Being older and more mature influenced my choices and my level of social interaction and, for the first time in my young life, I felt a sense of high status and respect from teachers. Once that seed was planted, I began to grow into the man who was compelled to found Child Aid Africa and give back what I had received.

My own life convinced me that the combination of educational opportunity and the gospel for already motivated students allows for a process of transformation. When the understanding and the practice of the privileged ones humbling themselves to stand alongside the children occurs, all will see themselves in new light. This is the beautiful light of the gospel of love and justice and equality. The light of transcendence which creates the vision of an expansive world. This world is shining, awaiting us—outside the confines of the box whose walls all too often enclose our view of the world, making it a small and rigid place without windows and doors. Child Aid Africa offers the opportunity for this new vision to be practiced.

The goal of I don’t have Anyone Else is to share the true stories of the effects of poverty and HIV/AIDS on children in Kenya and the power of education to change children’s lives for the better. Yet, confidentiality is an essential factor when sharing other’s stories. Telling the truth can backfire in one’s life; for example, the stigmatizion of people with AIDS is a very real factor today. To protect the children’s privacy therefore, I have carefully followed an identity protection structure. I have adapted pseudonyms for each child featured. The exception to this is my own story. I choose to reveal my life story in full detail. I have shared with my family, friends, and volunteers of Child Aid Africa and they have agreed to be accountable to the details which I have shared.

This book begins with the story of my life, so that you can gain some insight into the life of a typical CAA boy or girl in some detail. I appreciate the opportunity to share these memories with you, as it was healing for me to write them. I chose to write it in third person, a story of the boy instead of I, perhaps the boy who is like every boy who needs the chance of an education, even though the particulars are mine.

Of course those particulars are different for each child, yet I have also found that in many ways the patterns of generational poverty are strikingly similar. You are likely to notice this in the second chapter, as you read 22 of the application essays in which the children explain their circumstances that show their need for sponsorship. This chapter also includes the story of how Child Aid Africa got started and formed its basic structure of operation.

The third chapter includes interviews of 12 CAA-sponsored student scholars. These are the stories of their experiences before CAA, during their current schooling, and their dreams for the future as well. These stories show, in perhaps the most profound way, the impact that CAA can have on children’s lives as God’s transformative tool.

The fourth chapter continues with my life as an adult. I include this to show the difference that an education has made in my life, where it took me. I consider each of my opportunities a miracle arising out of the seed of my early education.

Finally, the book concludes with a chapter of Child Aid Africa as it is growing today and into the future.

Allow me to call attention to the acknowledgements page following this introduction. The people on these pages are of course the heart of CAA. They are the people who make it a living entity, who are humbly living alongside the recipients of CAA scholarships in a variety of ways. Let me note here that I chose not to list those who have given the gifts of their finances, time, and other materials in any kind of ranking order. All of the servants listed are essential to CAA. In God’s kingdom, perhaps the ranking is not what is important; perhaps, we are to look past amounts to what each heart offers in response to God’s call. As Director of Child Aid Africa, the gratitude that comes with this listing knows no bounds.

—Michael N. Mbito

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

—To Rev. Tim Clark, former pastor of Faith Formation, Central Baptist Church; Directional Pastor, Brookwood Baptist Church, Birmingham AL; co-founding board member of Child Aid Africa, who met with me for 4 months and provided a sounding board for my ideas that eventually led to the formation of Child Aid Africa; for providing support of your staff to our ministry even to this day. You have been an enduring pillar of encouragement and support without which we would not have seen the successes we enjoy today.

—To Dr. Charles Parker, Director of InterFace Ministries; former pastor of First Baptist Church, Jacksboro, TN; for the generative fellowship and lunch sessions at the Strip while I wound up my PhD work at UT; for your encouragement to seek partners as I contemplated the forming of Child Aid Africa; for providing leads to your network of Christian friends and rallying them to support CAA; for your support of the program each year.

—To Jane Njoroge my wife: for embracing the vision of CAA and walking the baby steps at the beginning with me; for your encouragement and support even when it didn’t make sense using family resources to grow the work. Thank you for your enduring trust in me throughout the journey of making CAA a reality.

—To Mbito Njoroge and Kiguru Njoroge; you are the first CAA team when we met the first CAA program recruits in Kenya; you have graciously, It’s okay dad when I wasn’t able to fully accommodate your need because there was a task to be accomplished for CAA. Thank you for taking ownership of the ministry of CAA and for telling your friends about your dad’s ministry.

—To Dr. Larry Fields, Senior Pastor, Central Baptist Church (retired); for your encouraging words, God has brought you to our church door and we accept you as part of our family.

—To Robert Bowman: for your generosity and friendship; for creating time for our breakfast meetings.

—To Dr. Dale Bales and the Liberty Christian Church; for providing the seed funding to set a structure for CAA during our inception; for continuing your faithful partnership with us each year.

—To ProVision Foundation; for providing CAA with the start-up funding when we most needed it.

—To the family of Lisa Pay – Morgan, Madison, and Lisa; together with the Mbito family, we conducted assemblies in middle schools in Anderson, IN, to inform the world of students about CAA’s work. Thank you, Lisa, for continuing this work and extending it to the Jewel Human Services at the Morning Start Church at Indianapolis, IN; for the many students’ donations from your family and schools; for your invaluable contribution to this book: the interviews with HIV/AIDs orphans during our 2007 mission trip. Your contributions of money, time, and diverse resources in kind have been a key foundational attribute for our organization.

—To Prof. Lisa pay, Shaina Taylor Laymond, for you role in building rapport for the CAA 2007 mission trip and conducting the interviews with HIV/AIDs orphans in 22 schools.

—To my editor of I Don’t Have Anyone Else, Dr. Helen Walker, Professor of English, Messiah College. Mechanicsburg, PA; for keeping the banner up when I was down with mild depression and could not keep our writing deadlines. You stoked my passion to keep going; for your admirable patience to continue writing and prompting me on and on; for the many recording sessions at your office; for working on the transcripts from the recordings; for editing the manuscripts countless numbers of times and providing needed hard critiques; for taking this project to heart as your own; for your spirited and enduring remark, I do not know where it will lead to; I do not care about that; I am ready and willing to assist writing it.

—To