Feb 5, 2010

Visit to the Country Office in Nairobi

 After an amazing breakfast at our hotel this morning (passion fruit juice anyone? Yes, please!), we loaded up in the van/bus and headed to the CI Country Office. I literally got chills as we drove up the driveway. They have 75 employees, 5 of which were sponsored as children. These people are amazing...really. Passion for conquering poverty permeates everything they do.

There are 287 Compassion projects in Kenya, representing 70,000 children. Here is a map with pinpoints marking each project. I didn't get all the little pinpoints, but you can see the strings leading to the farther regions (not the best photographer!) 
This guy told me to take his picture.
 
This is the office of the PF's, or Project Facilitators. They each manage an average of 12 church relationships. Each Compassion project is run through a local church. They work directly with churches, teaching and empowering them to break the cycles of poverty. The PF's visit their churches each month, traveling great distances to many locations. (And we thought our traveling summers were difficult!)
                                     
Do you write your sponsored child? If you do...these are the boxes your letters are filed in as they come in the mail. The bottom box represents the project where my friend, Amy Harlan's sponsored child lives. 

And after you write your child and their letter makes it to the office, gets sorted by project and placed in the mail slots...it makes it way upstairs to these fine folks. They manage sponsor relations. New packets, translations, case files.  You name it, they do it.

 
And since I mentioned Amy earlier, here she is with our friend...oh my, I can't read my handwriting! I'll have to come back and update his name :)  He works with the LDP students. They had 158 applications come in for this program last year. 58 were accepted. These students are sponsored through college, as well as mentored in servant leadership. We will have 4 LDP graduates come over for the summer to travel on our teams and speak from stage about child sponsorship.

 
Curriculum is developed and written in the office and distributed to the projects.
 
  Susan's desk. What an amazing woman! She is our host, along with Martin. They go everywhere with us and take very good care of their guests. Hospitality at it's finest!
    
Child Survival Program: works with mothers and babies to provide prenatal care, safe deliveries, and basic education in nutrition and hygiene (more later-just got back from the home of a mom who's babies are alive because of the CSP-yeah, that's right. Awesome!)

Child Sponsorship Program: this is the 287 projects, 70,000 kids.

Leadership Development Program: College Sponsorship. We are spending this week getting to know the LDP graduates who will be with us this summer. They are some amazing people. More later.
  
  

Whoop whoop if you made it this far! Next up: Visit to the Kibera slum.

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