The Cove

Date:  October 31, 2010

Hello all, 

This is a written (and web linked) version of the introductory report I gave at Cove today, as leader of the Cove Kenya 2010 team.

1. Video introduction

Given that a picture speaks a thousand words, I thought it might be best to start with a slideshow of Cove’s 2007 trip.  You can view it at:

Cove Kenya Project 2007 HD720p

Cove Kenya Project 2007 HQ480p

(Once it loads, hit pause for a minute or so to let it load, and it should then play through.  Thanks to Paul Atterton for all of his help with the slideshow!)

The slideshow gives a brief snapshot of our experience in Kenya in 2007.  It shows the area, the people, and some of the underpinnings of the major health problems one encounters every day.   As the slides note:

2. Africa 

I have done quite a bit of third world travel over the past 25 years, including in China, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Thailand,  India, Kashmir, places where there is a lot of need.   A number of those places now have some real engines of hope. China and India, while they have lots of issues to deal with, now have two of the stronger economies in the world.   To a significant extent, things only got more hopeful in those place when the countries got enough infrastructure in place that health impacts became manageable, education became something of a way of life, and people could engage in micro-businesses and then build from there.  Its a big topic (see www.helpendpovertyinafrica.ca for more), but Africa has faced the biggest hurdles of all:

Time has moved on, and advances have been made in many parts of the world,  but the infrastructure that can allow people to become their own engines of growth has been very slow in coming to Africa.     In our little slice of this, my wife Sonia and I found ourselves in Tanzania in 2005, meeting with a group of woman near death from AIDS, asking for help, and with few if any meaningful chances.  The problems are very big, but it was clear that not answering those needs was not an option.  As Christians, we are called to help.  We simply can't ignore our neighbour, who is suffering so badly from shortfalls that are so unjust and so addressable. 

3. Cove's 2007 trip

Sonia and my first involvement with Cove came about in late 2006, when we stumbled in here, and learned that Cove that had its own interest in Africa.  I asked to come along, and had a few chats with Sean, and was fortunate enough to be invited on the trip that took place in 2007.    A friend of mine at Global TV was interested in the possibilities, and gave us some coverage, and offered to lever more.   Honey's Donuts had us over for a nice hot Saturday day for a fund-raiser.  And a number of folks with no connection with Cove Church sent us some pretty sizable donations. 

The trip was fascinating.  The report I gave at the time said 

Again, that is Africa.

There were some problems on the trip.  The well that was dug was dug in a place that was less than optimal, as became apparent once we got there.   Ten of the twelve of us got sick, 4 with malaria, one with typhoid and five with dysentery.   At the same time, we certainly were able to accomplish things.  We built a school building, bought school books, and food, clothing and medicine, and we put together a food program. 

As shown on the slideshow, we also managed, through some calls I made before we left, to avoid a 2 year waiting list and visit the first of Jeffrey Sach’s Millennium Villages, which was only about 100 km distant.  The project was having phenomenal success.   After only 3 years, the people in the area had clean drinking water, and water for irrigation, and had established ponds for fish farms, and were even investigating the bottling and sale of water.  With the provision of fertilizers, they were able to triple agricultural production in the first year, and double it again in the second, and the farms were now self supporting.  The Agricultural Director and the Education Director, both of whom were locals, described in detail how the project had achieved what it had, and offered to provide their assistance to us along the way.  It gave us a real sense of what might be possible. 

Unfortunately, after a year of discussions with the partner we had gone to Africa with, and a lot of soul searching,  we concluded that it would be best in the long run to seek a new partnership.  A group of us followed up on that, and after what we think proved to be a pretty successful investigation, we have now spent another year developing relationships with our new partner, talking through what each of us has to offer, and how things might evolve.  We have been impressed by everything we have learned about The Sharing Way, and are excited by the discussions we have had.  At the same time,  we want to see how things work on the ground, and have not yet committed to anything.  

There are six of us going.  Sean and Wendy you obviously know well.   Becca, my grade 12 daughter, is part of the team.   Two others have joined us, who have a tremendous amount to offer.  Rick Cook is a professional planner I have worked with for years, and who has had a number of discussions with our new partner, and is energized by the possibilities.  Another friend of mine, Lori Thicke, who is the founder of a translation business and co-founder of Translators without Borders has been part of the discussions, and is putting lots of effort in as well.   Everyone going is funding their own trip, apart from Sean, and so there is very little cost in any of this to Cove.  We haven't begun promoting a project (indeed we haven't selected a project yet, or committed to one), but people have already given funds totalling $1000, which I have provided to our Treasurer for the project fund.  (We will make sure whatever happens that those funds are expended on a worthwhile project in Kenya.)

We leave in 12 days.  While we are away, we will be:

If there is to be a project, the people in Africa are the ones that will be shouldering much of the load of it, and we need to know what they can do, and what they want to do, and that the fit is a good one.   After we get back, we will be having some further significant discussions here about what we at Cove want to do, what concerns there are (and how they might be addressed), and what the opportunities are.  For now, we simply ask for your support and your prayers.  If you want to learn more, ask any member of the team.  If you have suggestions, same thing.   

Peter Kenward

Date:  December 5, 2010

Hello again,

This is a written (and web linked) version of the introductory report I gave at Cove today, as Project Coordinator of the Cove Kenya Project. As you will know from the report I gave before we left, my expectations were high.   We had spent a good deal of time with the CBM and The Sharing Way people in Canada, and they were proving to be very solid - competent, open and big hearted. What we hadn't yet done was meet the folks on the ground in Africa.   That has now happened, as you have heard, through the 6 of us that attended in Kenya from November 13 to 28, 2010. Its a pleasure to report that our experience in Kenya exceeded our expectations and hopes by quite a ways. The people on the ground, both with CBM and the Sharing Way, and their partner church in Africa, the African Brotherhood Church, were terrific. They were helping people in a great deal of need:      - we met a number AIDs orphans, facing a very rough life.  As one story out of many, by happenstance we met one little boy who was one of two still alive out of what had been 6 kids and two parents, who had pretty much lost all hope and decided to stop eating to do himself in;      - we met blind kids, who had very luckily gotten the chance to go to school, in a land with no social safety nets (see

http://fivekennys.blogspot.com/2010/11/kangundo-blind-school.html) ;      - we met very poor farmers, eeking out a subsistence life, and facing starvation time and again in times of drought;      - we met countless kids with poor education opportunities, attending a polytechnic institute that was built around little more than a sewing machine and no cloth, and with little to turn to support themselves thereafter;

The openness of the aid workers we met regarding the problems they were facing, and the struggles they had had, was very impressive.  So were their skills and talents. We pressed everyone we met with all manner of questions - from the details of their programs, and the approaches they were taking, to their successes and their failures, and their books. They were very responsive. We also pressed them show us the context they work in, and how their activities fit within it.   We met and got the perspectives of two leading government officials, being:      - the District Commissioner for the county we were in (in effect the equivalent to the Chair of the local Regional Board), and      - the Regional Water Manager, who is responsible for all water issues from Nairobi to Mombasa, an unbelievably complicated job.   In the same vein, as a result of my friend Lori's participation, we met with:      - lead officials for Google for Africa (see http://www.covechurch.ca/blog/googles-mission-in-africa), and      - the head of the African Medical and Research Foundation’s Kenya office, and we learned a lot about how some of the lead organizations in Africa view things, and what they are doing to improve health and technology in Africa.

We spent lots of time with all of these people, and used the time we had as effectively as possible.  The meetings quickly moved from superficial (but important) meet and greets into a good deal of subtlety. 

We saw numerous projects, and learned a lot about their approaches.  Its a small example, but instead of going in and digging boreholes, CBM and ABC work in partnership with those in the community to build weirs (or small dams).  Numerous people in the community provide the rocks and the water and the  labour, resulting in a greater sense of community ownership, and self worth, and training to be able to reproduce the effort themselves.  CBM and ABC restrain themselves to providing cement powder and re-bar, and a construction contractor providing direction. The net effect of all of this is that we can report that we are in a situation where:      - we can help people in great need, and

We have also found ourselves with partners that want, and can really use, some things that we happen to be in a position to offer. The CBM and ABC folks we met are a solid base of talented people, but they are short on resources relative to the enormous tasks they have at hand. The resources they need include, but are not primarily financial.  While well targeted financial resources can certainly be put to great use, this is more about knowledge exchange, skills training and partnership than it is about hard infrastructure.   Probably the greatest need is for:      - simple brainstorming, hand in hand, about how to better carry out, manage and coordinate the functions that need to be carried out;      - training and research, in cost benefit analysis, possible new micro-businesses and a variety of technical skills, and      - administrative infrastructure, such as a decent computer with skype and a projector, to allow us to share knowledge and support on a regular basis. From our experience in Africa, there are huge advances possible here. We have opened up the door to bringing in some very talented people who are keen to help.  Benefitting our understanding and inspiration on this trip were:      - Rick Cook, MCP, MCIP, ITE, who has knowledge and expertise in all kinds of infrastructure and planning issues, and      - Lori Thicke, the Co-Founder of Translators Without Borders, who has skills and networks in translation, which can be very important in a land where language compounds a number of other barriers. (Even if the correct basic health information gets out into impoverished rural areas, it is often not in the language the people in the area speak).  

There are lots of others we will be approaching.

The next step is put together an outline of next steps (the first cut at a project plan, which I am working on a draft of now), and confirm Cove`s interest in participating in the project. 

If you have any questions, please ask.  If what we are reporting resonates with you, I would love to hear from you about your areas of interest and how you might contribute.  Give me a call, or send me an e-mail at pkenward@telus.net. Thanx.

Peter Kenward