News from Kenya
The first new L'Arche community in Africa in 15 years is being established in Kenya at Nyahururu in the Great Rift Valley.
The new community will provide a home and valuable work opportunities for local people with learning disabilities. At the same time, the project is aiming to change hearts and minds with its “come and see” programme. Designed for young visitors, this initiative aims to help dispel the myths and tackle the stigma of learning disability.
Initially the project is being supported by St. Martin's, an organisation set up to meet the needs of orphans, street children and people living with HIV/Aids. In order for the project to become completely integrated into the local culture, and independent of St. Martin's, it needs to encourage and build the relevant skills among the local population. Two long-serving members of L'Arche in the UK and Poland, Dominik and Agnieszk Karolak, are spending three years in Kenya, working with the newly recruited Kenyans, to help find the balance between the local culture and the values and practices of a L'Arche community.
£80,000 has already been raised. This appeal is one of two L'Arche initiatives being supported by the Fr David Gemmel Fund however further support will be needed to reach our target of £150,000, for the skills building and property costs. Your generosity would be very much appreciated. If you would like to support us, please visit JustGiving.com
Dominik and Agnieszk sent this report…
It seems hard to believe but L’Arche Kenya is already in its second year. Our family arrived to Nyahururu one year ago with a mission to help find the balance between the local culture and the values and practices of a L'Arche community.
The community is still new and people are still motivated by the initial energy to build the community of their dreams. Solidarity with other L’Arche communities has been very supportive and communicating the gifts of the people with learning disabilites in a culture where there is much stigma and suspicion, continues to go well.
However, our mission is full of challenges. It’s not always easy to distinguish between cultural differences which are core to the local culture and those which should be challenged. (L’Arche is a challenge for any culture!).
This first year was full of discoveries, learning ways of working with each other, ways of capacity building, ways of sharing our experience without imposing solutions or pointing out ‘right’ answers. We haven’t avoided frustrations and even mistakes at some times, but the fruits of the work undertaken together are very visible: a house full of life and laughter, busy workshops overloaded by orders for good quality candles, Christmas cards and biscuits, and confident core members forming short and long-term assistants, through mutual relationships.
