Social Services Worker
Since completing our MCC term in Kenya, we have returned to the Shenandoah Valley. I am now working about 3/4 time with the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Social Services Department.
March 2009: Jim and his wife Cathy recently finished an assignment as co-country representatives for Mennonite Central Committee, Kenya. They had overall responsibility for the program which includes food security, peacebuilding, HIV-AIDS.
2004: First Report from Nairobi: Our first few months in Nairobi have gone by swiftly. We are getting to know MCC partners and generally feel very good about our involvement here.
In the Kajiado district of the Rift valley, MCC is involved with the Maasai in ‘food security work’ (a term covering crop and animal husbandry, food and crop storage, marketing and water development) as well as the Generations at Risk program with issues surrounding HIV/AIDS. We presently have food for work projects with the Kenya Mennonite Churches close to Lake Victoria and are working with several other programs in capacity building. Educating future leaders is so important.
The drought is certainly taking its toll in some areas of Kenya. Water is at a premium. An exciting, new to us, development is the construction of ‘sand dams’ which have the potential to transform the surrounding areas into oases and had already benefited several communities close to Kitui, where former MCCers had taught several years ago.