by Michael Omondi
edited by John Seale
God is intimately invested in the people that society tends to forget. Despite incredible progress in recent decades, a lot of work is still needed among poor communities. The World Bank reported in 2022 that 719 million people worldwide, 9.2% of the entire world’s population, live on less than $2.15 per day. Sub-Saharan Africa fares the worst, with 40% of children living in extreme poverty.
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Without a doubt, we are the people that God is calling to be his hands to touch the poor, and his feet to walk among the disadvantaged.
Eradicating poverty requires tackling its many dimensions. In working with youth alone, the challenges are many. The youth are the future of any community, and the hope of slum communities lies in its optimistic teenagers. No one ought to give up on the young, but they need tremendous investment because they are struggling.
According to UNESCO, the teenage pregnancy and motherhood rate in Kenya stands at 18%. That means that nearly 1 in 5 teenage girls, age 15-19, have either given birth or are pregnant with their first child. Lack of education, including reproductive health, early sexual initiation, abuse and violence, and harmful cultural practices like child marriage drive these high rates. Ministries like Ndoto are not only filling a gap, we are intervening to reduce the number of young ones at risk in poor communities.
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Looking back 20 years ago, when I was growing up, there was no place to report issues like rape or child molestation. Nobody risked speaking up because they were so ashamed, as it would attach a permanent stigma to their family and the teenager who had suffered already. Today things have improved, and there are organizations and individuals who take the burden seriously of protecting and keeping an eye out for young boys and girls.
As one whose great-grandparents lived right here in Obunga, no one has to tell me about the pain of people who live in poverty on a daily basis. This is what has moved my heart to return to the Obunga community and serve its people. The people who hold our great hope, and have a future, are the children and youth. Although I see hopelessness in their faces daily, year after year I continue to hold a deep belief in the words of 1 Samuel 2:8: “He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with the princes and has them inherit a throne of honor.”
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Over the years I have kept thinking, praying, and asking questions regarding poverty. As I kept reading, God’s word enlightened me. Various verses throughout the Bible encourage us to be generous and compassionate toward the material needs of those around us. For example, Leviticus 23:22 commands the Israelites not to reap to the edges of their fields in order that the poor and migrant may have free access to some of the produce. Proverbs 19:17 and Matthew 25:40 both say that whoever is kind to the poor gives to the Lord.
When Jesus spoke in the temple, he read from Isaiah 61:1: “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.” It’s not random that when Jesus begins his earthly ministry, he declares that he will be good news for the forgotten and marginalized. Both the materially and the spiritually poor were the focus of his ministry. That Jesus should choose these words from the whole of the Scriptures should tell us how important they are to Him.
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At Ndoto, our heart is to align with God’s heart. J. Oswald Sanders wrote in Spiritual Leadership, “Eyes that look are common. Eyes that see are rare.” If we are truly to be incarnate among the poor, we must go beyond looking at the conditions, and see as God wants us to see. Ndoto is equipped today to stand together, shoulder to shoulder with other organizations, to participate in the rebuilding of people and places broken down by poverty. We are focused through our various programs to educate, disciple, and develop at risk families.
Education is one of the chief poverty breakers. One of my graduate professors said, “Education is the ladder that enables children of the poor and children of the rich to one day sit at the same table.” The global pandemic and a series of crises in Kenya have dealt a severe blow, resulting in years of lost progress from which we have yet to recover. Yet Millennials and the Gen Z are blessed to have opportunities not afforded to their predecessors.
Through our sponsorship program, education is within reach. Through our discipleship programs, we target youth who are at risk of depression, anxiety, stress, and hopelessness. In our student holiday program, kids bring their friends to Bible studies so that they have a plan to keep busy doing something positive. In boxing we bring boys together at an early age and capture them, showing them an alternative direction for their life. Through our soccer academy we have seen the number of boys and girls surge, because we are not just about the game. We speak life into them, and challenge them to choose education when other choices are offered to them by those who do not care about their futures. We even have an IT center offering certificates in computer training.
We believe that through all this God is bringing more people into his Kingdom, knowing Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior of their lives, while we are also providing tangible opportunities to those who had none. Many things have gotten so much better over the years, but we know there is still a lot of work to do.
