This month, we have enjoyed promoting chess practice in two of our missions in Turkana. We want to help develop the skills of this game to positively impact the children’s academic level and the teachers’ work.

Thanks to Colombian friends and other benefactors of the Kokuselei mission, we have been able to inaugurate 3 chess clubs in Todonyang, Riokomor, and Kokuselei. And to celebrate the First Chess Tournament at the Don Bosco Center in Kokuselei with amazing results and a very good experience for all.

Last Friday, at Startup Lions ICT Hub Loropio, we MCSPA missionaries of the Kokuselei mission held a two-day workshop with the 40 women volunteers of the committees responsible for our eleven Mother-Child Centers and the child-care agents of each centre. This celebration marked 15 years since the nutrition program was firmly established and has been running throughout in the mountain area of Nariokotome Parish. Two days in which we celebrated the generosity and perseverance of many people who have participated in concrete ways to the success of the program: hundreds of Turkana children every year who can eat twice a day and grow up healthy!

Our special thanks to the men and women of the committees of our mother-child centers, who have voluntarily and cheerfully served and unconditionally loved the children. All the families in more than 14 communities covered by the Kokuselei mission appreciate that these volunteers take on the daily responsibility of preparing breakfast, lunch and assisting in the daily hygiene of the children in a part of Kenya where hunger is still the main challenge to be solved.

We all thank the benefactors who have been part of starting and maintaining these children’s centres, thanks to which infant mortality caused by hunger has been reduced in this area. Our thanks also to the child-care agents, young women and men who help us to monitor the nutrition and health of the children and with various educational activities in each centre.

As missionaries, we want to continue to serve the most vulnerable and respond concretely to the needs of the children of Turkana.  And we trust that these children’s centres will continue to encourage their communities to transmit the virtues of generosity and perseverance, both essential to achieve true development.

Diana Trompetero MCSPA

Very recently, women from Kakuta, one of the Nyangatom villages that the MCSPA missionaries serve from Prince of Peace Catholic Mission (Nyangatom-Ethiopia), received a nutritional talk about the goodness of Moringa Plant.

This plant is an excellent source of green vegetables when there is little alternative food of this kind available.

Its high content of vitamin A, was highlighted during the talk. This is due to the high prevalence of lack of enough this important vitamin in the diet of the people in this area. This lack of such nutrient can cause visual problems in both children and adults in the long run.

Seeds were given to the interested spectators, and we taught them practically how to cook and consume it. We hope that the women who are so important in improving the life of the family, can convince themselves of the goodness of this super-plant. By this, they could improve their nutrition and reduce the risk of having eye problems, or any other problem related with the lack of vitamins in the future.

Javiera Olivares

At the St. Joseph’s Mother and Child Center at Muketuri, we welcomed Advent with a play. On 5th December, the children of Grade 3 acted out the passage of Isaiah which describes how the wild beasts would be led in peace under the protection of a little child who announces peace.
In this time of violence and uncertainty in the country, the MCSPA promotes peace through different activities.

Lourdes Larruy MCSPA

On the afternoon of 7^th September 2019, Bishops Markos Gebremedhin from Jimma-Bonga, Ethiopia, and Dominic Kimengich from Lodwar, Kenya, blessed the new St. John XXIII – Ekisil (Peace) Day care Centre for Small Children in Kakuta, Nyangatom, Ethiopia.

The celebration was very colorful and joyful as the people of Kakuta gathered to receive the two bishops, the fathers and the representatives of the MCSPA team who attended the celebration, with dances and songs.

The Day-care centre will cater for children from 3 to 6 years of age through different activities such as pre-school education, songs, health and higiene, agriculture, nutrition and peace education.

In addition the centre aims to be a place of encounter with the parents of the children, where relevant information will be shared with them, especially towards improving the education of the small children.

The new school is still in the process of being constructed. So far we have been able to complete one classroom, with a second one under construction, and the fence. We thank all the benefactors and friends who have been supporting this project, especially Trekking for Kids, Fundación Kyrene and Ekisil Group.

We continue asking for your prayers and support to be able to provide a better life for the children of Kakuta.

Fr. David Escrich MCSPA

Missionaries from Kokuselei and Teachers from the public and private pre-primary and primary schools of Riokomor and Kokuselei enjoyed recently an exposure trip to Our Lady Queen of Peace Integrated Centre in Todonyang. They learned from the educational work that both teachers and children are carrying out at the border. Especially the dedication and commitment they put.

We thank the entire team of teachers from the mission school and our MCSPA missionaries in this place for their warm welcome.

There are many teachers with a lot of talent teaching in Turkana, who contribute a great deal to improve the situation of the vulnerable children where they work. We hope to continue sharing more experiences such as this to grow together and make quality education possible in Turkana.

Diana Trompetero, MCSPA

From 8th-10th May 2019, the directors and heads of all Catholic schools under the Diocese of Lodwar underwent training on leadership skills at St. Teresa’s Center in Lodwar. The workshop was organized by the Missionary Community of Saint Paul the Apostle in collaboration with Strathmore University, on behalf of the Diocese of Lodwar. The sessions were conducted by a group of facilitators from Strathmore University in Nairobi. The key area that were looked at were:

a) Leadership and what it entails.
b) Catholic schools identity.
c) Mission and Vision in our schools.
d) Teaching, learning and assessment.

These key areas were looked into for the three days of the training by different facilitators, Fr. Steven Ochieng being one of them.

The last day of the workshop was graced by His Lordship Bishop Dominic Kimengich, who urged the directors and teachers to focus on the mission and vision of the Catholic private schools in the diocese for the betterment of the Diocese and Turkana county at large.

Fr. Andrew Yakulula MCSPA

On 11th May 2019, our standard 8 candidate class of 2019 were privileged to attend this year’s education day held in Lodwar. They were accompanied by the school director Fr. Andrew Yakulula and four teachers. All the Catholic sponsored schools were present. The function started with the Holy Mass, presided by His Lordship Bishop Dominic Kimengich, the Bishop of the Diocese of Lodwar. Thereafter, our school was awarded a trophy and two certificates for being the best Catholic run private school in the Diocese of Lodwar for our exemplary performance in the last year’s KCPE examinations.

The function was crowned by speeches from different invited guests. Our beloved bishop urged all the students to put all their efforts in their studies because it’s through education that those who are less fortunate in the society can be able to in the same class as the rich. We were motivated to work extra hard and thus we believe that through prayer and hardwork, we will always achieve the best.

Fr. Andrew Yakulula MCSPA

The children and families of Riokomor community celebrated on April 29th the blessing of their new preschool, St. Teresa’s Mother and Child Center.

This educational center is one step forward in a long journey of hope. This was already started by our founder the late Fr. Paco Andreo and the Missionary Community of St. Paul in this area of Northern Turkana many years ago. For this reason, the members of our community thanks those who, for almost twenty years, have accompanied the families of Riokomor in improving their living conditions through water infrastructures, health care, nutritional care of the young ones, the support of primary education, and all those initiatives that have allowed us to bring the Good News in this place.

Thanks to all this and to Sta. Teresa’s Mother and Child Center, the youngest children will be able to consolidate the foundations of a more dignified life for all their families. We thank our benefactors and friends who are making a better future possible for all of them.

Diana Trompetero, MCSPA

The children and families of Riokomor community celebrated on April 29th the blessing of their new preschool, St. Teresa’s Mother and Child Center.

This educational center is one step forward in a long journey of hope. This was already started by our founder the late Fr. Paco Andreo and the Missionary Community of St. Paul in this area of Northern Turkana many years ago. For this reason, the members of our community thanks those who, for almost twenty years, have accompanied the families of Riokomor in improving their living conditions through water infrastructures, health care, nutritional care of the young ones, the support of primary education, and all those initiatives that have allowed us to bring the Good News in this place.

Thanks to all this and to Sta. Teresa’s Mother and Child Center, the youngest children will be able to consolidate the foundations of a more dignified life for all their families. We thank our benefactors and friends who are making a better future possible for all of them.

Diana Trompetero, MCSPA