With Actions and In Truth

“If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3:17-18

Every year, thousands of global bloggers come together for one day to talk about an important issue, and this year the theme is inequality. Globally, inequality is seen in all major areas of life, including income, employment, education, child mortality, life expectancy, and access to water and health care. Therefore, eduKenya would like to focus this weeks' blog on inequality in Kenya. As an example, we will look at a family in the Mathare slum of Nairobi who struggles to survive day-to-day. It is early morning in Nairobi as we see this family in four snapshots.Here comes James, walking a great distance to get to his job. He passes by hundreds of bumper-to-bumper cars, most with a single occupant. As James peers into cars, the drivers avoid eye contact with this obviously impoverished man. James never completed primary school, and he feels fortunate to have a job where he earns $2.50/US for a long days’ work. Nevertheless, his earnings are spread thin to pay rent, feed his family of six (soon to be 7), and give a little to a cousin in urgent financial need.At home, James’ wife, Esther, has gone into labor with their fifth child in their rented, 3-room shack in Mathare. Neighbors are helping with the delivery because she cannot afford the minimal fee at a government-subsidized clinic, nor the cost of transportation to get there. How she wishes she could trade places at this moment with the pregnant woman being transported by ambulance to a state-of-the art hospital across town where she will deliver in clean surroundings, assisted by professional medical personnel with emergency equipment at their disposal, should the need arise.James’ 6-year old son, chronically late, is crisscrossing traffic at a dead run toward school. People cringe as they see the ill-shod youngster narrowly escapes impact with a school van. The van driver feels his heart racing at the narrow escape, while the six affluent occupants of half-empty bus are oblivious as each finds release from boredom on their smart phone or other electronic device.James’ cousin, Sharon, barely subsists in a one-room shack without electricity, water or sewage collection/disposal in the heart of Jangwani. She is grieving the recent desertion of her husband, leaving her almost destitute and the sole provider for their twin toddlers and teenage daughter. This morning she faces a difficult decision: Force her daughter to quit high school to care for the babies while she works, or lose her job. Sharon is employed as a domestic worker for a woman who lives in a 3-bedroom town house in a gated community across town. She has been late for work three days in a row due to difficulty finding childcare, and her employer will not tolerate more tardiness.Political, economic and social change, in addition to the pervasive corruption of humankind, has led Kenyans to look the other way, or with indifference, at others misfortune and suffering. In pre-colonial Kenya, the predominantly pastoral lifestyle was very difficult, but it led to communities that were inclusive, systematic, and always organized around the value system of the given tribe; communities in which neighbors helped and watched out for each other.The collapse of pastoralism accompanied colonialism, westernization and now globalization. It has brought about dependency on earned wages; loss of community as families move to find work; and increasing poverty and inequality as people gather in over-crowded cities, where employment opportunities cannot keep up with demand. Poverty and inequality has led to bitter and often tragic social struggle. Many who live in relative comfort keep a tight grip on their lifestyle, not willing to surrender even a bit to help those less fortunate. To make matters worse, some of the impoverished choose to benefit from ill-gotten gains at the expense of their neighbors, whom they terrorize and exploit.When asked about the inequality in Kenya, eduKenya Communications Assistant, Pauline Ng’ang’a, prefers to focus on the positive, saying, “It is refreshing to come across individuals and organizations that work to help break the cycle of poverty and inequality. eduKenya is a perfect example of this effort.”“Another organization, Kenya Youth Empowerment Program (KYEP), provides opportunities for people to break into the job market. Every year KYEP recruits young adults from three major Kenyan cities - Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa. Once selected, they train intensively for two months, after which they are placed with a participating business for 8-10 months. Most businesses retain the trainees as employees after investing time and training in them.”“KYEP has provided an opportunity for thousands of Kenyans to enter the workforce by providing the proverbial ‘foot-in-the door.’ In this way, previously unemployed people have their dignity restored as they become part of the taxpaying workforce in this hardworking nation.”Pauline continues, “This is just a start; a tip of the iceberg. There are millions of unemployed people, many with college degrees, looking for opportunities to work. It is imperative that we find a way to utilize this workforce to ensure a secure future for the people of this nation. The government certainly has a duty to the people, but it is also each Kenyan’s responsibility and duty to breach the ever-widening gap of inequality in Kenya.”We encourage our eduKenya partners to pray about the harsh realities of inequality globally, in Kenya, and in their own communities. In addition, may we choose to display the love of God toward others with actions and in truth as we share our material wealth with others less fortunate.