Our Long Term Commitment to Children

By Jennifer Wenningkamp

It has truly been a long and beautiful story since Lalmba’s humble beginnings in 1963. But this story isn’t really about Lalmba. It’s a story about wonderful and amazing people living in marginalized communities at the “end of the road” and the challenges they face. It is a story about their children whose future is limited by the lack of health care, education, and income for their families. And most of all, it is a story about poor people overcoming these challenges with the limited resources they have and the support of amazing people like you who believe in Lalmba’s mission and long-term commitment to these wonderful communities.

That is just as true today as it was nearly 60 years ago when Hugh and Marty started Lalmba. Working in these communities is not easy. Every small victory brings new and unforeseen challenges and yet with compassion, courage and faith great things can happen.

So it’s no surprise that in the remote area of Ethiopia where our Chiri Children’s home is, we face numerous challenges and delays, especially from the environment. We have spent the last couple of years making improvements to the children’s home and those upgrades have come along very well. As part of our plan, we intended to repurpose the existing boy’s and girl’s dormitories (built about 11 years ago) as part of a learning center once the new dormitories were built.

Unfortunately heavy rains have caused delays and early last year Aselefich, our children’s program director, started to notice that water had infiltrated the walls in the boy’s dormitory causing large cracks to form. Eventually the damage got to the point where she had to move our boys into the “big house” where everyone gathers for meals, homework, and family fun. So for the last five months what was a dining room now also has been serving as the boy’s temporary bedroom.

With the limited resources we have we had to reprioritize, but we are happy to say that a new dorm is being constructed! We found a builder who could urgently clear the rubble and rebuild the home with better materials. Today the boy’s home is nearly finished and everyone is excited about that good news.

Leading Together

By Rob Andzik

We believe that empowerment is a critical part of Lalmba’s “special recipe” and a cornerstone to a prosperous future. Rather than sending armies of western volunteers to solve the problems and do the work, we employ local people and whenever possible promote them into key leadership positions and then ask them how they would solve the problems they see.

In 2007, this became a reality when we handed over the management of Lalmba’s Kenyan programs to Marico Osiyo Awino. Marico was hired in 1984 as a carpenter and then started moving up through the ranks. He successfully managed and led the staff and programs in Kenya for the past 16 years through both good times and bad. You probably have heard his name before through our newsletters and if you follow our social media posts, you may have seen that this past January our Kenyan staff, along with members of the local community and Lalmba USA representatives, celebrated Marico’s retirement and thanked him for his many years of service. He has been both a blessing and a true champion of the work Lalmba has done serving the people in Kenya and we extend our deepest gratitude to him for everything he has done.

As with any organization, the immediate question when such a critical leader leaves is “who is going to take over now? Well, we have been working on that for quite some time. Fortunately we have a very strong leader who has been serving as our Deputy Project Director. Jenipher Atieno has been Marico’s right hand and Deputy for well over a decade and we are very excited to announce that she has now taken over as Project Director.

But that simply resolves who will be next. We want to ensure an enduring and prosperous future for Lalmba Kenya and the people in and around Matoso. Over the last year and with the help of our first volunteer in Kenya, Gruffie Clough, we have been conducting a leadership training initiative that the team in Kenya named “Leading Together”. Utilizing her background as an executive coach and working with organizations like Outward Bound, Gruffie put together a curriculum specially tailored for our leadership team and the challenges we face in and around Matoso.

The training aimed to empower the leadership team to effectively lead and manage their programs and staff, with a focus on improving the quality of our services and impacts they have. The Leading Together sessions consisted of workshops and one-on-one sessions with experienced trainers, covering topics such as team building, conflict resolution, and financial management.

Our New Volunteer in Kenya

We are excited to introduce our new volunteer in Kenya, Dr. Jamie Reed. He will be working with the clinic staff in Matoso and Ochuna for the next year. Here is a little bit on his background.

Immediately after my Army discharge as a Medic, my 3 children and I began serving communities in need. It began with ministering to youth groups within our country, with the heart filled with selfless service and love of our fellow man. I began my 11-year educational journey shortly thereafter and obtained my Doctorate of Chiropractic and Doctor of Nursing Practice degrees with a focus on HIV medicine. I then began serving in underserved communities suffering from HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases. These communities included those of Mexican descent and Indigenous peoples from the US and Canada. Being of African descent myself, it had always been my life’s goal to one day visit the continent of Africa. Once I was presented with an opportunity to serve in Kenya, I knew that my prayers were answered. I look forward to learning, growing, laughing and serving with the Lalmba family.

Each walker pays the cost of their own journey and is challenged with the goal of raising $10,000 for Lalmba. For more information, please check out www.lalmba.org/tnm. Most importantly if you are interested in joining us, or know someone who might be, please let us know! To contact us email tnm@lalmba.org or call 720-260-6785.