Imani Rehabilitation Home

In the previous blog "Amasiko 2008" I wrote about African values and that it seems that these are getting lost. Yes it is true, the influence of Western culture and especially Western media is very big and pulls people away from traditional values. Many young people want to live a modern life, with all those interesting gadgets seen on CNN, MTV etc, that make you a "real" person: modern clothes, mobile phone, ipod, vehicles........ The sky is the limit. But what else can we expect in a country where foreign organisations and institutions are enforcing the search for permanent economic growth and instilling the need for completely free markets as the way to development. BUT: How can we have continuous economic growth in a world with limited resources?
Recently I read an interesting book written by an economist: Richard Douthwaite, "THE GROWTH ILLUSION, How economic growth has enriched few, impoverished the many and endangered the planet".
It gives many explanations for the ever-increasing gap between poor and rich and many solutions for the creation of a more sustainable economy with a better and fairer distribution of wealth.

But back to the African values:
Last week I was invited for a graduation in Kampala. During a three days Journey seminar last year in Kenya I met a young woman working in an orphanage. She called me to come and attend the graduation. She had come with 8 other Kenyans to celebrate the graduation of one of her friends. One would say: well nothing special about that! But there was something special: All these kenians were actually orphans and grew up in a slum area. They live in the Imani Rehabilitation Home which was initiated some twenty years ago by a lady, Faith Imani. She came from a rural area and found so may children living in real poverty. She took some of them home, gave shelter, food and education. By now there are 6 children homes with over 350 children. One of the first kids, Julius Irungo, has now graduated at the Kampala International University with a Bachelors degree in business Administration (Bsc BA). What a courage and commitment to help the poorest in the society. The young man gave a speech where he expressed that he only managed to succeed because their Mother Faith Imani, had instilled values and principles into them, values of being honest, committed, have integrity and respect for oneself and others. Faith is religious person and attributes these values to the Christian religion, but are these not universal values, available in all world religions?

He described the temptations of the campus of much freedom, getting into alcohol, drugs, girls………which spoiled many of his friends. He himself only resisted because he had to think about the values of his mother, her sacrifices to bring him up to even University and all those brothers and sisters following him.

For me this was an extra ordinary experience, giving me hope for the future and showing me that there are people who do have values and principles, live according to them and try to hand them down to others. But all this is only possible if a secure and save heaven exist from where those values are practised. All in all Faith Imani is a good model for our project and example we should follow. I wish her all the best and hope she can find supporters to keep her good work up.