You truly are a shinning light. It was so great to see all the amazing people working together. You will ALL make a difference. Keep up the fantastic work!! Thinking about you!
I am a few days late with this post, because I am still trying to wrap my head around the conditions in Mathare Valley. Really. It's one thing to see or hear a media news report of such an area. However, it is an entirely different story when one witnesses the same conditions in person.
Likewise, even when experiencing these issues through the eyes, ears, and camera lens of a person one knows, loves (and trusts completely), a much higher sense of poignancy, compassion, and perspective is stirred-up in the hearts and minds of the "second-party" observers. That would be US.
I can't manage to get these images out of my mind, and the faces of the children follow me everywhere. There are over 500,000 that call Mathare Valley their home. Think about it -- 500,000!
Psychologists tell us that, when referencing the Nazi Holocaust, and learning about the 10,000,000 people that were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved, humiliated, and tortured, it is an unfathomable statistic -- impossible to grasp -- unless, you and/or your friends/family were victimized.
But, there was a retrieval of a little girl's diary -- that caused our hearts and minds to break and our eyes to fill with tears when, at the end of the story, we learn that she ultimately became one of the 10,000,000. Just ONE -- ahhh, yes -- ONE we can powerfully relate to! -- ONE. She was an endearing child with a zest for life and appreciation for beauty -- no matter how dismal her surroundings. She was an eternal optimist. Though completely devastating at the end, the book was the key that truly riveted rhe mass majority's perspective to the atrocities that were committed.
It is, indeed, very difficult to imagine 100,000,000 different individual personalities; their hopes and dreams; who they loved; what their vocations were; how many doctors and scientists that might have contributed to improving the world; teachers and artists; students, musicians, innocent children; authors, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims alike; historians; and future world leaders.
The faces of the children, that Julia and the Maji Mazuri team have photographed, have become my "ONE." When I envision any one of those beautiful,wide-eyed, smiling faces, and multiply it by 800,000 starving people -- all squashed within a few miles of muddy rubble filled with garbage and human waste, it is then that the profound inhumanity of it all permeates my soul and I see masses of INDIVIDUALS -- all with different lives, and each with separate tragic stories of how their paths, fraught with difficulties, led each of them, one by one, to a life of oppression and poverty. A life fraught with AIDS and/or HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis. The tin shacks and cardboard shanties with no indoor plumbing. The 6x8 living spaces housing 8 to 10 people. The abuse, violence, and prostitution. The smells. The lack of clean water.
Now, take that all in. Close your eyes, and imagine what it might feel like, (and especially for a child), to be waking up every morning amidst such dismal conditions ... ----------------- An amazing woman, Wanjiku Kironyo, is the founder of the Maji Mazuri Center. If you doubt, even for a fraction of a second, that intention, coupled with the actions of ONE person can be the impetus towards healing that which would otherwise be considered a lost cause, I gently urge you to read the short story below that describes the beginning of the Maji Mizuri Center -- the inception and fruition of a single dream.
If you are willing and able to join forces in support of this great cause, click on the the second link which will explain how very easy it is to become a sponsor.
May God bless Wanjiku, the Maji Mazuri staff, volunteers, and everyone that helps, in whatever way they can, to support Maji Mizuri's continued creation of daily miracles, inspiration, and hope for what was previously a hopeLESS environment.
I think you're amazing and I'm so happy you get to be amongst others that have passions equal to yours when it comes to helping others. Love you!
ReplyDeleteYou truly are a shinning light. It was so great to see all the amazing people working together. You will ALL make a difference. Keep up the fantastic work!! Thinking about you!
ReplyDeleteI am a few days late with this post, because I am still trying to wrap my head around the conditions in Mathare Valley. Really. It's one thing to see or hear a media news report of such an area. However, it is an entirely different story when one witnesses the same conditions in person.
ReplyDeleteLikewise, even when experiencing these issues through the eyes, ears, and camera lens of a person one knows, loves (and trusts completely), a much higher sense of poignancy, compassion, and perspective is stirred-up in the hearts and minds of the "second-party" observers. That would be US.
I can't manage to get these images out of my mind, and the faces of the children follow me everywhere. There are over 500,000 that call Mathare Valley their home. Think about it -- 500,000!
Psychologists tell us that, when referencing the Nazi Holocaust, and learning about the 10,000,000 people that were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved, humiliated, and tortured, it is an unfathomable statistic -- impossible to grasp -- unless, you and/or your friends/family were victimized.
But, there was a retrieval of a little girl's diary -- that caused our hearts and minds to break and our eyes to fill with tears when, at the end of the story, we learn that she ultimately became one of the 10,000,000. Just ONE -- ahhh, yes -- ONE we can powerfully relate to! -- ONE. She was an endearing child with a zest for life and appreciation for beauty -- no matter how dismal her surroundings. She was an eternal optimist. Though completely devastating at the end, the book was the key that truly riveted rhe mass majority's perspective to the atrocities that were committed.
It is, indeed, very difficult to imagine 100,000,000 different individual personalities; their hopes and dreams; who they loved; what their vocations were; how many doctors and scientists that might have contributed to improving the world; teachers and artists; students, musicians, innocent children; authors, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims alike; historians; and future world leaders.
The faces of the children, that Julia and the Maji Mazuri team have photographed, have become my "ONE." When I envision any one of those beautiful,wide-eyed, smiling faces, and multiply it by 800,000 starving people -- all squashed within a few miles of muddy rubble filled with garbage and human waste, it is then that the profound inhumanity of it all permeates my soul and I see masses of INDIVIDUALS -- all with different lives, and each with separate tragic stories of how their paths, fraught with difficulties, led each of them, one by one, to a life of oppression and poverty. A life fraught with AIDS and/or HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis. The tin shacks and cardboard shanties with no indoor plumbing. The 6x8 living spaces housing 8 to 10 people. The abuse, violence, and prostitution. The smells. The lack of clean water.
Now, take that all in. Close your eyes, and imagine what it might feel like, (and especially for a child), to be waking up every morning amidst such dismal conditions ...
-----------------
An amazing woman, Wanjiku Kironyo, is the founder of the Maji Mazuri Center. If you doubt, even for a fraction of a second, that intention, coupled with the actions of ONE person can be the impetus towards healing that which would otherwise be considered a lost cause, I gently urge you to read the short story below that describes the beginning of the Maji Mizuri Center -- the inception and fruition of a single dream.
If you are willing and able to join forces in support of this great cause, click on the the second link which will explain how very easy it is to become a sponsor.
May God bless Wanjiku, the Maji Mazuri staff, volunteers, and everyone that helps, in whatever way they can, to support Maji Mizuri's continued creation of daily miracles, inspiration, and hope for what was previously a hopeLESS environment.
http://majimazuri.org/news/item/93-my-history-in-mathare
http://majimazuri.org/become-a-sponsor