kenya

Africa Bound! Health Advocacy Around the World

 

So extremely EXCITED to share with you all that this September I have the opportunity to go to Kenya with a team from our local community to support and work with an amazing organization called HEART (Health Education Africa Resource Team). KENYA!!! {I still have to process that I will actually be going there} This organization empowers current and future generations of African people to improve their physical, spiritual, and emotional health.


These are all areas that I am extremely passionate about as a health advocate! Not only will we be in one of the largest slum areas in the world, but we will be working to make a difference in several impoverished areas.

On this trip we will be working specifically with a few different programs that are extremely powerful. One opportunity is working with a special group of women in their WEEP program. These ladies are HIV positive and have been abandoned or widowed by their spouses. Saving their lives spares the children from becoming orphans and a continued heartwrenching cycle of issues to trickle down among the family. Once the ladies are admitted into the program, they receive holistic care, medicine to treat their disease, and also ensures that their children have the resources to attend school. In addition, they attend a program over twelve months that teaches them skills, resources, and a trade so once they graduate from this program they can go start their own businesses and support their families. We have the honor of being there for this year's graduating class! Awesome!!! We are honored to celebrate them as mothers, celebrate their health in mind, body & spirit, as well as, celebrating a thriving future as they go begin their new businesses.

In addition to the WEEP Program, we will also be involved in a fundraiser for their Freedom for Girls Program. Freedom for Girls provides sanitary towels, panties, and health education pamphlet to schoolgirls. The need for the project came after the realization that many girls miss 4-5 days of school every month during menstruation. "When the schoolgirl menstruates she stays home. When she's older, that's all she'll be qualified to do."

It is absolutely crazy to me that something as basic as access to monthly female products, allows these girls to miss and drop out of school!!! Seriously! Education is key to all in this world and is a dealbreaker for these kids. One year's supply for one girl is $5. Just think, it costs a measly $50 a year to support ten girls so that they can stay in school... WOW! Makes me strongly consider my Starbucks habit.

I look forward to serving and working beside these people. I am excited to see all that the HEART organization is involved in while fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the lives they are changing, and the REAL difference they are making in their communities. Fortunately, we are blessed to financially be able to afford the cost of the trip. Although travel costs will be met, we have some specific needs that we are trying to fund that could use your financial support if you feel in your heart that you would like to support in that way. Three specific needs to be funded are:


  1. Reading glasses for the women in the program.

  2. $150+ for each of the 13 women in the graduating class so that they can start their businesses.

  3. Lunch at the park. A rare opportunity for the women to gather together and we provide lunch and activities for their children so they get some time out for themselves.


If you feel in your heart that you would like to support these needs, you can donate here http://bit.ly/ha1PYW . {please scroll down to Kenya-Sept. click Misty Smith}

Your prayers are greatly appreciated. I look forward to working with our gifted team as we

go support others in Kenya.


{I will be updating and blogging regularly the progress of this experience on this page of the site. Please check back regularly there to follow along as I go help promote and support health advocacy in Kenya.}

© Dynamic Edge Nutrition 2018