AFRICA/KENYA - New model of development in Kenya promoted through community spirit

Nyhaururu (Agenzia Fides) - Nyahururu, situated on the equator, lies 280 km north of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. It is here that we find Saint Martin, a community based organisation with 1,300 local volunteers involved in six different programmes ranging from social rehabilitation of street children, care for the disabled, prevention of HIV/AIDS, promotion of micro credit projects and respect for human rights. Saint Martin community was started in 1997 by an Italian priest Fr. Gabriele Pipinato sent to Kenya by the diocese Padua, and a group of local volunteers. Today it has developed into a non profit organisation with over one hundred paid employees working on the different programmes together with a vast network of local volunteers active not only Nyahururu but also in surrounding villages, many of which can only be reached on dirt tracks through the forest. Each village has its own Saint Martin volunteers who visit the poorest families, report cases of illness, assist disabled person, and all this for no recompense at all.
Among the programmes offered, the sixth is the most important, it is called ‘community mobilisation’ . In fact Saint Martin's operators include 38 “community mobilisators” whose task is to build up a culture of solidarity. Education is another key sector in which the St Martin is active. In recent months St Martin operators visited 28 church centres, Catholic and Protestant, to promote awareness about HIV/AIDS: the specific aim was to help villagers realise that some of them may suffer from AIDS but that there are also other villagers willing to care for them. (AP) (6/5/2010 Agenzia Fides).