Posts Tagged ‘St. Clare’

Recently several students at St. Clare Girls’ Centre created a mural depicting St. Clare and St. Francis, the patron saints of the Children’s Village.  The mural pictured was designed and created by members of Class 6B.  The girls wanted to show both St. Clare and St. Francis in two ways: as the ordinary young people they were before they joined religious orders and as members of their religious orders.  St. Clare students have created other murals depicting the Nativity, the Last Supper and Pentecost.  Perhaps a new tradition has been born since last year when the art classes began celebrating significant feast days by doing dining hall murals.

Celebrating the feast day of St. Clare found the girls, the Adrian Dominican sisters, staff, and Father Riwa having a wonderful day.  The girls had special meals including pizza for lunch.  In the evening, they watched a movie about St. Francis and St. Clare and enjoyed popcorn, which is a great treat in Kenya. The next day, 30 of the girls were returning to their villages for their school break.  The girls learned a great deal about St. Clare and were especially impressed with her great concern for the poor.  They hope to share all they have learned about St. Clare with the people back in their villages .   

The girls display their creations.

Academic end of the year reports are in. The St. Clare girls are excelling. Even newly rescued children are earning top scores. Remarkable for children attending school for the very first time!!

During two years working in Kenya, one afternoon after another, I sat in my small make-shift office at The Children’s Village, listening to children talk of sleeping on stree verandas, foraging gutters looking for garbage, fighting animals for a crust of bread, and in desparation, eating cigarette butts to appease hunger pangs. I wondered if there could be any children lining as difficult an existence as these former street boys?

One year later I discovered the answer when a group of 140 war-torn children arrived at the village who witnessed their homes burned, their families lost of killed by machetes during the post-election violence of 2008. Clearly the children of Kenya continue to suffer. This past winter I returned to The Children’s Village. This time Father Riwa asked me to listen to the life stories of a few young girls recently rescued from the desert in northern Kenya, girls from the Samburu Tribe. (more…)