JUST A REMINDER!  If you signed up with the Kroger Community Rewards Program, you need to take a few minutes and re-sign up in APRIL.  You can click on to the Kroger Plus Card here and you will be directed to the web site.  You will need your Kroger Plus Card and the number, 90964.  Once you have signed up again, simply swipe your Kroger Plus Card when you shop at Kroger.  Kroger will donate a percentage of your bill to help the girls at St. Clare Center.

The students and staff always welcome visitors to St. Clare warmly. During February, a team of teachers and workers spent time working with the administration and children at St. Clare.  On their first day at St. Clare, the team toured the facility and met the administration.  At two p.m., children carrying green plastic chairs out to the mango tree could be spotted.  The team took the front row and children from classes 1 through form 4 welcomed the team.  The children recited poems, sang songs, told stories, danced and made their visitors feel incredibly welcome.  Some of the performances were in English, while others were in Swahili.  But it didn’t matter because their voices filled the area with joy and laughter.

Rounding out the group traveling to Kenya in February is Mary Ibianski.  Mary has taught for thirty two years, starting in the Detroit Catholic school system at St. Scholastica.  She is presently teaching in the Chippewa Valley School District in Macomb Township, Michigan, where she has been working with middle school students for the past twenty seven years.  She has also taught seventh grade special education at Chippewa, but the majority of her time including the present involves teaching sixth grade math, science and health.  While at St. Clare Mary will be teaching the skeletal system and girl’s health particularly puberty to the fifth, sixth and seventh grade girls.

In early January, the children at St. Clare Centre for Girls welcomed their new principal, Madam Sylvia.  The staff and student body received her with grand applause when Father Riwa welcomed her.  Madam Sylvia attended her first staff meeting where Madam Sara turned over directorship of academic affairs.  (Madam Sara will continue as the administrator.)  We welcome Madam Sylvia.

When Bud and Sue return to Kenya each year, a small group of folks accompanies them.  These volunteers work at the Children’s village, sharing their expertise, experience, skills and talents with the children and the staff.  One of those volunteers who will be traveling to Kenya in February 2013 is Kate (Kathy) Woods.  Spending over forty years of service, Kate has been a health care administrator, educator and psychotherapist.  Presently she volunteers with several hospice programs in the Chicago area.  While at St. Clare, Kate will be exploring topics including emotional development and the formation of good character with classes five and six.  Together, she and her students will be discussing how stories and myths share life lessons.  In addition, she will being some journal work with her students.

WELCOME ABOARD, KATE!

(St. Clare Centre for Girls is based upon four pillars.  Purity Karenga describes the pillar of education in her essay.)

Education is light and light is bright which means that education brings brightness.  Without education in this developing world, you are limiting yourself.  In Kenya, education is a basic need.

The education at St. Clare Centre for Girls is unequalled.  St. Clare is different from other schools.  When St. Clare began, some looked down on our school thinking that it could not succeed.  However, through God, it did succeed.  The students began learning under the trees outside since the school building was not completed.  This was not conducive for learning.  Teachers had to dictate notes to us since no appropriate places existed for blackboards.  We found it difficult, but since we had determination and the belief that education is the key to success, we persevered.

As the days went by, the school accepted more students who were really in need of education.  The director brought different teachers from different backgrounds to teach us.  We really enjoyed our education since many of us could now read as well as write.  With time, our school curriculum was enhanced.  Our teachers are devoted and working very hard together with the administration and the Sisters to educate us spiritually, morally, emotionally, physically and psychologically.  In addition to learning in the classroom, extra curricular activities have been added.  We have different clubs to join and in which to participate ranging from movement to drama to music to scouting to environmental studies to journalism.  We also have football (soccer), volleyball, netball, handball and badminton.

Kenya has begun to develop.  Education has brought us many new and foreign things.  Scholars and scientists are discovering new things and this happens because of education.  Our teachers always tell us that successful people are not super human but are ordinary people with extra ordinary persistence and determination to pursue their education.

The girls of St. Clare believe in this and are very determined to achieve their goals.  We follow these educational role models who are so optimistic about life.  As St. Clare students, we have dreams that we want to make into realities.  There is only one way we will become nurses, doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects, neurosurgeons and teachers.  That was is EDUCATION!

Friends of Kenyan Orphans, the staff and girls of St. Clare Girls’ Centre wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving.  We are so thankful for each of you and for all you do for St. Clare and the girls.

Each year, the Archdiocese of Detroit holds a Gathering of Leadership from among the sixty- three men’s fellowship groups in the Archdiocese.  This year the meeting was held at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral where Father Riwa concelebrated the Eucharist with Msgr. Mike Lefevre, the rector of the cathedral.  After Mass,  Father Riwa met with the group to personally thank them for their support over the years, which enabled some of the building of St. Clare Centre.  Father urged the group to continue their support as he has a building which houses 350 girls, but he must continue to feed and educate them.  This gathering was Father Riwa’s final presentation before departing for Kenya.   (Father Riwa is pictured above with Gerry Connell, the coordinator of the fellowship groups.)

Brother Francis Boylan, CSC (pictured with Father Riwa) held a special event at the Samaritan Center on Detroit’s east side for the members of his board and major donors.  The day included Father Riwa celebrating and with a meal following the liturgy.  Brother Francis directs human services for youth and families in eighty of Michigan’s eighty-three counties.  Constantly on the road, he is probably the best fundraiser in the state.  Involved with one of the most respected human services agencies in Michigan, Brother Francis is a most personable, approachable and humble man.

A display consisting of photos and a DVD showing the progress of St. Clare Centre over the past six years invited people to stop and learn more about St. Clare.  Bud and Sue Ozar are very grateful to Brother Francis for including Friends of Kenyan Orphans and Father Riwa to his special “thank you” day for his supporters.