please, please pray
for this.
when i went to kenya, joska captured my heart. i loved all the communities we spent time in, but this one stands apart from the others. while i only spent 3 days there, it was unbelievable how quickly and the magnitude with which my heart loved these people. i left with tears and deeply long to go back. i really love this community and the people there. this absolutely breaks my heart. please pray for these children.
Hope Rescue Centre (HOREC) is located in The 410 Bridge community of Joska and is a home to children who are orphaned by AIDS. It was started by a group of Field Health workers, who saw the plight of these children and are trying to help the most vulnerable. All of these children have been affected by the AIDS pandemic; and some have been diagnosed with HIV and are receiving treatment.
We heard very disturbing and tragic news from HOREC about two weeks ago. We didn’t report this information right away because our Kenyan staff has been trying to get the facts of the incident. We also wanted to inform the sponsors in the U.S. first.
Here is what we know… In the middle of the night about two weeks ago, several men (perhaps as many as fifteen) armed with machete’s entered the HOREC compound in search of money. They held the children in the main house for several hours threatening to kill a three year old boy if money was not found. When they determined that there was no money at the home, they attacked and raped two young girls (11 & 13) and the matron.
The gang of men robbed other homes in the area and to our knowledge they have not been caught. To the best of our knowledge, the search is continuing for the gang.
The police were called immediately after the gang left and the girls and matron were rushed to Nairobi hospital. The 410 staff, along with our partner BrightPoint for Children, have arranged for counseling for the children and matron. Joska leadership and the community have mobilized to comfort and counsel all the children who were deeply traumatized.
A wall was constructed by the community around HOREC and an alarm has been installed. A village elder agreed to donate a plot of land for a police post. The leadership is working with the government officials to determine what the government can do to improve security in the area.
All of us at The 410 Bridge, along with our partner BrightPoint for Children, ask for your continued prayers for these children. We don’t have words to express our feelings of sadness and frustration over this crisis. Please lift them up.
In Him,
this is a post from the 410bridge blog.
