Healthcare

 

She met God as she lay dying on her mud floor. Alone and in pain, Betty called out to the God she knew had to be “out there,” the God she had rejected this far. Her prayer was simple, yet desperate. “If there is anything I can do for you, restore me, God!”

God indeed spared Betty, and has since been using her in mighty ways to bring hope to others. She has come to know Christ’s love for her. Shunned by everyone else in the world, Betty found God’s acceptance for the first time ever among the ELI staff. “I actually began to feel like a human being again,” she confessed.

 

Betty now knows that God has a purpose for her life. She spends her time visiting and encouraging the sick, speaking openly about her status to break the stigma that accompanies it, educating people about AIDS, and testing and counseling others.

 

Ask Betty about her dreams, and she’d tell you with intense sincerity, “I need more of God. I do not need riches or the things of this world. I was so dirty, but God lifted me out of my mess. I do not want to be the same Betty today as I was yesterday… I am being transformed.”

 

Through ELI’s health and AIDS ministries, Christ is transforming countless lives on a daily basis.

 

Tumaini na Afya (Hope and Health)

The ELI Health Ministry focuses and aims to empower the poor and oppressed to live healthier lives—physically, emotionally and spiritually. This is done through prevention, curative treatment and palliative care.

In the past 18 months, the health ministry team . . .

  • Tested 3,400 people in 24 villages
  • Held campaigns in 6 villages (12,000 people attended)
  • Trained 204 caregivers during 3-day trainings
  • Graduated 132 TBAs (traditional birth attendants)
  • Educated 3,400 students on HIV/AIDS
  • Did 28 home visits every week

In the next 5 years, our goal is to . . .

  • Train 532 women as TBAs
  • Train 500 men and women as caregivers
  • Test 8,800 pregnant women for HIV/AIDS
  • Test 30,000 individuals through the mobile VCTs
  • Educate 50,000 students about HIV/AIDS and early pregnancy
  • Hold 25 more campaigns, reaching 37,500, and testing 20,000

 

Evangelistic Outreach

The night before every HIV/AIDS campaign, a crusade (large evangelistic outreach event) is held at the campaign site. There is strong local church involvement at both the crusade and during the campaign. With the help of local churches, counseling is provided to all patients who test positive for HIV/AIDS. Furthermore, devotions are

shared at all trainings offered by the health team, and patients at the clinic often receive praye along with medication.

Kenya Anti-Alcohol

Drug and alcohol abuse often go hand-in-hand with poverty and poor health. Since 1999, more than 1,000 people have found freedom from alcoholism through this ministry. In a nearby village of Plateau, 430 women stopped brewing alcohol when they were offered the chance to join ELI in making paper instead. They have since all moved to stable jobs at local flower farms.

 

Targeting alcoholic men, women and youths, the KAA team’s heart and motivation is to be conduits for God, to see him free people from the grip of alcohol and drugs. They want to help alcoholics to be sober, to place their faith in Christ, and to learn specific life skills through the ELI training centers. They also desire to see the number of brewers reduced by empowering them economically and spiritually.

 

In addition to the two-month intensive discipleship program offered to clients who come to live at the KAA Drug and Alcohol Rehab center, the team does community awareness events to educate young and old about the dangers of drugs and alcohol. These events are offered through soccer tournaments (aptly named “Kick Drugs and Alcohol Out of Our Communities”), crusades and school outreaches.

 

The KAA on-site rehab program consists of the following:

  1. Day 1-7: Cold turkey detoxification (devotions, no lessons)
  2. Education: Offer assessment program in order to plan for future counseling
  3. Christian 12-step program
  4. Overcomers Program
  5. Celebrate Recovery

 

During the final phase of the program, clients spend a number of days at ELI’s Ukweli Training Center, where they learn basic agricultural skills. Since many of them live on small farms, they are empowered to farm their land and generate an income by using the skill acquired at the training center.

 

Another component of the fifth phase of the rehab program is taking clients to villages near and far (some have traveled as far away as Uganda) to share with others about the freedom they, too, can find in Christ.

 

Once they return to their homes, clients start their own accountability groups. More than 1,000 such groups meet in around Eldoret—all consisting of men and women who have found freedom and hope in Christ!