At the end of December last year, many Kenyan newspapers carried a story about more than 90 teenage girls in Kuria who had fled their homes to avoid going through Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Some of the 90 girls were recaptured and forced through this horrific practice. Among the girls that escaped was 11-year-old Nancy

By Muthoni Kihori (CMA Dajo Field Coordinator)

When his eyesight started to dim in 1999, Shawil Mach, 50, thought it was a simple complication that doctors would fix quickly. He visited a health clinic in neighboring Ethiopia but the treatment he received did not improve his condition. His eyesight gradually deteriorated until he could no longer see. A later assessment by CMA health care workers showed that Shawil suffers from River blindness (Onchocerciasis).

First impressions of Penina Saitaka are quite deceptive. Her wrinkled face, her traditional Maasai attire and her poised demeanor can easily pass her off as submissive. But that is far from the truth. Upon receiving Christ in her adult age she has always believed in safeguarding life, especially those of her precious granddaughters.

Soipei Nkulto, 60, has taken the opportunity that CMA and her partner, Jolena Watson, has given her to learn how to read and write very seriously. She displays a page from her exercise book with a grin on her face. She has now memorized the vowels and the alphabet, and can confidently recite both. Soipei is the oldest learner in the class…

A few days ago, Sofia, 28, was brought unconscious to our primary health care center in Dajo, South Sudan. Neighbors had found Sofia lying unconscious by the door of her hut, her three children, 8, 6 and 3 years-old, crying by her side. She was diagnosed with malaria, and acute hunger. Sofia and her children had not eaten for three days, as they waited for her husband to bring food from Mathiang Town. The food he went to bring is distributed by the UN once every week. Mathiang is only accessible on foot (13 hours’ walk) from Dajo Village.

Nakeel Primary School in Ongata Rongai Nakeel Primary School in Ongata Rongai is a crowded school, with 1,600 pupils. With just one 10,000 liter water tank, the school is bound to have water problems. Ongata Rongai is in the outskirts of Nairobi, within Kajiado District, where CMA’s arid and semi-arid upgrading programs run. Rainfall is

Elizabeth with her HIV positive son, Kevin By Tony Were She is short and dark, and her emaciated frame is painful to look at. Her dress hangs loosely on her skinny shoulders exposing her jutting collar bones. She is standing outside her crumbling house with four of her five children and a granddaughter. They are

By Agnes Takaa   One of CMA’s antenatal patients When Nyalup Jel, 36, was brought into the Dajo clinic in April this year, I could tell that she had labored for very long. She writhed in pain from the makeshift stretcher where she lay. Her husband and six male neighbors had carried her from their

Jacklina with her mother, Aguek Jacklina stands by her mother like a bodyguard. Dutiful and committed, she whispers gently and takes the older woman by the elbow to guide her around. Jacklina’s eyes dart back and forth, keen to register any reactions and possible discomfort: a daughter’s love for her mother. Her widowed mother, Aguek

South Sudan is barely three months old and the country is still weaning itself of old challenges. War and conflict continues to emerge in various parts of the nation, mostly caused by political tensions from past conflicts.