SHARE

During Summer 2008, five Emergency Medical Services (EMS) volunteers from the U.S. embarked on a two-week mission to Kenya to continue SHARE’s humanitarian public health work while building local relationships and resources. David Violante , George Contreras, Phil Suarez, Katie Drasser, and Scott Snyder did just that through training and development in the EMS System and Disaster Preparedness efforts, evaluating SHARE sponsored programs and assessing needs, and by building relationships in the rural healthcare centers and central Ministry Of Health.

SHARE sponsored orphans have recently won several academic achievement awards as Best in District for school year 2006 in the Suba district (population about 155,000), Nyanza Province, Kenya.

The award ceremony was a part of Parents Education Day held at the end of the school year, in December 2006. During the ceremony, Mr. Oguma of the Education Office presented SHARE orphans and SHARE social worker with 9 awards for:

• Best Adademic Performance
• Leadership Responsibilities
• Co-cultural Activities
• Best Sponsorship and Guardianship

In her free time, 83 year old Dr. Martha MacGuffie likes to walk, garden and ride horses, but twice a year, she travels to Africa, where she works with other doctors, nurses and lay people who dedicate themselves to the universal goal of improving the quality of life for Africans.

KENYA, Nov. 2006: We were flying low over the plains from Nairobi on our way to Kisumu, Kenya. I looked down from the airplane at the vastness below, and wondered how many soccer fields would fit end-to-end across that mass of land. I might as well have also wondered how many players would be AIDS orphans.

“It is a long way to go for a goat…”, Dr. MacGuffie commented dryly as she saw the commotion of chasing the little goat baby or kid as it is known. “Aha”, proclaimed everyone as a little boy emerged with the kid from behind the hut. Cyprina, the SHARE social worker, insisted that a photo be taken so we can show the two Ushas to the world on our web site. And so, dutifully and gingerly, I inched closer to the small but very frisky kid and prayed no one will ask me to put my arms around it. And so here is the photo!

Several of our very generous sponsors take a personal interest in the orphans they sponsor, examining their annual scholastic and social reports, corresponding frequently with the children, and exchanging dialogues through the mail. Many sponsors, however, are content in relying on their confidence in SHARE to deploy their contributions to get the most for the orphans they sponsor. And indeed I can assure you that your confidence is well placed.

It is with tremendous sadness we note that a longtime member of the SHARE family, Sydney Farber died on April 9, 2006 from complications of leukemia. He was 59. Syd was a highly energetic, innovative and charismatic member of the SHARE Board of Directors. He had unlimited stamina and was always contributing and encouraging new ideas to allow SHARE to grow.

SHARE interviews Alexandra, the organizer of the Textpattern fundraiser that raised money for the Double Joy Farm project.

The November/December 2005 issue (no. 12) of The Hook magazine features an article about SHARE titled “Making A Difference”. The text of this article is now available with the kind permission of The Hook.

It was with a great deal of trepidation that I went to Kenya in the summer of 2005. It was a very long time since I had left this country where I was born.