The time our team spent in Gemena where Ledia, our Area Development Project, is to unfold, was enlightening and really impactful in terms of the severity of need. We left Gemena sensing the great call that God has placed before us: to stamp out extreme poverty in the Gemena region. Feeling the weight of the charge, we were inspired by the opportunity to see Kikimi, a World Vision Area Development Project, which has been underway for a few years. Seeing this project was such a gift! It gave us the blessing of seeing what an Area Development Project has the capacity to become!
In our time at Kikimi, we were able to speak to several women who worked cooperatively to develop each their own businesses in the market. World Vision supported them in their micro-finance initiatives, and the fruit of their collective labor allowed the women to have resources for all of their children to have school funds paid and uniforms provided for them to start the new school year this fall!
We were also able to visit a school made possible by the Kikimi project. While we were there, we had the pleasure of meeting a young boy who spoke of how difficult it had been to learn reading and writing while sitting on a dirt floor and using his own knee as the “desk” to hold his paper. With hope and excitement, this same boy joyfully shared that now, in the new school, where he sat at a newly furnished desk made by the men who live in the village, he was able to write as long and as much as he wanted! He spoke of his new desire to study and become fluent in French, specifically because of the access to education that comes along with learning the language. When asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, he replied, “I want to be the headmaster of this school!”
Finally, we went to see one of several clean water sources that are now installed throughout the community as a result of the Kikimi project. At the source stood a line of community members who would benefit greatly from the provision of the clean water there. As I looked through this clean water, it reminded me of the living water that flows from the gospel – the good news!
My faith is greater than ever that Ledia will provide these same kinds of blessings in the Gemena region, as we work, in faith, to support the vision cast there. We are not there yet, but Kikimi is the evidence that with hard work, commitment, and fervent prayer, Ledia will manifest the same kinds of blessings for the people of Gemena!
