Spring 2007 Newsletter

Warm and much greetings are coming to you like an antelope jumping from the air! (Jenipher Oyoko Opond) And thank you for your continuing support for Double Joy. 

News from Doublejoy

Chrissie Hinde: I had a lovely time at DJ when I visited for three weeks leading up to Christmas. It is always a real treat to see Mum (Mary Hinde), the staff and the children, but this time I found the morale seemed particularly high.

Many of the children I knew as little tots are now growing into confident and articulate young people. They love to talk about what life in Britain is like and how it compares with Kenya. The long awaited arrival of electricity has been a great blessing for all at DJ, mainly for the light it brings in the evenings. You can tell how it’s given everyone a boost and makes me think about how much light, even the artificial variety, affects how we feel. The watchmen feel safer at night and the children are able to enjoy their evening activities without having to strain their eyes through the muted light of oil lamps. The staff also love being able to play their radios and cassettes in the staff houses.

Tree Pendant £15

AIDS

Although Double Joy is thriving, AIDS continues to be a major killer in the community. Anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) are now much more available, but the take up rate has not been as good as expected and this seems to be a combination of fear and stigma, and that the drugs can only be tolerated if taken with sufficient food. Due to extreme poverty people can’t rely on having enough to eat throughout the year. I saw a cartoon in the national newspaper with the caption: ‘Now we’ve got our ARVs let’s sell them to get some food.’

Freakish Weather!

While I was at DJ during what should have been the light rain season, there were some torrential downpours causing flooding of homes and roads. On my last night at DJ, in the comfort of a concrete house with tin roof, I waded through 2 inches of water to get to bed. But the mud and thatch houses found in the neighbouring homesteads were much more vulnerable with thatch roofs caving in under the strain of the downpour and rivers bursting their banks and washing houses away. Christopher Odera (14) writes:

‘In Kenya now we have a lot of rain and I have not seen such a thing in Kenya. Most of the rivers are bursting their banks. Many people do not enjoy, like people in the biggest city in Kenya are suffering. The running water went with their houses and now they have nowhere to stay.’

Water

Eric Roseden: Historically, when Double Joy’s harvested rainwater was exhausted they paid local people who owned donkeys to fetch water from Lake Victoria, about a kilometre away.

However, the lake water has recently been contaminated by green algae and is undrinkable. This has enforced use of local ‘ponds’, muddy pools of rainwater, which are stagnant and therefore potential breeding grounds for germs and amoebic parasites, not to mention mosquitoes!

When I arrived, Double Joy was paying local people to dig a runoff channel into an excavated dip in the land downhill from the orphanage, in readiness for the forth-coming rainy season, so that a new ‘pond’ would form, to the benefit of neighbours and Double Joy alike. Within the 3 week period I was there the pool was beginning to form and fill up.

Letter from Florence Oyola

Dear trustees and friends of Double Joy

We are happy to take this time to pass you New Year’s greetings.

How is the weather in the UK? Here in Kenya it is cold with a lot of rain. After a long duration of drought we are getting rain that has been destructive. We and most peoples families have been flooded by water. Most people are accommodated by friends or at the shopping centres.

At Double Joy, Dorothy (the vehicle) is now having a problem when starting, unless she has human support to get going. It seems as if she has a problem.

Chrissy (Hinde) visited. We welcomed her, and for many days in Double Joy it made the month to run with joy: singing, dancing and story telling. In fact we would like her to come and stay once more.

Right now our electricity is working actively. We have a photo copier and duplicating machine, which are doing a lot of useful work. Now also the new television is opening up our eyes to the world around. Like the case of Saddam Husein, which we take as a historical record. We are praying for peace because so many people have lost their lives because of this man.

In penning off this letter by telling you that your work and co-operation are really making a great difference to our lives at Double Joy. We also have the strength to make the whole compound a happy place.

We are happy for the assistance that all of the 'friends' give to Double Joy each month and we pray for more blessings.

Best wishes for the New Year

Florence Oyola (Double Joy Correspondent)

Brooch £15

We are sad to say that Florence Oyola, correspondence coordinator at Double Joy, has been unwell in the last month and is currently off sick. Please hold her in your thoughts and prayers. We hope she will be well soon.

£ Fundraising £

Donation Certificates are not just for Christmas!

Thank you to all of you who chose to give these as gifts this Christmas. This helped us raise an additional £825 this Christmas. Please remember these can be given as gifts all year round. Please send your donation for £5, £10 or more, payable to ‘Friends of Double Joy’ to Pauline Brennan, 25 Watery Lane, Lancaster, LA1 2SQ. Email: brenfamp@hotmail.co.uk

Cards and Earrings

The Brennan family also makes lovely hand-crafted cards and bead earrings – contact details above.

Hand-made Silver Jewellery

(Pictured throughout Newsletter)

Mary Stone makes silver brooches and pendants, and sells them in aid of Double Joy. All profit, at least 50% of the price goes to FODJ.

They make fantastic gifts. To order, or obtain a flyer with all 27 designs, contact Mary Stone, 23 Priory Crescent, Kents Bank, Grange-over-Sands, LA11 7BL, Tel. 01539 534443.

Celtic Pendant £15

Not Only Money!

As part of their enterprise curriculum, Year 10 students at Up Holland High School decided to find ways of helping Double Joy. Students sent Christmas cards to the school recently and then developed some more practical ideas to help.

As the Farm can now access electricity, one of the trustees informed us that a laptop would be a really useful piece of equipment to assist the children’s learning. At Up Holland, we had the idea of asking the Marketing Department of Skelmersdale College if they could help. The pupils contacted Dawn Hughes, the Marketing Officer at the college, which donated a laptop fee of charge and will be taken to Double Joy as soon as it can be arranged.

Thank you Up Holland High School and Skelmersdale College!

Double Joy

Double Joy, Oh Double Joy
You show in me
I now know peace
Because of you
Shine Double Joy, Shine

You are my clothes and my bed,
My bread and my books,
Shine Double Joy, Shine.

Class six (age 12)

Obituaries

Colin Aiston 29th March 1927 – 4th February 2007

It was with great sadness that Friends of Double Joy learnt of the death of Colin Aiston. Colin was a member of Lancaster Quaker Meeting, and it was there that he heard about Double Joy Children’s Farm in Kenya. Colin began to support Double Joy regularly, and always showed a great amount of interest in hearing news of the children and reading letters from them. Those of us who were able to attend Colin’s funeral heard friends speak of a loving family man, who delighted in his children and grandchildren, and there can be no doubt that his love for them was extended also to the children of Double Joy. He will be greatly missed by us all, and I am sure that friends here and in Kenya would wish to express their sympathy for Colin’s family. In the words of one of the staff at Double Joy, may they all ‘rest under God’s umbrella’. 

Jenni Stephenson

Laura Alexander

Laura was a member of Ashley Hall Church for almost 40 years. Her family and friends asked that gifts be given to 2 charities in lieu of flowers.

'There were a range of emotions and feelings expressed at Laura's funeral at Ashley Hall Church. Sadness and loss from close family and friends, who will miss Laura's wisdom, warmth of friendship and generosity. However there were many testimonies to Laura's life being one fulfilled with a sense of purpose. Love, integrity and selfless devotion towards her family. A small lady with a big heart who though unassuming, left a big impression upon people around her.'

The Business of being a Charity

Friends of Double Joy is constituted by Deed of Trust and is a registered charity, No.1087172.

The 8 charity trustees are responsible for making sure that we fulfil our objects, which are: “the relief of poverty, need, hardship, distress and sickness and the advancement of education and protection of children in Nyanza Province, South Western Kenya (the area of benefit) particularly those children at Double Joy Children’s Farm.”

Starting in the next edition, we’d like to introduce trustees and other supporters.

Wendy Pattinson

Christmas Newsletter

Please send your contributions to the Newsletter by 31st October, to:

Wendy Pattinson, 9 Colchester Avenue, Lancaster, LA1 4AX.
Email: wpattinson@btinternet.com