Nairobi, 19.09.20

Dear friends and partners of Uzimatele,

I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support and prayers, the Lord is faithful, he has taken good care of us. And I hope you have also seen Gods hand. Uzimatele family has been praying for you and your loved ones and we thank God that you are doing well around the globe.

The Covid-19 pandemic affected everyone either directly or indirectly, but we are grateful to God for his protection upon all the Uzimatele families and friends.

The Impact of the Pandemic in our community:

This is how Uzimatele ministry was affected and our community as well.

The children in the family Home who are in High schools were picked up suddenly from school and brought back Home according to the Governments directives. Those in primary schools also stopped going to school immediately, everyone was thinking that the situation would last for few weeks or one month then the schools would resume but the situation continued to worsen with negatives reports from CNN and local News. 

Everything looked like it was the end of the world, we spoke Hope to our children again and again to inspire them and to make them know that pandemic was a big threat to everyone around the world but there is still Hope because God will see us through.

The goverment was attentive to the homes and send urgencies to check on the safety of the children's in the home for the fear that the covid would be dangerous for children life. But we thank God that he took good care of our children and they are all safe and they are with us.

Education center was affected, there was abrupt announcement on Sunday in our evening local News that there will be no schools on Monday the next day. The children in our Education center did not come to school, the parents and the Teachers were confused.

We did not have funds available to pay the teachers, the children had not paid the small percentage that we have been charging them. We had not paid the monthly bills for the first term, the school was running in debts.

The parents of the school, the church members and our immediate neighbours all found themselves in a difficult situation because with the government directives to contain the pandemic the curfew was introduced and new order of working regulations. This did not go well with people in our community who are living in informal settlements and surviving on hand to mouth life, people without savings but with large families.

I thank God for using our friends from Germany and England and our friend in the U.S.A. You helped me so much to pay the outstanding bills, we paid teachers and staffs, we supported many families with food stuffs  and other items like soaps, hand sanitizers, etc. we supported some families to pay house rents because they were thrown out for not being able to pay.  We supported youths who did not have homes and we bought them food every day and they cooked and ate in the church.

Through your support I was able to pay the outstanding bills in the church and family homes and the ministry office. God used you so much and I will be forever grateful. Uzimatele family did not lack anything, all the 150 children in our Education center and 24 students in our scholarship program and all the members of Uzimatele community church and widows in our neighborhood, the teachers and volunteers were supported, and they smiled with their families.

I am also thankful for the Uzimatele BOD for the great work of coordination and communications and prayers. We looked like a big ministry because of the great impact in our community and unity of purpose. We are God’s family on earth with one goal to be part of the Kingdom influence by making someone smile because God loves Him.

We have been able to carry out renovations at the Education center during this time that the school had a long break. We thought that this is the best time to renovate the school, plant some trees, flowers, grass and fruits in the school compound. The work is not complete yet, we would like to finish the repairs and paint the school before the end of the year. 

The covid curve is flattening and there is hope that the schools will be opened soon. 

Currently all our high school students are engaged in tuition, coaching and counselling. This is to keep them in learning moods to prevent them from idleness and the influence from the bad groups.

The children of Education center are also under teachers’ supervision. Some teachers spend their days at school compound to offer counselling and guidance to the children, especially those who are in the upper classes because they are the ones who are too exposed.

The impact of the pandemic will take time before life come back to normal, many families are still affected with some of them not able to pay the house rents and even to afford food. the pandemic also caused some families to break up and this has left some mothers to be single mums with the burden of bringing up families single-handed.

Thank you very much for taking your time to read the reports and updates. Thank you also for being our good friends and partners, thank you also for being part of Uzimatele family and for being part of what God is doing in Uzimatele and in our community.

Have a blessed weekend,

Pastor George