St Andrew's Dawson Street, Crook

Methodist / United Reformed Church

Pamela in Africa

St Andrew's Dawson Street congregation are all keen to support Pamela Thompson as she prepares to return to Kenya during her summer vacation.

Members and friends enjoyed a fund-raising home-made soup lunch after morning service on May 10th 2009 - appropriately the beginning of Christian Aid Week. And Pamela, who has been involved in the life of the church since childhood, was able to share more about her plans for her Masai friends in the isolated village of Lemong'o, which she visited for the first time in 2008.

Pamela, who is now a third year student at medical school in Newcastle, was part of a group of student volunteers who went to Tanzania for a vacation project organised by Light in Africa,a charity working with children. In the course of their time there they were given opportunity to cross into Kenya to stay for a few days in a Masai village. But Pamela and her occupational therapist friend Emma chose to stay on in the village and spend more time with the people there, rather than join their fellow students in the safari experience that was on the programme.

For both of them this was a life-changing experience as they in effect set up a temporary village dispensary and also, using Emma's knowledge and skills, looked for ways of helping the considerable number of people with disabilities. Local teacher Isaiah Kanti and other villagers gave time to spend with their visitors: "What we learned" says Pamela "was that for all the health problems that we might have tried to help with, they all stressed that their need was education." The big problem comes as children reach secondary school age: families with a very limited skills base are unlikely to be able to afford the school fees that are then required.

Pamela and Emma are going back to Lemong'o this summer, and hope to have the resources to make some kind of difference to the life of the community. They intend to take medical supplies and during their three week stay again offer a dispensary service in a community where a visiting doctor is only very rarely seen. But they are also hoping for sufficient financial backing to allow more of the village children to complete their education, and they will be looking for ways to channel the money to ensure that the backing of friends and family and church will be of maximum benefit to the village and its people.

St Andrew's Dawson Street are behind Pamela all the way - and want to encourage others too. Anyone who would like to help is invited to contact us (use the button on the left), or contact Pamela direct.

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