Humanist Island of Hope – Rusinga Island, Kenya

This last December my partner and I had a chance to visit Kenya again, their first visit home since coming to live with me in Canada. If you haven’t had the chance to visit Kenya, it’s a land and people of extreme contrasts. A land full of natural beauty, with trash burning in the streets, some of the kindest people you’ll ever meet, but will run you over with their car if you don’t get out of the way, impoverished neighborhoods, with a Mercedes driving through the streets. Technically Keyna is a secular democracy, though Christianity has such a significant role in public life that it often doesn’t feel secular when you’re there. Churches have external speakers broadcasting their sermons throughout the neighborhood, Street preachers will come onto public transportation, hotels see nothing wrong with putting church services on the TV in the dining area, and religiously motivated homophobia puts the rainbow community at risk for their safety. So when we were planning our visit and were exploring options away from the coast, we were surprised to see ‘humanist’ show up in our search results.

We decided we had to visit while we were there and we reached out to make arrangements. The Humanist Island of Hope on Rusinga Island in Lake Victoria, includes an orphanage, school, and health clinic for the local community. It also includes projects growing poultry and fruit, as well as farming fish, in order to bring down the cost of operation and try to provide funds for its operation. Originally constructed in 2003 with support from private donors and with later support from the Czech, Slovakian and Kenyan governments.

While they use the words Orphanage and Adoption, it is a distance support that allows the children to grow up surrounded by their Kenyan and Luo culture, and may be closer to what we understand as a sponsorship program. Children who either have no place to live or live in extreme poverty will be given a safe place to live, food, education and healthcare.

To date Humanist Island of Hope and international sponsors have helped provide the basic needs for over 6,000 children from throughout Kenya, and there are currently over a hundred children waiting to find sponsors.

When we visited there weren’t any children at the orphanage because during the December break, staff find homes to take in the children who don’t have any place to go, some even take children into their own homes, so they can have the experience of what it’s like to have a family around them. While the children weren’t there, Jack, a staff member, took us around and showed us the facility. Classrooms for preschool through high school, the cafeteria, computer lab, library (where we donated a copy of Humanism: Canadian Perspectives for the children to read), and staff offices. As well as the fish farming project and clinic.

While there is much to celebrate about Kenya, one of the things I find most difficult is the prevalence of corporal punishment at home and in the education system. When we spoke with Kennedy Ochieng Okongo the Managing Director at Humanist Island of Hope, he explained that all of the teachers are put through a training program to help them teach without violence. They are then observed in the classroom to ensure that they don’t use violence in the classroom.

The clinic doesn’t just serve the students, but also 20,000 people in the surrounding community and is the only clinic on the island. They have several beds for patients, as well as an on-site pharmacy. Unfortunately, when we visited the pharmacy was struggling to keep the necessary medications in stock, and with the USA pulling out of the World Health Organization and the USAID funding being cut, we were told that they would likely be unable to continue providing medicine to the HIV patients they’ve been caring for.

You can learn more about the Humanist Island of Hope project, including finding pictures and information about about how you can help contribute to their efforts at their website: https://www.centernarovinu.org/content/island-hope-community-centre-rusinga-island-kenya