Recently we had the pleasure of interviewing a fellow Child of God and Executive Director of Gods Vision for Africa, Calvin Masitsa. He runs three schools in Nairobi, Kenya for the needy children there. We’ve known Calvin for awhile, and he is one of the most humble, hard working, and devoted people that we’ve run across. We are dedicated to helping these students in whatever way we can. These students and this school are worthy of all the support they can get.
INTERVIEW
The Children of God: Can you tell us a little bit about Gods Vision for Africa?
Calvin: GVA Kenya has 3 schools that are serving under-privileged children in urban slums of Nairobi. In total we are serving close to 700 children from this urban set up. The schools are City Shine school, Maximum Impact Centre and Glorious Destiny Centre. I am the Executive Director of GVA-Kenya which is the governing body of all our schools and other projects and programs within the organization. I am charged with the responsibility of overseeing all the projects and programs of GVA and for seeking and creating new partnerships and donor funding opportunities
The Children of God: How long has "GVA" been serving the under-privileged of Nairobi?
Calvin: We've been serving needy children and their communities for 4 years now and 2011 will make our 5th year in service.
The Children of God: That's outstanding. What made you want to pursue this career?
Calvin: I must confess that it’s my heart that gave me the drive to pursue community development. I was once teacher some years back working in school within slums and I once met a young boy who was HIV/AIDS positive and he had just lost his mother. The father was a drunkard and didn't care about his son's FATE. I therefore decided to take on the responsibility of paying his school fees and meet any other expense at school. Unfortunately the father took the boy to the village and I couldn't do anything. This truly charged me and I therefore decided to start my organization that is still healing hundreds to date.
The Children of God: Spoken like a true Child of God. We know it's hard to teach children when they are in need of basic necessities. What are some of the challenges you see for the students you teach?
Calvin: There're a couple of challenges in executing our work here. To begin with: Most of the students emanate from poor families and their parents cannot afford to pay school fees thereafter leading to some of them being discontinued from attending school. Secondly, Majority of the children here are faced with hunger at times for two days without having any meal which creates a deadlock making the children lose concentration in class. Thirdly, 10% of these kids are suffering from different ailment like HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Pneumonia and many other dreadful diseases. It’s the inadequacy of relevant learning material like textbooks, exercise books, pens, pencils and library books. For instance, you find a student using one exercise book to cover three subjects, which really affects their overall academic performance.
The Children of God: Wow, those are some daunting challenges. Does the government provide any assistance to the students who face those challenges?
Calvin: As far as I am concerned the Kenyan government has the framework in place to help these children through bursaries unfortunately the system is full of bureaucracy and corrupt individuals who want to be bribed before they assist you. Truly speaking there's no assistance received from the government towards these children.
The Children of God: That's a shame. Is the school able to provide assistance to the children, if so, how do you find it?
Calvin: YES we are. We have different programs in which we involve volunteers and partners from around the world to contribute towards helping needy children. A good example is our sponsorship program which is giving students wings to fly and not helping them to fly through this program we link up a needy child with a foster parent who supports the child all along his/her education.
The Children of God: How much does it cost to sponsor a child?
Calvin: It costs 60 dollars a month to sponsor a child. This makes it possible for the student to receive meals, books, pay schools fees, get a new school uniforms, shoes and even regular clothes
The Children of God: Do foster parents come from around the world and do they communicate with the children or their parents?
Calvin: Yes. Foster Parents are from different parts of the world. In addition they do frequently converse through written letters between the child and the parent. They also make beautiful, colored drawings and they're sent to their foster parents in whichever part of the world they are in.
The Children of God: That's great, those are some real unsung heroes. How would someone who's interested in becoming a foster parent for a student go about doing so?
Calvin: He/she should write to our public relations officer through the contacts on our website and fill out our registration form online then we will send him/her the name of the students and details if he/she is interested in a male/Female student; the choice is his/hers
The Children of God: Sounds great, I see you have a new drive going on for feminine hygiene products for the girls, can you tell us about that?
Calvin: Yes. In the recent past we discovered that most girls absented themselves from school for days and when they reported back to school they were punished for not attending school, as it is the norm. But we sought to find out what the problem was; shockingly the female teachers and our staff reported that the girls were at home since they were passing through their menstruation periods and that they didn't have sanitary pads/towels to ease themselves from the same. This leads them to using unhygienic materials during their menstruation, exposing themselves to all sorts of infections. Some of the unhygienic materials include tissue papers, pieces of old bed sheet, old clothes, old panties, old kangas and a crude assortment of fabrics. The program aims at helping young and even elderly girls at this stages we bring and pool resources together to purchase this sanitary towels for this girls and it isn’t an easy task because we are faced with financial intricacies to facilitate for all the girls to be receiving the towels/pads every month
The Children of God: Wow, that's very unfortunate. How would someone go about helping this cause?
Calvin: Our Box number is P.O. Box 469-00518,Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa Tel: +254733279367
The Children of God: Thanks for the information, I'm sure you'll get a lot of support. How are the children progressing in school this year?
Calvin: Ohhh...They're doing very good and there performance is augmenting every semester we want to meet their needs and give them the room to excel and do much better
The Children of God: That's great. Do you keep up with the children once they've graduated?
Calvin: Yes we do. We stay in contact with them through their parents their parents provide us with data on how they are progressing
The Children of God: Do you know of any success stories?
Calvin: Yes... There're a couple of them that have gone through our system and have made it. One young man called Tobias Owino was a high school student and he was enriched with business skills while at our centre and after his graduation he is now a young businessman with a medium sized Shop doing excellently in his soda business
The Children of God: Outstanding. What is the hope that you have for the students who go through your schools?
Calvin: I have hope that their future is bright and very colorful. They might have or go through the problems and intricacies of this world but finally they will and must make it in life.
The Children of God: What is your hope for Gods Vision for Africa schools?
Calvin: To provide effective humanitarian assistance to the needy in our schools and later on expand across the country and also across the continent of Africa
The Children of God: Outstanding. What impact do you think a proper education and basic necessities will have on the children and the continent?
Calvin: Three words describe can answer that: a " poverty free Africa"
The Children of God: Brilliant! Well Calvin, thanks for the interview, it was very informative. We will keep everyone updated on the progress Gods Vision for Africa is making and I'm sure you'll get the support that you need for the students to succeed. We look forward to working with you going forward. God Bless
We can help the girls at the schools by sending feminine hygiene products to Gods Vision for Africas address or sending a donation to them. If you would like to adopt a student, you can contact them as well.
Also, for those who live in Nairobi and would like to help these children, please feel free to contact Calvin at Gods Vision for Africa. If there is a school in your area that is in need of support, please contact us at
thechildrenofgod@ymail.com. Let’s show some love, if not us, then who?
"Love thy neighbor as thyself"
The trip is being planned for mid-November and will be a two week mission so everyone can make the proper plans. Volunteers will have host families provided for them during the visit which will give everyone the opportunity to experience the culture of Kenya first hand. For those who are interested and may not be able to afford the travel expenses, you can always look into finding a business, organization, or family members to sponsor you on this mission. For those who are interested please contact us at thechildrenofgod@ymail.com.
