Sponsoring Street Youth to MITS

We are making a change in the way we handle sign-ups to be sponsors. From now on, Tim Lewis, who serves the street ministry in many ways, will take on keeping up relationships between students and sponsors. He will also be the one to sign up sponsors.

If you are interested in sponsoring one of the 9 new students in 2011 who do not yet have a sponsor, please write to Tim at

timannlewis@gmail.com

When you ask to be a sponsor, he will send you a name and a picture. Then you can immediately begin sending sponsorship funds in the amount of $75 monthly to

Made in the Streets

409 Franklin Road

Brentwood, TN 37027

Please send a note with your first check noting it is for sponsoring, and it helps if you give the name of your student. If you prefer to give another way, such as ONLINE (see the web site at www.made-in-the-streets.org ) or if you prefer to give a year at a time, or all at once, do so.

Soon after that you will receive from the Team in Nairobi some information about the student. From time to time you will receive a more current picture, an email or a letter from your student. From Tim or the Team you will receive major updates about your student's progress at MITS. If your student is 13 when entering MITS, you will be sponsoring for about 5 1/2 years. When a student reaches 18, we help him/her get a national identity card, when

sometimes takes 6 or more months. Meanwhile we help the student get in an internship at a business, get an apartment with another departing student, and remain involved in church life. About 3 months after a student gets a full-time job and begins receiving pay, we stop our support. So support can be needed 6 months or so after the planned time, depending on how long it takes for a student to become settled in life outside MITS.

Here is one of our new students who does not have a sponsor. Her name is Damaris, and this picture was taken the day she and two other girls came to Kamulu. She already looks different; if you sponsor her, you will get a new picture. Be blessed.

29 KIDS - THE NEW LIFE BEGINS

Last week the Team at Made in the Streets brought 29 young teenagers off the streets to live at Kamulu, begin literacy training, learn to live in a new environment with the 40 students
already living in the dorms.

A large number of students reached 18 near the end of 2010 and moved out into shared apartments as they enter into internships and jobs.

Pictured are Amina Hama (13) and Brian Kweyu (12).

We need sponsors for all 29 of these kids, and we welcome your assistance. $75 a month covers most of the expenses for a student at Kamulu. A 12 year old will be with us at Kamulu for about 6 years. When they reach 18, we help them get a national identity card, find an apartment, a congregation and a job -- then we are ready to turn loose of them as they being to pay their own way.

When you are willing and able to sponsor a student, please begin sending $75 a month to

Made in the Streets

409 Franklin Road

Brentwood, TN 37o27.

Of course, you can donate online at this blog site or at the main web site at

made-in-the-streets.org

If you wish, you may send a full year's sponsorship, or even a full 4,5 or 6 year sponsorship in one donation.

Please also make it your task to pray for these kids and the Team that loves them.

When you send your first check, please email Charles Coulston at

charles.coulston@made-in-the-streets.org

and inform him of your decision. He will send you a picture and name of a student and see that the student writes you occasionally.

SINGLE MOMS PROJECT

Good News! Our single moms program now has the 10 that we wanted for our pilot project. We are excited that new girls with babies or who are ready to deliver entered our Eastleigh program last week. We would like to have sponsors for these girls, all of whom have been in hopeless situations until now. Someone for them to write to, someone who prays for them, someone who supports their growth at MITS -- this will help their confidence and desire to change their lives. Please write Charles Coulston at charles.coulston@made-in-the-streets.org if you wish to be a friend and sponsor to one of these girls with a baby.

There are six of them who need a sponsor. Here are pictures and information about two of them so you can see. If you write and ask for one of our girls with babies, we will immediately write you back and send a picture and additional info about how to be a sponsor.

Veronica Wambui grew up in a house with an alcoholic father who beat his children, including the third born Veronica, and then chased her from the house. One night when sh

e was chased she ended up in the house of a man who got her pregnant; she was 14 at the time. She came to Nairobi to be with her aunt, who chased her away when she found out she was pregnant. Later her mother came and found her, but the mother has been diagnosed HIV positive and no longer cares for Veronica. Veronica gave birth a few days after entering our program. At first the baby was called "Yvonne" but now she is Hollye Wanjiru (the Conways are dearly loved by the girls in the Eastleigh program). This picture was taken on her first visit to Kamulu; the girls come out every other weekend to be with our family at Kamulu. Her date of birth is September 2, 1993.

Cecilia Mwenza grew up in Mwingi, a small city East of Nairobi. A sister and brother have died, so she has one brother. She completed the 8th grade and took the KCPE exams. She got pregnant with a boy in her school class, but he had no way to care for her, and would not. She came to Nairobi to live with her mother, who is a barmaid in Huruma (next to Mathare Valley). Her mother came home drunk always, would abuse her and would give her no food, so she was left on her own with the baby. Her little boy is named Eric Mwedaka (birthday April 5, 2009). Cecilia's birthdate is June 3, 1994. She says she wants to be a dressmaker.

These are just two of the girls who need your help, encouragement and love. Sign up today!