Hope For The Nations

ART IS {HOPE} Is Launched!

On April 20, 2010 ART IS {HOPE} was launched in a creative vibrant way! Approximately 40 people filled the Streaming Café in Kelowna, BC. Canada to enjoy a night of gifted artistry by the founding artists of ART IS {HOPE}.

Sheri McConnell, founder of ART IS {HOPE} says: “HFTN is inviting the artistic community to take its place on the centre stage of our culture, to shed light and to be a voice for the voiceless.”

For more information on how to become an ART IS {HOPE} artist OR to learn more or donate, click here.

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MAY/JUNE Artist Feature:  ANDREW SMITH

We are excited to introduce you to one of our founding ART IS {HOPE} artists, ANDREW SMITH.  Andrew is on tour during MAY and JUNE and is raising awareness and finances for HFTN’s Liberia Water Wells project.

Andrew’s live show combines his award winning talent as a SINGER/SONGWRITER and INSTRUMENTALIST.  He has been playing folk clubs, festivals and house concerts in Canada, the USA and Europe to enthusiastic audiences.  Andrew has shared the stage with Bruce Cockburn, Ruthie Foster, Gordie Sampson, Martyn Joseph and David Wilcox.  In 2007, Andrew Smith played at the INTERNATIONAL GUITAR FESTIVAL in Dresden Germany to rave reviews.  The festival featured a dozen great guitar players from around the world including Peter Finger and Frank Haunschild. He also traveled to Africa with a film crew and was commissioned to write and record a tap style instrumental piece for the documentary film ‘An Orphan’s Dream’.

Street Boy Becomes Community Builder

This is a story of a street boy whose life began on the streets of Nairobi at the age of 10 years old. Now, at the age of 26, Dalton Oluoch Owade is an exceptional young man who runs a children’s home for 22 street children. This is a story of transformation.

“My names are Dalton Oluoch Owade. I  born on 10^th May 1984. I am the 4^th born in a family of 8. We have  six girls and 2 boys. My parents separated when I was 10 years old and so I went through hardship when growing up.  I went to school up to class  four  then dropped because there was nobody to pay my school fees.

In the year 2004,  one of my friends called me to Nairobi and promised to give me a job, but on reaching there I did not get the job so having nowhere to go I ended up on the streets of  Nairobi. The first time that I was in Nairobi on the street I was given  food  by one street boy. From there I continued to stay on the street.

A few years later I was arrested and put in jail for 21 days. When I was released, one pastor took me and enrolled me in a driving school where I did the course and finished and then got a valid driving license. While on the street, I became very sick because of staying in the cold  most of the time, so I had to come back to my home in Kitale.

In February 2007, when I was walking on the streets of Kitale, I met Mum Donna when she was  buying bread and milk for the street children. When she wanted to buy for me I refused the bread and milk but told her to buy me a bible.

Mum Donna gave me her email address and this connected me to Hope For The Nations.  I continued to lead a hard life on the streets because I was sleeping in a classroom. One year later I met Mr Ralph and I took  him to  where I was feeding the small street children. He bought us milk and bread and, when I took  him to where I was sleeping, he bought me a mattress, blanket, bicycle, clothes and shoes. Through Mr Ralph my life changed.

Mr Ralph came to Kenya the second time in December 2007 when there was tribal clashes in Kenya.  He came with a boy named Chad Bolton and Chad volunteered to teach us. At that time, we had 175 street children we were feeding. He taught us for two days and then told me we cannot teach children when they are sleeping  in the cold.

At the end of January 2008 Chad gave me Kshs. 120,000 and I rented a house, bought beds, blankets and other items required for the home. On 1st February 2008, we opened a home with 23 children and called it Dalton Caring Home. We were poor, but happy and safe from the street. I then married Lillian, who was one of the helpers.

We now have 2 acres of land. We are building a big children’s home called Dynamic Rehabilitation Centre in Kiungani, Kitale, Kenya. We are hosting 25 children. I also have my two young sisters who are in high school and am also blessed with a cow, chickens for each child and we are planting our own vegetables. Life is so wonderful. I am so thankful that so many people have helped me and my children.

What  is impossible to man is possible to God

Kumba Bwah Finds Her Lost Son

Dear Friends,

I woke up this morning so excited for MOTHER’S DAY!! I know that there will be the usual surprises and the “felt” love of my children gathering around!!!  Phone calls and cards will come from all over the world…and I love it!!!  I absolutely love it!!!  I will honor my own dear mother and tell her how much I love her!!!

But then I remembered our mothers in the Buduburam Camp, in Ghana. Mother’s Day is not so lovely for them. They remember the tragic stories of war!  They are haunted by the inner search for their children, and the ache and the pain will never go away…. So it is with Kumba Bwah… please stop to read her full story at REFUGEE MOTHER IN SEARCH OF HER CHILDREN.

It is my prayer this MOTHER’S DAY that Kumba can go home to be with her son!!! Please join me to make this possible. To learn more or to give a special “Mother’s Day” gift, click here on Buduburam Refugee Camp.

Karen Barkman

HFTN Partner (Provision of Hope)