New Dawn Ministriesof Hope

The People

There are many villages throughout the Samburu and most people are trapped in a cycle of poverty, scraping at the bare bones of survival. In spite of the hardships they face, these men and women radiate an irresistible joy and a fierce will to live.

The villages are ruled by the elders who have the authority to arrange marriages and permit the marrying of many wives. Polygamy is common. Forced marriages include “cutting,” which is Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

FGM was banned in Kenya in 2011 but is poorly enforced in remote areas and still widely practiced there.

Although many women are still in the deepest poverty, they have started to resist the forced marriages and FGM for their daughters. One of the focuses of New Dawn Ministries of Hope is to provide funds for these teenage girls to attend school, avoiding a forced marriage and FGM.

Donors also provide schooling for teenage boys, giving them opportunity to navigate out of the poverty of their family. These secondary schools are private boarding schools, sometimes up to 50 miles away from their families. The government provides no funding for secondary schools or universities.

Many of the women are widows and single mothers, aged 19-55, with several children of their own. Some are second or third wives with no status in their own family. Many are considered worthless by their village.

Stuck in an endless cycle of poverty, these women work in neighboring fields or wash clothes or haul water for other families, sometimes carrying five gallons of water for up to five miles. It is hard labor and brings in less than $1 per day, barely enough to buy maize flour to feed themselves.

 The women often go days without food. There is no money for livestock or even seed to grow a garden.

Donors to New Dawn Ministries of Hope have provided funding to women, allowing some to plow a field and plant crops. Other donors have purchased livestock or supplies for jewelry-making. When given money to start a small businesses, these women are able to support their own children and also help their village people. 

Providing education, independence and respect, New Dawn Ministries of Hope is able to empower Samburu women and their children to live a more successful life. Once a Samburu girl is empowered through education, she will rarely have to undergo FGM and generally is able to find a successful job.

Pastor Peter Lesuruai travels to many villages and to the schools, identifying struggles and alerting donors to the needs of people. He discusses individual needs and priorities with the women and youth, identifying their struggles and working out the most effective way of addressing them.  

The needs are overwhelming but every rescue makes a different to an individual and usually to the community as well.

Samburu County is in the former Rift Valley Province of Kenya. It covers an area of about 8000 square miles in northern Kenya. As of 2019, the population of the area was estimated at about 310,000.