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A Mt. Lebanon church has wrought small miracles in a Kenyan village,
When we think of Africa, we picture sun-drenched savannas where exotic animals roam beneath endless blue skies while tourists embark on adventurous safaris in the wild. Yet lurking beyond these idyllic images is a disparate reality not publicized in travel brochures — poverty, disease and deprivation for Africans in rural villages lacking basic necessities like water, plumbing and medical care.
One such village is East Kano, Kenya, where houses have mud walls with roofs made from thatched grass or corrugated iron sheets. Electricity is scarce, so people read by kerosene lamps emitting a dim and smoky light that’s harmful to the eyes. Wind-blown dust particles also irritate the eyes and contribute to the population’s multiple vision problems.
Unfortunately, villagers have no access to eye care. Even if they could travel long distances to cities like Nairobi to have their eyes checked, they could not afford the costly treatment. People in East Kano are desperately poor with meager resources. Thus minor eye problems turn into major ones when not corrected early.
Fifteen volunteers from Mt. Lebanon Evangelical Presbyterian Church have banded together to confront the residents’ widespread vision problems with a far-reaching vision of their own. Through their missionary work in East Kano, members of the church’s Kenya Mission Team not only aspire to improve the villagers’ eyesight, but also help them prosper by addressing the intense poverty wracking their lives. Two team members, James Ombiri and Jim Fondelier, recently discussed the compelling journey they undertook, one they consider an embodiment of their Christian beliefs.
A native’s appeal
Raised in East Kano, Mr. Ombiri, overcame struggles similar to those faced by villagers today. At 2, he developed polio and scoliosis, for which no treatment other than stretching exercises was available. When he was 15, his father died, leaving his mother to raise him and six siblings alone.
In spite of these hardships, Mr. Ombiri succeeded in life, thanks to his family’s faith and determination. After earning a bachelor’s degree in agriculture and a master’s degree in plant pathology from the University of Nairobi, as well as a doctorate in plant pathology from the Technical University of Munich, he taught for 10 years at Egerton University in Kenya before immigrating to the U.S. in 2004 with his wife, Phelgona, and sons, Joshua and Samuel, now 22 and 20.
The family moved from Penn Hills to Mt. Lebanon in 2005, joined Mt. Lebanon Evangelical Presbyterian in 2006 and became U.S. citizens in 2012. Mr. Ombiri works in Green Tree as a loan counselor for the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency.
Mr. Ombiri got a fresh look at the primitive conditions in East Kano on return visits in 2010 and 2011. Yearning to relieve suffering there, he appealed to church leaders for a program of humanitarian assistance in his native village. In 2013, the church adopted East Kano as a focus for its international mission work, establishing the 15-member Kenya Mission Team to identify paramount needs and using Mr. Ombiri’s home in East Kano as a mission house where members would sleep on their African sojourns.
“This is something God laid on our heart,” Mr. Ombiri asserted. “God called me and my family here. We are a bridge between East Kano and our church in Mt. Lebanon.”
Willingly crossing that bridge is Mr. Fondelier, a church deacon and elder and member of the Kenya Mission Team specializing in eye examinations and eyeglass prescriptions. Originally from Johnstown, Cambria County, Mr. Fondelier moved to Mt. Lebanon in 1984 to work as a salesman and district manager for Mannington Mills, a company selling floor coverings.
He learned to examine eyes by accompanying Terry Snider, executive director of Mission Vision, a nonprofit in Cranberry, while Mr. Snider conducted vision screenings for homeless people on Pittsburgh’s North Side. Mission Vision promotes effective eye care in Western Pennsylvania and abroad, supplying training and equipment for volunteers to deliver free eye exams and eyeglasses to the poor.
Partnering with Mission Vision, the Mt. Lebanon church created an eyeglasses clinic in East Kano. Mr. Fondelier traveled there in 2016 to perform exams, treating approximately 325 people and providing 3,000 used pairs of eyeglasses to people in the East Kano region.
For that trip, Mr. Fondelier purchased manual refractors to check eyes, but when he returns to Africa this year, he will use an automatic refractor supplied by Mission Vision. After he tests patients’ vision using eye charts, the refractor will determine the proper lenses. Then he will match the diagnosis with the appropriate pair of eyeglasses.
Making the correct diagnosis isn’t always easy, he observed, because older villagers mainly speak Luo, hindering communication.
“It’s not 100 percent accurate,” he said, “but we’re close enough to dramatically improve people’s vision. After they put their glasses on, people’s faces light up. It opens up a whole new world to them. There is such joy in their hearts. It’s like they can truly see for the first time.”
The church collects used reading glasses, sunglasses and prescription glasses. For a trip to East Kano scheduled for July 28 to Aug. 9, the church is sending 4,000 donated pairs.
The eyeglasses clinic serves about 5,000 people. In 2016, Mr. Fondelier said, people lined up along the road to await their exams. He could handle only about 100 patients a day, but he trained others to screen vision and left the manual refractors behind so exams could continue after he departed.
Meeting other needs
The clinic is part of the Kinasia Clinic, a small structure with a tin roof and a couple of beds located near the mission house. The mission team purchases medicine and brings in physicians to treat patients for free. It’s not a fully functional hospital, but it’s more than villagers had before.
Water is another critical need. Drought perpetually plagues Kenya. Even during periods of torrential rainfall, explained Mr. Ombiri, water doesn’t seep into the ground to relieve the dry conditions because the soil is like hard clay. Without clean water, people cannot cook or wash and become susceptible to waterborne diseases like cholera.
So the mission team initiated the Water Well Project, headed by team member and hydrogeologist Bill Brandenstein. It contracted with Sparr Drilling Co. to build a solar-powered well to supply water to East Kano and other communities. The well produces a continuous source of water, which is especially useful during droughts. Before its construction, people made grueling trips on foot to retrieve river water for domestic use, carrying jugs on their heads to transport it home.
Digging the well was relatively easy compared with addressing the region’s poverty. Because East Kano’s soil isn’t arable, farming is impractical for economic revival. On the other hand, sheep, goats, and chickens thrive in the area. Hence, the Kenya Mission Team provided startup funds for two entrepreneurial ventures now operating successfully, the Bidii Women Group’s Sheep Project and the Holo Chicken and Goats Project. Through these ventures, Mr. Ombiri said, people raise sheep, chickens and goats, sell them for profit or slaughter them for food.
The region’s schools face daunting challenges, too. The mission team addressed some deficiencies by distributing computers, clothes and soccer balls to several schools. (Mt. Lebanon High School donated more than 100 computers, Mr. Ombiri noted.)
Another endeavor is the Ler Kod Geno Children’s Home, a day care and learning center for physically and mentally challenged children. Founded by East Kano resident Lilian Okul, the center initially had no building. Children simply gathered in an open field. The mission team built a structure for the center, where children are taught reading, writing and religion.
Kenya inspires
The children of East Kano are indelibly etched in Mr. Fondelier’s mind. Once he visited a one-room schoolhouse and beheld 300 children listening in rapt attention as the headmaster spoke, not one child making a sound. Then the children sang a hymn together. He again was awed.
Equally inspiring were nighttime worship services conducted outside under a black sky filled with “a wondrous canopy of stars,” as Mr. Fondelier described it. The experience recommitted him to his quest with Mr. Ombiri and the rest of the Kenya Mission Team to bring material change and spiritual renewal to the people of East Kano.