Several weeks ago, we received a message from Sypora, Loom’s Early Childhood Education Service Coordinator. She had traveled to Pokot, Kenya to teach a Celebrating Children Seminar with Jordan, another Social Innovator.
“Pokot is dry, dusty, remote, [and] hot but God’s people live here,” Sypora wrote. “I had a ministry with girls on Tuesday and it went so well. Yesterday I was in a village called Kapeni, and it was historic. I call it that because it was the first time in history that Pokot men who were there carried their babies in their arms.”
“It was done in the bush with 130 people,” Sypora continued. “First of all, here men don’t carry children. I was speaking about the biblical framework [for child development and thriving]. I first gave them the [CCW] dolls to carry. I asked them why they don’t carry their own children, [and] they replied that children belong to the women. [I then] invited the men forward and asked the women to bring the children to them. Surprisingly, they came forward but the children were crying because they didn’t know their fathers.”
After each Celebrating Children Seminar, we are amazed at the simple, breathtaking, and culture-shaking outcomes that no one could have predicted. Who knows what seeds these “historic moments” may have planted, that will go on to affect the way children grow up to know their fathers? Who knows how generational patterns may be forever changed? One thing we know for sure – that Loom, by ourselves, would never have received an invitation to travel to this remote, dusty location and hold this training. It is the local Social Innovators – the Local Experts – who have the relationships and cultural context to make it possible.
Thank you for your prayers and partnership, which also makes Seminars like these a reality.
