Pastor Chris Okumu
We are starting to support Pastor Chris and his work in the Kibera Slums in Nairobi, Kenya. Pastor Chris and his wife Joan have been working with the poor of Kibera for more than 20 years. Pastor Mark Villers from Meadville, PA introduced us to Pastor Chris. Pastor Villers has known Pastor Chris since 2006. He has traveled visit Pastor Chris’ work in Kibera and has hosted Pastor Chris when he visited the United States.
Pastor Chris’ work has touched thousands of lives. He organized and runs a school for poor children with 750 students. The orphanage he runs has 100 children under its care. A medical clinic with a doctor and nurses provides medical care that would otherwise be out of reach to the poor. He pastors a church in Kibera and is the bishop to nearly 300 bush churches.
Pastor Chris has a water well as a tool of his ministry that is one of the best water wells in all of Kenya. The 800′ deep water well produces crystal clear and clean water in abundance. This well provides water in abundance for the children of the school and orphanage, even though clean water is a scarce commodity in Kibera. Pastor Chris provides water to the greater community at little or no cost. For example, children come to get liter water bottle filled at no cost so that they can deliver water to local homes and collect a delivery fee. This enables them to support themselves. He charges a small amount for the water for community residents so that the residents do not waste the water. Pastor Chris has also started a small operation that manually fills new water bottles for sale in the city. The profits from the water sales provide the majority of the support needed to run the school and orphanage.
This is but a summary of Pastor Chris’ accomplishments. We will be posting a broader biography on Pastor Chris in the coming days.
Projects
Pastor Chris has a vision to install an automated bottling system to be able to hygienically fill water bottles on a large scale. The automated system will eliminate the risk of contamination that currently exists with their manual filling procedures. Additionally, it will allow Pastor Chris to expand the filling capacity to generate more profit. This profit will enable him to build additional dormitories for the orphanage and to expand the school. We are currently assisting Pastor Chris with the writing of a business plan to make sure that all aspects of the project are considered prior to launching the expansion. This business plan will also be available for any donor who would like to contribute funding for the project.
Areas Served
Pastor Chris is our partner in the Kibera Slum of Nairobi, Kenya.