Photographer sees poverty of Kenya and Catholic assistance to end it

Photographer Dave Oxford, whose work has appeared weekly in The Evangelist for the past several years, considers himself somewhat jaded by travel. So he surprised even himself recently when a two-week trip to Kenya in Africa to photograph the work of the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging turned into a life-changing experience.

"I rarely get really gung-ho, but this is doing a world of good," he declared upon his return.

Through his photos, Mr. Oxford gave The Evangelist an inside look at his trip, on pages 1, 13-20 and 32.

CFCA is a lay Catholic organization that matches "sponsors" with needy children and elderly around the world. Mr. Oxford joined 18 sponsors, CFCA staffers and journalists to visit CFCA missions in Nairobi and beyond.

Welcome

Mr. Oxford termed a village called Matiri the most inspiring place the group visited. It took an exhausting seven hours to travel there, directly over boulder-filled open desert with no roads and ruts several feet deep.

"I told myself it would be hard-pressed to have it be worth the trip," the photographer remarked. "But we got there and rounded a bend to go into the projects, and there were 3,000 people there to greet us -- all cheering, singing, dancing. I found out most of them had walked a day or longer to get there, staying overnight in the desert, just because the group that was helping their children was coming to visit."

Gifts for strangers

"When we left, these people had made us all these gifts -- basketry -- and then they started giving us food," Mr. Oxford recalled. "I got a live chicken, and they were giving us eggs.

"Most of these people were lucky if they ate one meal a day, and here they were giving us food that, because of tradition and custom, we had to accept. There was so much it would not fit into the bus. Everywhere we went, we had to unload it to get in and out of the bus."

Contrasts

The photographer pointed to a photo of a young boy in his school uniform, sitting in his family's one-room, mud-walled hut. "This kid went from a nice place with walls and being fed every day [at school] home to this."

Mr. Oxford described the trip as "angering. I had prepared myself mentally that I was going to be seeing half-starved, illness-ridden children. At the first project we visited, Juja, the families of the children were there to greet us and dance and sing. The children had school uniforms, and were well-fed and looked good. It took me a while to learn that these were the lucky kids. They were getting fed, and getting health care and an education. The kids we saw outside in the slums were living in squalor and weren't lucky."

Sponsors

"Kids would always ask, `Would you be interested in sponsoring me?'"

The photographer noted that about 90 cents of every dollar donated by CFCA sponsors goes directly to their sponsored children. He was impressed to see programs like Kibagari, where thousands of children had not just a school, but a cafeteria, clinic, hospital and dormitories to live in.

"Any influence my pictures and story can exert upon people to help CFCA sponsor a kid, the money would be well-spent and go an unbelievably long way to making a difference in these kids' lives," he stated.

Hope

"He is a very bright young man who has a vision of where he wants his country to be," Mr. Oxford said.

After nearly two weeks in Africa, the photographer came home eager to aid CFCA's cause. He plans to hold slide shows of his photos to promote sponsorship and said he will personally sponsor at least two children.

"These people need help," he said simply. "They have insurmountable odds just getting through daily life. I'm blessed with a life these people in their wildest dreams would never think of. To see that $240 a year will make a difference between life and death -- it's a no-brainer. I can't save the world, but this will have no effect on me monetarily -- and maybe one of these kids will institute change."

(Contact CFCA at cfcausa.org, call 1-800-875-6564 or write them at 1 Elmwood Ave., Kansas City, KS 66103. For information about Mr. Oxford's slide show, call The Evangelist, 453-6688.)

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