Ten ‘sistahs’ on a mission to Kenya

Howard Manly

More than most, Carole Copeland-Thomas had a tangible connection with Africa.

Her father, Wilson A. Copeland, had traveled to Ghana in the early sixties to start a business in the newly formed independent country. The business failed but he later joined the diplomatic service and lived in Accra, Ghana and later Nairobi, Kenya until he retired in 1979.

Carole Copeland-Thomas had chances to visit her father in the motherland but never quite made it. All of that changed in November when she and nine other African American women embarked on a two-week visit to Kenya.

Part of the trip was missionary. Part of it was to trek through the country’s wildlife reserves. And some of it was a little rest and relaxation. All of the parts added up to what Copeland-Thomas described as a “simply spectacular” trip.

The ten “sistahs” are now bringing their trip on a tour of sorts here, complete with speeches and slides, to local churches in an effort to close the knowledge gap between Americans and Africans. One such meeting was held last week at the Metropolitan Baptist Church in Dorchester.

The trip started with the missionary work. Irma Thibodeaux, one of the sistahs, worked with the Peace Corps for two years in Kenya, knew the terrain and the incredible need of Kenyans. One such example was the Jehovah Jireh Children’s Home in Mombasa, a small city near the Indian Ocean in the southeast corner of Kenya.

The home is located near a police station and is where abandoned children left at the station end up. The “home” has three rooms and is where 31 children and two adults live. “A lot of these orphans have been impacted by AIDS,” Thibodeaux said. “Either their parents have died or they themselves have been infected with the virus.”

Complicating matters is that the owner of the three-room house wants to evict the tenants, largely because of the heavy rat infestation. The local government gave the orphanage a plot of land but they have little construction material to build a new home. In the middle of that chaos is the need for the children, most of whom are between 10 years old and 18, to receive an education. That costs about $300 a year per pupil for books, backpacks, uniforms and other school supplies.

At another mission, about 25 young women, cast aside because of their disabilities, learn a trade and survival skills. The Shanzu Transitional Workshop for Disabled Girls and Woman has become an important center. The women learned how to sew and produce all sorts of handbags, pouches and other goods, which they then sell and use the money to keep the center in operation.

“Most of these women have never learned a skill because they have been shunned by society,” Thibodeaux said. “They were kept in the background, hidden from view.”

Not all of the trip was depressing. Cheryl Murphy talked about the safaris and all of the different types of animals the sistahs got to see, up close.

“There was this one elephant,” Murphy said, “that was hidden from view but then it came out. And we were like, ‘there’s an elephant.’ And then it started to charge us. It went away after a while and simply disappeared into the bushes.”