Sat. Oct. 6th, 2012 Graduation Day for WEEP Ladies

Today is our last day in Kenya and it is graduation day for 9 of the WEEP ladies!  Our day started early with preparations for graduation at the HEART grounds and like anyone having special visitors the HEART staff wanted everything to look just right for these 9 special ladies.  The grounds were beautiful with white tents, chairs covered in white with pink bows, and beautiful flowers every where!  All of this was dim in comparison to the smiles on the 9 beautiful graduates as they practiced walking down the steps in their royal blue cap and gowns.  To think 18 months ago they were alone and near death with their children watching them getting worse each day.  Today they are healthy and full of hope looking forward to supporting themselves and their children.
Besides the graduates there were alumni from the last 2 graduating classes who were proud to wear their blue alumni sash.  One of the alumni gave a speech on how their class had taken the $150 seed money from last year and worked out a system to loan money to each other without taking out their seed money.  They have done so well they are now loaning money to the community with interest and have more than doubled their $150 each not to count for the fact that the community that had shunned them because of their HIV/AIDS is now asking them for loans!  These ladies were just busting with pride as they should be.   They also will be mentoring the 9 graduates from this year in the months to come.
The key note speaker was the Israeli ambassador Gil Hulsted.  His wife volunteer's with HEART in the slums and has shared with him how special they ladies are.  He encouraged the ladies and said they were the shining stars today.
Through different ministries and our Bayside team of supporters we were able to present each lady with $150 dollars seed money to start a business, a pair of scissors, $500 to purchase a home in the slums (no longer will they need to pay rent), and they get to keep the Singer trundle sewing machine they have learned to use.  There also were enough funds to sponsor 3 new ladies for the 18 month program!      
It was really hard to say goodbye to all of our new friends and the HEART staff today.  We are packed and looking forward to getting home to our families. but not to the 24 hours of travel time!