Mama Pat .... African updates, and the Q.A.V.S.

Regular readers of this blog will remember Pat Botwright, or Mama Pat as she was known by the children and teenagers she had helped over the years since she first came to Kenya. 

Here is what I wrote about her and her orphanage and school in 2011 when I first met her:-

http://luolaughter.blogspot.com/2011/03/visit-to-covenant-orphanageschool-at.html


I subsequently met her every time I returned to Kenya, and we emailed regularly, and she came to tea with me in Mill Hill House on several occasions.    I last saw her in 2017 :-

http://luolaughter.blogspot.com/2017/03/visiting-mama-pat-in-mamboleo.html


A good friend of mine has kept me up to date with her since I last saw her, as he hears regularly from one of her earlier orphans who emails him, and he told me he had heard of Pat's death a few weeks ago.   The email he received from Kenya said :- Its with deep pain to share with you the saddest news of the loose of mama pat we shall miss her so much.   She suffered heart attack yesterday and taken to hospital reaching there she was put in ICU this morning at around 4am she suffered another heart attack and didnt survive.   She has left such a deep gap of pain we cant even explain, may she rest in peace.

Then this :-https://ksnmedia.com/2020/07/chaos-as-ex-street-children-uk-family-fight-for-missionarys-body/


Pat will certainly be remembered:     May she rest in peace .... and rise in glory.

Pat and her Grandson in England.

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At Hands Around the World, with whom I am still in regular contact via monthly Zoom team meetings, we produce regular updates on the Covid news in Kenya, and other countries in which HATW works, and the latest news this month from Kenya is summed up here :-

• Coronavirus cases at 6366, with 148 fatalities: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-4a11d568-2716-41cf-a15e-7d15079548bc
• 2.7 million Kenyans exposed to Covid-19: https://www.nation.co.ke/kenya/news/-2-7m-kenyans-exposed-covid-19-1412136
• WFP complements Kenya Government emergency response: https://reliefweb.int/report/kenya/wfp-complements-kenya-government-emergency-response-food-9000-families

I can see all African counties suffering hugely with Covid, and particularly in East Africa, occurring just as it has after the past years drought, enormous plagues of locusts, and floods .... and ebola is still a serious problem in the DRC, though not as serious there as a massive measles epidemic which is ravaging the DRC..  How Africa suffers.  

Locusts in the Ololokwe area

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And this was excellent news for HATW;  we have been awarded the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service, which is the equivalent of an M.B.E. for volunteers !   

Volunteers will get some sort of badge to wear .... when lock-down is over and things are back to as near normal as they can be.   Rumours are that one or two invitations to the big house may even come our way !!!