Around March last year the Turning Point management team spent quite some time praying and discussing 'stage 3' for the mums living on the Turning Point Farm. The goal has always been independence, but what should that look like?
Seeking God's vision through prayer is always a key part of any big decision at Turning Point and everyone involved in the praying got a similar sense (in their own way) of God wanting to give the mums freedom. Freedom from the hunger and poverty and stress of Kibera but also freedom from the Turning Point Farm. We and the mums feel that as long as the mums are living on the Turning Point farm they are not fully independent from Turning Point. They remain reliant on Turning Point to continue offering them rent-free land and with this proximity comes the temptation to run back to Turning Point for help at every hurdle.
From here we developed the final plan for 'stage 3': to buy each mum her own one acre of land complete with two-roomed house, kitchen, toilet and bathroom. This will not be a completely free gift but the mums will pay a small amount each year for 15 years. As the years pass ownership of the land will gradually pass from Turning Point to the mum and at the end of the 15 years the mum will have 100% ownership of the land. Land ownership would have been an impossible dream for these mums three years ago when they signed up to move to the farm.
The big issue now is how do we pay for all this land? In total it will cost £3,700 (around $6,000) to buy the land and do the necessary building for just one mum and we now have seven mums who are ready to move onto their own land later this year. In May last year I said something along the lines of '£3,700 is totally do-able, I'll raise the money for one mum myself!'. I slightly wish I hadn't said that now, but I did, so I'm launching a campaign. I call it, 'Dig deep for the Farmers' and the goal is to raise the money for (at least) one mum's land by the end of June 2011. To add to the challenge I'm aiming to raise the full amount online through Globalgiving.org.
So whoever wants to get the ball rolling, head on over to Globalgiving.org and help me out with the first donation! Also, the word needs to be spread far and wide, so please consider blogging, tweeting, or actually telling your friends in person about the mums and their opportunity for freedom. Thanks!
From here we developed the final plan for 'stage 3': to buy each mum her own one acre of land complete with two-roomed house, kitchen, toilet and bathroom. This will not be a completely free gift but the mums will pay a small amount each year for 15 years. As the years pass ownership of the land will gradually pass from Turning Point to the mum and at the end of the 15 years the mum will have 100% ownership of the land. Land ownership would have been an impossible dream for these mums three years ago when they signed up to move to the farm.
The big issue now is how do we pay for all this land? In total it will cost £3,700 (around $6,000) to buy the land and do the necessary building for just one mum and we now have seven mums who are ready to move onto their own land later this year. In May last year I said something along the lines of '£3,700 is totally do-able, I'll raise the money for one mum myself!'. I slightly wish I hadn't said that now, but I did, so I'm launching a campaign. I call it, 'Dig deep for the Farmers' and the goal is to raise the money for (at least) one mum's land by the end of June 2011. To add to the challenge I'm aiming to raise the full amount online through Globalgiving.org.
So whoever wants to get the ball rolling, head on over to Globalgiving.org and help me out with the first donation! Also, the word needs to be spread far and wide, so please consider blogging, tweeting, or actually telling your friends in person about the mums and their opportunity for freedom. Thanks!
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2 comments:
Em, ball rolling, good luck with the project.
Thanks so much Smiffy!
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