Joytown Team and Next Steps

It has been an amazing experience re-connecting here and seeing the changes that have occured in the past two years. The new library, renovated laundry facilities, and the revamping of the entire therapy unit are truly amazing accomplishments. As you can see from the photos however, there is still a lot of work to do. Part of today was strategizing and brainstorming next steps.

The tree you see is a view from just outside of the Joytown campus. The Salvation Army, who originally stated Joytown in the 1960s but no longer has anything to do with the school, still owns most of the land that you can see in the photograph. We had a walk around today to see what is possible in terms of additions to the facilities, improvements, or expansion. It was fun to simply throw ideas around based on all the information we have.

We were joined today by James, a representative from Joni and Friends, a Christian organization who run a program called "Wheels for the World". We had met with him on Friday as well and did a tour of Bethany with him. The organization was looking to support the work Bethany Kids is doing at Joytown. Through the Wheels for the World program, they provide wheelchairs for those who need them. We did an quick assessment of the needs today with him while walking around and while many of the wheelchairs need to be updated as you know well from the past few years, an even bigger need is working with the therapists and mechanics on fitting the wheelchairs appropriately for each child so it is supporting their needs in the best possible way. We have worked on a plan that will have a team come to Joytown through the Wheels for the World program and work with the team here at Joytown fitting, fixing, and updating the current wheelchair situation. While simply bringing over new wheelchairs may sound great, it is more important to work on fitting them well and learning how to properly maintain and adjust them. This connection to Wheels for the World was made through Bethany Kids and is another way in which we are trying to support the students at Joytown. We hope this team provides knowledge and skills as well as equipment and perhaps an on-going relationship.

The second photo is one of the students - a Gr. 2 student - working on his new colouring book. This student was quite a bright light and we had a great conversation about how his studies are going this year at Joytown.

The third photo is of the deputy headmistress at Joytown. I brought two bibles in Swahili over with me and gave one to Mercy at Bethany Kids and one to Joytown on behalf of the staff, students, and parents of St. Vincent. This bible, along with many of the other books we have contributed to the school, will be housed in the refurbished library for student use.
This last photo is of the team at Joytown today - the therapists and assistants, the headmistress of Joytown, Nial, Dr. Stewart, David from Bethany Kids and Justice - the new director of Bethany Kids Africa, James from Joni and Friends on the far right, and I'm in the back in the brown shirt just above Dr. Stewart's shoulder. It was a great group of people to get to know and we are optimistic about the future at Joytown with our partnership.

There were a lot of photos I wanted to share with you about Joytown so it has resulted in 5 posts this evening! Read on below...