Life in all its fullness

The Methodist Church in Kenya engages with society in many ways in order to enable people to enjoy life in all its fullness. I have written in previous blogs about the school in Kawagware and the Bio-Agriculture Training Scheme in Kaaga. Here are some more examples that I saw during my visit.

The Kenya Methodist University (KeMU) received its first 11 students in 1997 having been established in Meru. This year, over 10,000 students graduated from the University which has several other campuses, the biggest in Nairobi. I visited the Meru campus last week and met Prof. Jotham Micheni, Deputy Vice Chancellor. After a delicious lunch we toured the beautiful site including the newly established Medicine and Health Sciences School. The University has an excellent reputation and student ministers are either trained here or in the ecumenical St Paul's College in Nairobi. The Methodist Church in Kenya is rightly proud of this university. Here are some photographs.

The Administration block

Chapel window

The Chapel

Ruth with Prof, Jotham Michene Njue and Dr P. E. Opakas

I visited Maua Methodist Hospital at 7.30 am on Friday morning and joined the staff for their daily prayers in the chapel. The first thing you see as you drive into the hospital grounds is the chapel which is a reminder of the focus for the work here. I met two Mission Partners from the Methodist Church in Britain; Sister Barbara Dickinson and Dr Claire Smithson, both of whom have served here for many years. Sister Barbara showed me around the hospital and told me about the developing work here, the hospital is changing and adapting to meet current needs. We visited several wards but it would have been inappropriate to take photographs.
Dr Claire told me about the palliative care unit in the hospital. This unit provides a complete package of palliative care, mostly to children and adults with HIVAIDS. You can read about this on the hospital website and I encourage you to do so. The care is offered in the community as well as in the hospital and includes a kitchen garden initiative, training mothers to grow good food. The unit has just been decorated and, as you can see, it offers a warm and friendly welcome to the children who come here for treatment.

The Miathene Methodist Synod, along with other Synods in the Kenya Methodist Church is concerned about the continuing practice of FGM (female genital mutilation), especially in some rural areas. The Women's Fellowship has run an alternative rite of passage programme for a number of years and 3 years ago the Darlington District Methodist Women in Britain supported this work financially. When I visited Kianjai I met a number of the girls who had attended the programme which lasts for 1 week and focuses on healthy living and respect for the body. This photograph of part of the certificate awarded shows the content of the course.

This year 200 girls attended the course and they go back to their communities and educate others. As the Bishop of the Miathene Synod said, 'it takes time to change a culture' but real progress is being made.

The Methodist Church in Kenya has many other programmes which aim to enable people to enjoy life in all its fullness.

To God be the glory!

Kenya - Glimpses of glory in worship

On Wednesday August 21st I travelled from Nairobi to the region around Meru with Mrs Pauline Ntombura, the Presiding Bishop's wife. We visited a number of places in the Kaaga and Miathene Synods and then stayed overnight on their shamba (small farm) in Mbaranga. I had visited the Miathene Synod in August 2010 with four others from the Darlington District because we have a close partnership. On Thursday morning we went to Kianjai where there was to be a celebration with the Synod Women's Fellowship. As we drove to the church we were met by the women, singing and dancing. I got out of the car and joined them - we sang and danced our way to the Bishop's Manse which is near the church. It was good to go into the manse to eat and drink tea because the five of us had stayed there for 2 weeks in 2010. I was welcomed in by Jane who had cared for us then.

Dancing together at Kianjai

After the refreshments we went over to the area outside the church and the celebration began. Each of the circuits contributed; some sang, others danced. The Women's Fellowship in Kenya is focusing on Jeremiah chapter 1 this year and so many of them had composed songs or choral verse and dance to illustrate this passage.

Dramatised presentation of Jeremiah 1

It was a wonderful afternoon at the end of which the women dressed me as an African woman - and we danced again.

In the evening we went to Mbaranga Methodist Church. Here there were many friends gathered for worship.

Each group within the church led part of the worship which was enthusiastic, and powerful. The Spirit was moving among us and we were inspired. There were many young people present and they have a very active youth group which is led by the young probationer minister - Revd Martin.

When the Women's Fellowship came forward they asked me to join them and to dance with them. To my surprise they then produced the Kenyan Women's Fellowship Uniform, dressed me in it and made me a member! They have told me that they meet at 2pm every Tuesday and would be glad if I could join them!

After this each of the groups in the church came forward in turn and encircled me while one of them prayed for me and for the Methodist Church in Britain. A wonderful evening ended with more food and drink.

The next day we returned to Nairobi for the start of the Ministerial Session of the Conference. The session began with a service of Holy Communion, the liturgy was very familiar as it was taken from the Methodist Service Book. The singing and the praise before we turned to the book were in Kiswahili and brought us with joy into the presence of God. It was very good to share bread and wine with sisters and brothers in Kenya.

The last act of worship I attended was on Sunday afternoon, the celebration for the beginning of the Representative Session of the Conference. I had the privilege of preaching on 1 Peter 1:22-25 relating it to the  Conference theme for this year: Empowered for Transformation. The Kenyan Methodist Church celebrated its 150th anniversary last year as their third Jubilee. This year they are marking the beginning of a new Jubilee period, a period in which they are praying to be empowered by God for the transformation of individuals, the nation and the world. Before the sermon there were contributions from the very varied Methodist people in the Nairobi Synod.

 A Maasai congregation performed a traditional dance with a Christian theme.

 A Kikuyu Men's Fellowship also performed a traditional dance on the theme of faithfulness.

 You can see videos of the dancing below.

The Boys and Girls Brigade children marched in and were inspected by the Presiding Bishop and me before reciting a poem they had written on the importance of faith. Another familiar moment was singing the traditional Brigade hymn - 'Will your anchor hold'. Several other groups also gave their presentations including this Men's Fellowship from Charles New Circuit, the Women's Fellowship and a children's choir.

At the end of the afternoon we had celebrated the diversity and commitment of the Methodist Church in Kenya and we had all glimpsed the glory of God, revealed through words, music, dance and prayer.

I have been very conscious of the power of prayer since I was designated as President last year and I am profoundly grateful to all those who have prayed for me. In the last few months they have been joined by members of a church in Bolivia, by Ma Qui and her friends in Cameroon and by the people of Mbaranga Church. Before the act of worship ended on Sunday afternoon, all the Bishops surrounded me and 4 former Presiding Bishops joined the Present Presiding Bishop as they laid hands on me. I was commissioned in prayer again, this time the words were spoken by Revd Catherine Mutua who became the first Kenyan woman Bishop at the Conference last year. I was very blessed.

Bishop Catherine Mutua

On the left is the present Presiding Bishop - Revd Joseph Ntombura.
On the right are the first and second Presiding Bishops:  Revd Johana Mbogori and Revd Lawi Imathiu.






Tomorrow I will be writing about some of the work done in the community by the Methodist Church in Kenya.

Food glorious food

For the next few days I am going to post short blogs about aspects of my recent visit to Kenya where I attended the Ministerial Session of the Conference after a few days visiting different areas and seeing some of the work of the Methodist Church.

Today I am concentrating on food, the food I shared with generous hosts and some of the food that is grown in the areas I visited. Every meal included fruit: bananas, pineapple, water melon and avocado often just picked from the tree.

 Other common filling foods are yams, potatoes and in some areas rice. Rice is grown and sold in the area south of Embu where people can be seen working in the extensive rice fields.

Working in the rice fields

Other staple foods are less familiar. In the area around Meru arrowroot is grown and is cut up and cooked in potato sized chunks. The boiled arrowroot is nutritious and filling and is often part of a meal or taken as a snack.

Arrowroot

Maize is ground, mixed with water and cooked to make ugali. Ugali is eaten with a sauce which may contain beans or meat. Traditionally it is eaten with the hand, rolled into a ball and dipped into the sauce.

Potato is often made into mukimo or irio. The mashed potato is mixed with whole maize kernels and either peas (irio) or green leaves (mukimo) and is served with a stew of meat or vegetables. Stewed meat might be beef, chicken or goat and fried fish is also popular.
Chapatis are also served as an accompaniment to meat or fish and they are thicker and more moist than those served in Indian restaurants here.


Tea is normally made with a lot of hot milk and sugar and is known as chai, coffee is also commonly drunk as are a variety of fizzy cold drinks such as Fanta and Coca Cola.

In rural areas it is often the mother who is expected to grow food to feed the family and this can be difficult, especially if she has little land. It is very important for people to learn good techniques in food production and this has been recognised by the Methodist Church in the Kaaga Circuit near Meru. Kaaga was the place where the first Methodist missionaries to the area had their home and the houses they lived in can still be seen and are in use, some of them provide accomodation for women and men who come to be trained at the Bio-intensive Agricultural training centre.

Here the women are taught methods of growing food which do not require a lot of land. In this picture arrowrot is being grown in a sisal bag. Organic methods of fertilising the crops and of pest control are taught.

 The centre also teaches people how to care for livestock on a zero grazing basis. The cows, pigs or goats are kept in pens that are carefully designed to enable the animal to be healthy and contented where grazing is not available.

The manure from the animals is used to produce bio gas and people are trained to do this for themselves. This is a picture of the production area for the gas.

This is a good example of the church coming alongside others in order that they can glimpse something of the love of God

The centre also has fish ponds and people are taught how to make their own pond and grow the fish. There are 2 types of fish in the tanks; cat fish and talapo. The cat fish are unable to breed in captivity so the 

centre is now designing and making a hatchery. Eggs and sperm will be harvested from the adult fish and fertilised in the hatchery.

This is a photograph of Olive, the manager of the centre, with the hatchery in its very early stage of development.



Tea and coffee are grown extensively in Kenya and some of the tea plantations north of Meru work with a local fair-trade registered factory.

Tea plantations

The principles of sustainable agriculture are described on the sign outside the factory.

The Methodist people in Kenya are thankful for the food they eat and before drinking tea or eating for some-one will always be asked to 'pray for the tea'. Food is not taken for granted here, in times of drought the impact is severe for many people, but in good conditions the land can be bountiful, The glorious food is dedicated to the glory of God.

Glimpses of Glory in Nairobi

‘Welcome home’ These are the words with which people have greeted me in Kenya where I am visiting the Methodist Church. And it feels like a second home here, partly because I have visited before and know some of the people and places but mostly because the welcome offered is genuine and generous.

Yesterday I spent the morning with the Presiding Bishop, Revd Joseph Ntombura Mwaine. It was good to meet him, not least because the Darlington District is in a partnership with the Miathene Synod where he was Bishop and we were both designated to our current roles at the same time. We had a good morning together and discovered many friends in common, Methodism is a small world even across the oceans!

In the evening I met many others from the church when we shared a meal in the Bishop’s home. There was wonderful Kenyan food, good conversation, a lot of laughter and prayer together which included singing ‘Bind us together, Lord.’ It was a good way to begin the visit and I am reminded once again of the importance and preciousness of our relationships in the world church. We must never let these be impoverished by lack of resources or we will lose a pearl of great price.

Today (Tuesday) I have seen some of the work of the Methodist Church in Nairobi in the company of Revd Paul Matomba, the Superintendent Minister of the Kariokor Circuit.

We began the day by visiting Kawagware Mehodist Church. I have visited this church before in 2010 and it was good to return to it. Kawagware is one of the slum areas in Nairobi, life here is tough and the environment is neither healthy nor safe. The Methodist Church is in the middle of Kawagware and today I met the Minister, John.   

Revd Paul Matumbi and Revd John, ministerof Kawagware Methodist Church

 The church runs a school for children aged from 3 to 14, all of them from the local area. The school fees are as low as possible and the children who attend are sponsored by a number of different organisations. There are 260 pupils and the numbers are almost evenly spread between boys and girls. Revd John was a teacher before entering ministry and he has put a great deal of work into building secure structures of administration and policy for the school so that it can continue well into the future. He told me about some of the issues faced by children in the area, among them the inability to complete schooling because of the needs of the family and for girls the possibility of pregnancy at an early age because they are drawn into prostitution to provide money for the family. Many are affected directly or indirectly by HIV AIDS.

Kawagware Methodist Church with Minister's manse to the left.

 They are in the process of building a new church for their rapidly growing congregation and from this view through one of the windows you can see that it is right in the centre of the slum area.

View from site of Kawagware Methodist Church

The manse is on this same site and Revd John lives here alone. He has been threatened on many occasions but has made life more secure by working to build good relationships with members of the local community, who have come to trust him and so protect him. He told me, ‘You are in no danger here now that they have seen that you have come to this church’. His wife and children live in their family home and Revd John has one more year to serve this church before he has to move on. He has worked hard to make sure that the work will continue when he does. It was good to visit again and to see that the work here is still flourishing.

We went next to visit Lavington Methodist Church which is situated in a wealthy area of Nairobi and has well established work both in the local community and in neighbouring slum areas. Kawagware Methodist Church was founded on the initiative of Lavington, a church which looks to the needs of communities beyond its own context.

We then drove further out of the city and into the Kariokor Circuit which is the fastest growing circuit in Nairobi. Our first stop was Ruaraka Methodist Church. Here again, they are building to house a rapidly growing congregation. A year ago the membership of the church was 500 it is now 1800 and they are gaining about 50 members each month. The new church building will hold 2,000 people but they are looking to increase their membership to 5000 in 5 years. 

Building the new ruaraka Methodist Church

There are 2 presbyters and an evangelist working here and they are reaching out to the estates for commuters that surround the church. I met Ken, the evangelist and asked him, ‘How do you do it?’ He told me that a key factor was that whenever a new person came to the church they were followed up and no-one was left to feel that the church didn’t care. This takes hard work and good organization. Each person is asked to give contact details and because these are mostly employed professional people they can be contacted by email or text easily. They have also set up home cell groups although they now need to divide these and have faced some resistance. In order to overcome the resistance the smaller cells will still have the name of the parent cell and so relate to one another, it seems to be working well.

Ken and I outside Ruaraka Methodist Church

 Our final visit was to Kariokor Methodist Church where Revd Paul is the pastor. This is another strong and growing church, well established and with a faithful and committed membership.

Then we went to the Nairobi animal orphan sanctuary. A great place where animals that are orphaned in the National Park are brought and cared for. An enthusiastic and committed volunteer showed us around. For him this is his hobby – he has no time for football! Instead he kisses lions!

How much more glory could there be in one day?

Grace in Cameroon

Agriculture is vital in Cameroon. In rural areas it seems that everyone grows crops in order to feed their family and also to get enough income to live and to send the children to school. Men and women farm, the women concentrating on food to feed the family and them men concentrating on cash crops. MRDF has been partnering YDC who have been working with youth and with women, helping them to improve their agricultural skills and so increase their crop yield. They also train them to rear pigs or poultry and even cane rats, a bush animal.

Groups of people are formed and they work together on demonstration farms, here they can learn new techniques, experiment with different crops and then apply their learning on their own farms. We visited such a group on Saturday and went with them to their group farm, up in the hills, it was a muddy but beautiful walk through the abundant green vegetation that is a feature of this part of Cameroon in the rainy season.

The group on their farm

It was on the farm that I met and talked with Grace ad she gave me permission to share her story.

Ruth, Grace, Mirabelle and Maurice Adams (Director of MRDF)

 Grace is a widow and she has 4 children, her eldest daughter is 25 and her youngest child is still at school. Grace has her own farm on the hillside but a long way from the village and from the only source of water. If she collects water, Grace has to carry it for 3 kilometres and in the dry season (when water is most needed) that is hard and hot work which has to be done twice a day. So Grace has dug a water pit. She has dug it deep and lined it with plastic and it is collecting rainwater ready to be used in the dry season. Grace has done all the work herself, she showed me the blisters on her hands but, she said, it is worth it because she can now use a spray to water her garden. ‘Will you have enough for the whole dry season’ I asked. She hopes so.

Grace grows tomatoes on her land and also cassava. Cassava is an essential food in Cameroom and can be eaten in many ways. One of the most popular is to grind it (usually by hand) and cook it with palm oil to make garri which is used to make paste or mixed with oats or other cereals.

Grace has paid for her children to attend school but only until they were 13, she couldn’t afford to support them in education any longer. She attends the Presbyterian church and told me that her faith is very important to her. 

Grace looking at the view from the farm

Like all those we have met, Grace was not complaining, she was hoping that with God’s help her farm would continue to develop. And Grace is a skilled farmer, her enthusiasm and determination shone from her. Her smile was so welcoming that she drew you to her for conversation and from her I received grace.

Please pray for Grace and the other women and men who are working to improve theirfarms in Cameroon.

 

The trees of the field shall clap their hands

Today we were visiting some of the projects of YDC in Cameroon. YDC is partnered by MRDF and offers agricultural training and support to young people and also to women. The group’s focus was originally with young people but women began to apply to join the scheme and so they have extended their work.

Our day began in Bombe Bakundu, a village in a forest area. As we drove there we passed huge plantations of rubber trees, palm trees for production of palm oil and plantains. The soil is generally good and the area has a lot of rainfall and is warm all year round, the vegetation is luscious and varied and the area is beautiful.

We were welcomed in Bombe Bakundu by the Chief and members of the Council and also by a British Methodist from London who is researching for his PhD in his home village! In his words of welcome the Chairman of the Council spoke of his beautiful village and in the welcome sunshine it did indeed look beautiful.

In Bombe Bakundu they are planting trees and they want to clear some land to establish a tree nursery. There are ornamental trees and fruit trees outside the houses which provide a place to sit and meet together. But there is another reason for planting trees. The forest, which used to be home to varied wild-life has been decimated as trees have been cut down for timber and to clear land to grow crops. When we were in Buea, we heard that they could no longer grow coco yams and other crops because the soil can no longer sustain them due to poor land management. Because of this, the crops are now being grown on cleared land in the forest area but the area and the world need the trees. If they establish the nursery, the people of Bombe Bakundu will grow fruit trees and ornamental trees for the village and trees for timber to replace those cut down in the forest.

Looking over the land for the nursery and seeing evidence of deforestation

The trees of the field shall clap their hands!

  Bombe Bakundu also needs water. There is a stand pipe in the village which was provided by an aid agency. Sadly it no longer works and the agency still owns it but has no maintenance or support programme, development work requires long-term commitment. MRDF recognizes this and builds relationships with the local projects enabling them to retain ownership of the work and to carry it forward.

Broken water tap in Bombe Bakundu

Our next visit was to the Catholic school in Camdev where YDC has worked with the school to give the pupils important skills in agriculture. The school has a piggery and a vegetable garden and the pupils are taught all aspects of growing the crops and caring for the pigs. We were given lunch here and tasted some of the vegetables that had been grown and they were delicious!

In the vegetable garden

The children and a pig called Koinonia

 Camdev is a village in the middle of a rubber plantation and all those in the village work on the plantation.  Each worker look after 300 trees, tapping them every day and we saw them working their way along the long lines of trees emptying the latex sap from the collecting cups. The payment for this work is not enough to live on so people also need to grow crops and rear animals to survive. The children had ambition to be doctors, teachers and governors but many of them may need the skills they are learning to support themselves in the future.

Our final visits were to two of the groups who are working on ‘demonstration’ farms in Yoke village. Here we met two groups of people who were already farmers but had joined groups which worked on farming areas where they are trained to improve their agricultural skills in order to develop their own farms. The first group had just completed fish ponds and were waiting for the first harvest from them.

The fish ponds in Yoke

The second group was a woman’s group and I was humbled by the way in which these women had taken time out of the day to meet with us when many of them are growing crops and caring for children and other family members.  At the end of this visit, the women shared a meal with us – chicken and spicy sauce with plantains – food they had grown and cooked. 

Selence Women's Group with me and with the Director and Technical adviser from YDC

And we went out with joy!

Meeting Ma Qui and learning about garri and pigs.

On Thursday we woke up to heavy rain and this persisted for much of the day, after all it is the rainy season here. It was also the feast of the Assumption, a public holiday in Cameroon and so our hosts picked us p at 10.00am after Mr Anu, the Director of NADEV had attended church. NADEV, the project that we are visiting, is partnered by MRDF. Although NADEV  is not a church organization it has become clear that every member of staff and board member is a committed Christian and this is what inspires them in their work.

NADEV works with women and helps them to develop their small businesses. Often these women are widows or single women who bear the responsibility of bringing up their children and paying for their education.  We drove to Tiko, where we met Mrs Celine Qui, known as Ma Qui in the local community where she is an elder and a preacher in the church. 

With Ma Qui in her shop. Ma Qui is wearing a red jacket.

 Ma Qui has a dressmaking and design business that she has developed after being widowed with 9 children to support. She shared her story with us without self-pity or anger. As I listened to her and sat beside her I was inspired by her faith, her courage and her leadership skills. Ma Qui has also started and leads 6 groups for the support of widows. In these groups the women support one another, are given information about their legal rights and helped to access the support that is available for them. In this area, when a woman is widowed the tradition is that she is locked into a smoke-filled room for the official period of mourning. The smoke is there to make her cry and mourn her husband and other women who have been widowed oversee the custom. After this period of mourning, many widows find themselves without support and are not aware of their legal rights to property that might be claimed by their husband’s family. The widows groups offer much to women who find themselves in this very vulnerable position.

Ma Qui with her son, Elvis. A Local Preacher, lawyer and politician.

We asked Ma Qui what she would like the Methodists in Britain to pray for the people of Cameroon. She asked that we pray for widows, that they might be given the strength to live their lives to their full potential. She also asked for prayers for the end of corruption among the leaders in society.

And what would Ma Qui want to say to people in Britain? She was clear about this. Man and woman are created equal in God’s eyes so women must be strong and take responsibility for their own lives. They should never allow themselves to be disregarded or limited but should do everything they could to fulfill their potential.

Before we left Ma Qui prayed with us, and she prayed for me as a woman in leadership. I was greatly blessed.

There was so much glory in that small shop on Thursday.

We drove on to the village of Malende where we met Helen, who has developed her small business with help from NADEV. NADEV offer training to women who have already begun to buy and sell goods or skills. Once trained in business management skills – book-keeping, customer relations, risk assessment – they are able to access loans to enable them to develop the business further. Helen sells smoked fish and other goods from a stall outside her home. 

Helen and her shop

 She took us further into the village where another woman and her children were preparing Garri for sale in the market the next day. Garri is a powder of cassava and palm oil which is a staple food here. The family were working under the overhang of a roof, which protected them from the rain, as they ground and cooked the cassava until it was a fine, yellow powder ready for sale. It was hard, labour intensive work. Stirring the cassava was the woman’s son who is a teacher in a local school, it is holiday time now. 

Making garri

Our final visit was to Tolle a village next to a large tea plantation on the slopes of Mount Cameroon. This had been owned by CDC (Cameroon Development Corporation) and under their ownership the village had been well supported. The plantation was sold to a Cameroonian some years ago and he is not treating the workers well. 

The tea plantation

 The roads have fallen into disrepair and the villagers are going through very difficult times. In this community there are many single women and widows. NADEV has assisted some of the widows to buy and raise a pig. They supply them with a pig and support them while they raise it until it can be sold. The pigs are kept in raised pens so that they don’t catch diseases from other pigs that roam around. When the pig is sold, a small part of the profit goes back to NADEV to help to fund the purchase of pigs for others. A trained veterinarian working with NADEV offers ongoing support to the women. This was a sign of hope in a difficult place – a glimpse of glory.

Tolle

On Friday we move on to Limbe after an evening with our hosts from NADEV when we ate and drank together and were entertained by local dancers before saying goodbye to these people who give so generously of their time and skills. It has been a privilege to share with them.

Women shaking the nation

As we walked into the Presbyterian Church Hall in Tiko, in South West Cameroon, the women who were gathered there were singing. It was a catchy song, as African songs often are, and the words were simple, ‘Women shaking the nation’. 

Women shaking the nation!

Today we met many women who are running small businesses in order to improve their lives, provide education for their children and contribute to the life of the communities in which they live.  I am visiting Cameroon as a guest of the Methodist Relief and Development Fund and we are visiting the projects they support in this part of the country. There will be more details about the visit in later reports but in my blogs for the next few days I will try to give some glimpses of what I am experiencing here.

After spending some time with the women in Tiko, who were learning business skills in order to qualify for financial assistance we drove to Moquo, a village where other women are successfully running small businesses. Here we met Sophie who collects and sells snails for food. 

Sophie with her snails

Sophie has lived in Moquo for over thirty years and has seen the village change a great deal. The land around had been used to grow rubber trees and then these had been replaced by Plantains. Now the land is owned by Del Monte and we drove through their huge banana plantation to get to the village. It is still the rainy season here so the drive to Moquo was both muddy and bumpy (an understatement!)

The road through the banana plantation

Here we also met Magdalene who has a hairdressing business. As for all the women we saw, her business is run from a room in her home and Magdalene’s faith was evident from what she had written on the walls outside and inside her salon. She told us how important her faith is to her.

This was a common theme throughout the day as we talked to the women who naturally spoke of the importance of God in their lives.

Women shaking the nation.

Moquo village

Judith has been able to buy a grinding machine and this has increased her income enabling her to educate her children and care for her family.