Lost Children of Kenya's Post-Election Violence

UNICEF estimates more than 40 percent of the 600,000 internally displaced people in Kenya are children.

Many of the children are in the camps without parents or adult relatives. Often, parents begged and pleaded for their kids to get on a truck heading to a church, police station or camp. The adults stayed behind to guard their house and property.

Now, many are seperated and lost. The Kenyan Red Cross and UNICEF work hard to reunite these families. For children above the age of five, the success rate is often high. The children below the age of five often have problems communicating who their parents are or what part of Kenya they are from.

Advertisements in newspapers and radios are inundated with names or photos of children who are lost for the moment.

Pray these families will be reunited.

Thank God that many orphanages and churches opened their doors to these lost children - keeping them from entering the dangerous camps.

Pray for children in the internally displaced camps. Pray for their safety and that they are getting food and other essentials. Many times in the camps, the children are raped or beaten for their food.

Ruth's Song

Here's a song written by my friend Ruth, an internally displaced Kenyan. Her family sings it from inside their makeshift shelter. Photos accompanying are mine and a few from a friend.

One Love- Kenya Unite!

This is a great collage of photos. Most of these photos are from some of my journalist friends. This guy did a good job putting this together. It really captures the mood the first month of this chaos.

Thousands Move

Piled high on top of a bicycle were chairs, household goods, and pretty much anything else that could be transported.

Monday through Wednesday proved to be an unexpected moving day for hundreds of thousands who joined the ranks of the displaced. The tribe that was previously being kicked out of their homes decided to retaliate. This sent thousands packing for the displaced camps. The number of displaced are now around 600,000.

My favorite little camp is no longer "little." This is a camp that the Baptists unofficially adopted. For an entire month, we provided food, water, blankets, plastic tarps for the hundreds seeking shelter at this camp.

Then, in one night -- the camp population jumped to about 6,600. There's absolutely no room at this camp. It is on a small police station compound. It is probably the size of two lots in the States. Imagine housing almost 7,000 in that space -- not to mention, cooking area, laundry, toilets, and storage for everything that was saved from their houses.

Needless to say there's only narrow paths to walk between tents and piled up goods.

Please pray for my Kenya Red Cross Volunteer friends at this camp. They were holding up very well until the influx of people. They are young Kenyans. They are volunteering - meaning no pay -- in a camp that does not have people from their own tribes. Their families are worried about their safety, but these young volunteers (about age 20) want to be a part of the solution and not a part of the problem.

Pray for the almost 7,000 people in this camp. Pray for their health and that there will be enough food and shelter. Pray that they will be able to return home soon.