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PRAYERS IN TIME the schools
October
2019: The album Prayers
In Time has raised most of the £14,000 to complete the
building of
two life-changing schools in Africa - the last floor
of classrooms is
now built and in use.
In
2002 the Rev Kenneth
Ononeze started to build a primary and a secondary school to give
affordable
education to families in Jos in Plateau State, Nigeria. Jos is a
Christian city
which has suffered many atrocities at the hands of Islamist terrorists,
the
most recent in July 2018 in which hundreds were killed, injured and
made
homeless.
The
surrounding villages
are regular targets for murderous attacks by Muslim "herdsmen": these
are often reported as land disputes, but these groups are provided with
AK47s
and other weaponry by Islamist extremists intent on driving Christians
from the
area to impose Sharia Law.
Kenneth is a brave and honest man in a country notorious for corruption. He and his wife Helen and his church have built the schools with whatever money they have been able to raise. He takes no income from the school. They charge very low fees, and though they are Christian, free scholarships are offered to Muslim children, especially girls, who cannot get education otherwise. They get some of the best results in the state and send many students to universities. A Muslim boy they took from the streets of Jos has recently gone to Tehran to study medicine there.
Before (above) and after (below): the third floor of classrooms and the roof of the last building built with money raised by Prayers in Time. They were in use when the schools opened in September 2018 but electrical and other work is ongoing and still needs some more funding.
Yet
16 years on they
still haven’t been able to complete the basic building work to provide
enough
classrooms: as of May 2018 they needed about £14,000 more to do so.
Most of
that has now been raised through the album Prayers
in Time. All the
income from the album goes to to the schools via the charity which was
set up
many years ago for that purpose. The recording and production costs are
the
gifts of the Rust family and other contributors.
Godfrey and
Tessa
Rust have supported Kenneth’s work with all income from Godfrey’s music
and
poetry for more than 20 years, along with their friends Geoff Shattock
and
Maria Silva, both of whom have spent time with Kenneth in Jos.
You
can support this work
by buying an album on CD or download for £10 (or more if you
wish) from www.godfreyrust.bandcamp.com.
100%
of what you pay will go to finishing the school building.
If you would like to make a larger gift and perhaps include Gift Aid, please go to the charity page.
Since
the July 2018 atrocities around Jos, with
several hundred killed and hundreds of houses burned down in attacks by
Muslim
"herdsmen" on Christian farmers, thousands of Christians are
displaced in camps. Kenneth Ononeze (above left) and
members of his
church are here providing aid to one of the camps.