LDN - Today's Top Stories

Part 2 of 3

The story of a local woman’s compassion for the Pokot people

[MARCH 28, 2000] In 1997 Barb O’Donohue took a trip which changed her life. She traveled with Lincolnites Dr. Paul and Mary Boatman to the remote African village of Tapandany. While there she caught the vision begun by a 1993 graduate of Lincoln Christian Seminary, the Honorable Samuel L. Poghisio, a member of the Kenyan Parliament.

In 1995, while the Boatmans were with Poghisio, he shared with them the need for a school in that village. Poghisio’s sister went to the village and began teaching the children sitting under a tree. The school continued to grow with some support from the Lincoln community, but there was a need for a more formal organization and someone to administrate it. "Our primary goal [for this trip] was to solidify the relationship there," Dr. Boatman stated.

[While they live in villages with
dirt floors and small huts, the Pokot
people receive generous gifts
of clothing from the United States, including
donations from organizations in Lincoln. Notice the young boys Lincoln Area
YMCA t-shirt]

On O’Donohue’s first visit to Tapandany, she connected with the people and the job at hand. Returning home, she set to work. "Barb’s administrative skills just kicked in," Boatman commented. She got to work filing all the proper paper work for an organization to provide coordination for the projects in Tapandany.

What O’Donohue saw and felt while meeting the Pokot people moved her heart and soul. She says, "I was struck deep by the people." She came back focused on the things that needed to be done. She redirected her own life, making sacrifices that would affect her daily life. Her priorities now included the Children of Pokot Education, COPE. She had the upstairs of her downtown business, General Consulting Services, remodeled so she could live there, and she redesigned the structure of her business so she could travel and spend time, four to six weeks at a time, in the village a of couple times each year.

While looking through a few of the pictures that vividly reflect village life, Barb comments, "Some people would look at these people and say that they are primitive. They are not primitive, they are a highly evolved culture." The Pokot people, once a nomadic tribe, have become what is termed a "marginal people." They have settled and are no longer able to move to more bountiful areas of land. They must make a living in a place where the land quality is poor. Living is a challenge. "These are a people that are at risk for extinction," Ms. O’Donohue says. "I truly cannot imagine this earth without the Pokot. Somehow, they add a grace and rhythm to this earth. There would be this hollow sound or lack of sound without them."

Droughts continue to take a toll in this region. Several years of drought have reduced much of the food supply. Hunger is a daily reality. Some of the children come to school just because they know they will get what might be their only meal that day.

The Pokot are a culture in which the women are the laborers. While the men gather and discuss world issues, the women do the work. After laboring in the fields and caring for their families, the women will gather and not sit. They continue to work, sometimes intricate beadwork which is sold at market, as they discuss their families. A primary COPE goal is to establish cottage industries to help supplement the villager’s income.

In terms of life and work, O’Donohue speaks of "Pokot time." The speed with which something gets done in Pokot is not the same as we would expect in the western world. It is quite the opposite to "a New York minute." Pokot-time is more like that of a rabbit which runs, then stands stock still, and may, after some prodding, take off running again. Though she was often frustrated at first, O’Donohue has learned to recognize some of the functional and cultural roadblocks the villagers are up against.

"Sometimes they run out of materials," she emphasizes, "and so a project will just come to a standstill until I get there and get it going again." Often it is a lack, loss or temporary displacement of vision, which curtails a project. "It has been an extremely valuable life lesson for me," she says with a laugh, "learning to live in Pokot-time."

As an example, the recently completed block schoolhouse was made three blocks at a time because there were just three molds. When 1,500 of the blocks were made, the men ran out of cement. There was a wait for funds for the remaining 1,500 blocks to be made. Though long after the scheduled time for completion, the 3,000 blocks were assembled and the new schoolhouse was completed. According to O’Donohue, the villagers are now taking great pride and ownership in it. They enthusiastically talk about coordinating green uniforms with the green roof and ponder how to raise school fees for study materials. "They are very proud of their accomplishment," she adds.

Having a school started is not enough to make a permanent difference in the lives of the villagers, however. With her skillful insights, O’Donohue continues to pick and choose projects that guide the villagers into self-sufficiency and a better quality of life. With education and health of the children at the center of COPE, she has taken into effect many influential factors and implemented a number of other projects to help the community. At present, the proposed projects include a new school building, daily meals for the children, seeds for crops and nutritional guidance, an irrigation system, immunizations, basic medications, hygiene and drinking water education, a community well which Lincoln Rotary Club is helping with, and cottage industries such as making ovens, bread, and jewelry to sell at market or in nearby communities. O’Donohue also wants to find ways to provide basic medical and dental care.

[O'Donohue learns a few new dance steps during a celebration]

By taking the time to live in the village, O’Donohue has gotten to know the needs and abilities of the people. Her dedication has been of immeasurable value to the village, but if you ask her, she might say she has been the greater beneficiary. She will tell you how much she has fallen in love with the people. She remembers each one by name, every day, even when she is away from them.

[Daily sustenance is called "Ugi" by the Pokot people]

Editor’s note: When O’Donohue returns from her stint in Africa, LDN will catch up with her to see what she did on her recent visit with the Pokot people.

[A young woman seeks medical attention from O'Donohue]

[Jan Youngquist]

Part 1 of 3

Lincoln's helping hands reach all the way to Africa

Barbara O’Donohue on the way to Kenya

[MARCH 6, 2000] What is on your agenda for this week? If you could sneak a peek at one Lincoln woman’s daily planner, it might look like this: This week’s agenda: Go to a small, remote village in Africa. Stay in "mud huts, graciously shared by the most wonderful people you could meet."

Owner and president of a Lincoln-based business, General Consulting Services, Barbara O’Donohue left the States March 5thfor a return trip to Kenya. She will be working as a volunteer for the Children of Pokot Educational Fund (COPE), an organization she helped found. The Pokot village she will be visiting is located in the country of Kenya, in the Kacheliba District. This will be one of Ms. O’Donohue’s shorter trips, taking four weeks instead of the usual five or six. She will be working with tribal leaders, women, educators and other villagers.

[Barbara O'Donohue and Sam Poghisio]

How did Ms. O’Donohue, a Lincoln businesswoman, first connect with a village in Africa? The story begins with Sam Poghisio, a Kenyan who attended Lincoln Christian Seminary.

Poghisio was an exile from Kenya when he arrived in Lincoln in the early '90s. He came on a scholarship to Lincoln Christian Seminary. Back in Kenya Poghisio had been a member of Parliament. He was expelled from the Parliament during a difficult political time. Poghisio’s strong stances had provoked those in power, and his safety was endangered. Shortly after Poghisio came to Lincoln, his wife, Pauline, joined him. Mrs. Poghisio was about to give birth to the couple’s first child and had been unable to attain a visa. After the birth of their daughter, Chelimo, Mrs. Poghisio was granted a visa and came to join her husband.

Poghisio earned his master of divinity degree in 1993, and the family returned to Kenya the following year. He took a professorship at Africa’s largest Christian university, Nairobi’s Daystar University. He resumed his works for his people and was elected back into the Parliament of Kenya in 1998.

Paul and Mary Boatman of Lincoln were traveling with Poghisio in 1995. During that visit in a remote village of the Pokot province, the Boatmans learned of the needs of Pokot. They observed children milling around, children who should have been in school. There are no schools readily accessible in the remote area around Pokot. Poghisio explained to the Boatmans that the children of this village grew up without education. The boys became tribal warriors, and the girls married the boys.

Poghisio dreamed of educating the children of Pokot, and asked his well-educated sister if she would go there to teach. She agreed. Poghisio’s sister opened school under a tree.

After seeing the children and meeting the villagers during her visit to the village, O’Donohue caught the vision. She came home inspired by the wonderful people. With the support of the Boatmans and other Lincolnites, she took on the leadership to establish COPE, which has helped the school to grow.

Later, the class moved to a shelter, a grass hut where the children sat on dirt floors. Since then, a new building has been constructed, and the school children will soon move into it. The little schoolhouse has a concrete floor, tin roof and no desks. It is divided into five rooms. Poghisio smiles and says proudly, "The children will no longer have to sit in the dust."

[Poghisio poses with artifacts of his native country]

Four teachers and 150 children are looking forward to moving into the new school. They now claim one of the highest enrollments in the district, and the school is one of the few offering a Bible-based education. Lincoln people have joined the Boatmans and Ms. O’Donohue in supporting the schoolhouse in Pokot.

Sam Poghisio recently returned to Kenya after a brief visit to the States. He was here with many other world leaders on an invitation to the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. The members of the U.S. Congress hosted the breakfast, with the President and Mrs. Clinton also in attendance. Poghisio swung though Lincoln to see some of his friends here and to express his great appreciation for the people who support COPE.

[Jan Youngquist]

(Part 2)

Bogus bomb brings big response by state and local law enforcement

[MARCH 27, 2000] At 9:43 p.m. Saturday, March 25, the Lincoln Police Department was contacted to respond to the 300 block of South College Street in Lincoln. When officers arrived, a resident told them that the object had been found on the front porch of the residence and moved to the street. The object was suspicious in that it appeared to possibly be a homemade bomb. Supervisors were called to the scene, and, for the public’s safety, people within approximately 1½ blocks were evacuated. The Secretary of State’s bomb squad was dispatched and arrived at approximately 11:25 p.m. They examined the object and determined that it needed to be neutralized for further inspection. The bomb squad officers neutralized the object and determined that it had no explosives in it and it was a fake. Residents were allowed back into their homes at approximately 1:50 a.m., and evidence was collected. This situation is currently under investigation by the Lincoln Police Department. The Lincoln Police Department was assisted by the Logan County Sheriff’s Department, the city of Lincoln Street Department and the Secretary of State bomb squad.

[LDN]

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