In Memory of Fidelis Wainaina
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Fidelis Wainaina passed away last week in Nairobi shortly after being diagnosed with cancer. She was the founder of the Maseno Interchristian Child Self Help Group (MICH) in Kenya and has served on the international council of the Micah Challenge campaign from its inception in 2004. Fidelis founded MICH to support orphans and street children at risk due to hunger and poverty and aggravated by HIV/AIDS.
In September 2007, Fidelis, accompanied by Pastor Adam Phillips, participated in a meeting of religious leaders in Iowa sponsored by ONE Vote ‘08. Below, Pastor Phillips reflects on Fidelis’ life and the time they traveled together to Iowa.
-Mark Brinkmoeller
There was no way we were going to make our flight. It was the morning hour rush and the road looked more like a parking lot than the expressway to O’Hare airport. Behind the wheel I was beginning to get tense and stress out a bit. Fidelis, my companion in the passenger seat, was calm and resolved – “God will not let us miss this flight Adam, it is too important to his cause. We should just pray.” And we did – and we made it to our gate in just enough time for us to get hot chocolates (her choice) and fly to Iowa to speak on the need to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
That day at a luncheon convened by ONE Vote ’08, Fidelis moved a room full of presidential state campaign leaders to consider the call oo US leadership in the global effort to combat poverty, hunger, and disease. She inspired the room with her stories of hope and positive change out of Kenya, highlighting her agricultural work with children in Kisumu.
So, it is with heavy heart that I reflect on the passing of my friend Fidelis Wainaina, this past week, after a sudden illness. She was a dear colleague and leader in the Micah Challenge, a global Christian movement to make poverty history.
Fidelis is a model of someone who embodied “integral mission” – a whole faith exercised for love, justice, and the common good. She was on the front lines of the Green Revolution, winning the prestigious Yara Prize. As founding director of the Maseno Inter-Christian Self Help Group (MICH), she trained orphans and widows agricultural basics; when she taught young people how to plant a banana tree she offered a lesson God’s love and concern for everyone.
Reflecting on the MDGs last year, she reminded many to have “the understanding that global problems have a grass roots cause, a political cause and an international cause.” She exercised her gifts and talents in all these areas.
Fidelis’ story is only one story from the Global South of the kind of grassroots leadership in the fight to make poverty history. Her work, though based in western Kenya, had a global impact and will be reflected for a generation to come. She will be greatly missed. Her funeral is set for this Saturday. Peace be to her memory.
-Adam Phillips
(Adam Phillips is a pastor at Resurrection Covenant Church in Chicago and co-chair of Micah Challenge USA.)
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The ONE Blog is a daily log of the anti-poverty movement. The site is operated by ONE staff, with frequent contributions from volunteers, members and partner organizations.
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March 11, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Although I never had the privilege to meet Fidelis, it is obvious that she was a blessed woman. There is a warmth in her smile that is palpable and a heart which embraced others unconditionally.
Thank you, Mark and Adam, for bringing this to our attention. Let us carry on in her tradition.
LOVE AND PEACE. HOPE AND JOY. MERCY AND GRACE.
AS ONE, debbie
March 12, 2008 at 11:42 am
the news of Fiddelis’ death has shocked us all. I am still numb as I think of the suddenness of her death, and the loss this is, not only to her loving family and her community, but also to the wider Micah family and beyond around the world.
Fidelis had a very special place in our hearts – she endeared herself to us when she stayed at our home during the eastern part of a visit to Canada in February last year. She laughed because she could never get warm, though we turned up the thermostat, gave her an extra little heater, bundled her with extra sweaters, and sent her to bed with extra blankets and a hot water bottle! She maintained that the sun shines in Canada, but it doesn’t work!
Fidelis was such a passionate and compassionate lady who loved the Lord Jesus and who cared for those around her. she embodied the principles of Micah 6:8, working for justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with her Lord. I spoke with her a while ago, to talk again about how she was doing and about the death of her father, for whom she had been very worried when she was here last. Knowing our own grief journey, she was so thoughtful, asking about how Carol was, and how Keith and our grandchildren were doing….
She was and is a very special lady who will be missed by many whose lives she has touched.
We are blessed to have had her, though for far too short a time!
Paul Robinson,
former Coordinator, Micah Challenge Canada
March 16, 2008 at 7:04 am
Fidelis was my friend. Even after she was compelled to flee her home in Kisumu following the chaos and ethnic tensions that gripped the town and the country after the December elections her spirit remained strong and her outlook ever positive. She yearned to return to working in Nyanza which she she always said felt like home to her. She was ever self-effacing and humble. A loyal friend with a very big heart. A very special person. She has touched so many lives. I will miss her terribly.
Kolya Okero
Kisumu
March 18, 2008 at 2:20 am
HEARTFELT?? I AM STILL SHOCKED BY THE DEATH OF MY FIRST COUSIN FEDELIS. WE ARE ACTUALLY NAME AFTER THE SAME PERSON. SHE IS A DAUGHTER TO MY DAD’S BROTHER. GATHONI : MAY YOU REST IN PEACE.. YOU WILL BE MISSED BY MANY.. LOVE NAMESAKE.
March 19, 2008 at 8:12 am
NUMB, SHOCKED AND IN A STATE OF DISBELIEF!!!!. FIDELIS GATHONI IS MY ELDEST SISTER. SHE STILL IS MY FRIEND, ELDEST SISTER AND A MOTHER TO ME!!!
I AM STILL HEARING YOUR VOICE VIVIDLY SINGING SOFTLY OVER THE PHONE 3 DAYS BEFORE WE SADLY LOST YOU. I MISS YOU DEARLY, MY HEART REFUSES TO ACCEPT THAT GATHONI, I LL NEVER HEAR YOU CALL ME ‘FOI’ AGAIN. IT HURTS ME DEEPLY TO THINK THAT YOU ARE GONE! I FEEL THOUGH THAT YOU ARE WITH DAD AND SHIRO WHEREVER YOU ARE. I SEE YOUR SMILE, FEEL YOUR CALMNESS AND THE WARMTH OF YOUR LOVE.
I LOVE YOU AND I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU. MAY YOUR LOVE AND GREAT WORKS THAT YOU STARTED IN OUR FAMILY AND IN THE GREATER COMMUNITY CARRY ON IN YOUR ABSCENCE IN YOUR HONOUR.
FROM YOUR LITTLE SISTER
‘FOI’
April 5, 2008 at 8:27 am
ONE month later but Fidelis is still in our faces.Her smile can never fade away from our thoughts.We at Dagoretti 4 kids have lost someone we looked upon and gave skills we will never get on books about sustainability of community based initiatives and skills to reach out more to children at risk. Today we are living on what Fidelis you taught us in benefit of children in our beatifull Kenya.We miss you and we are honored to continue with your Legacy in Dagoretti.
Elijah
For Dagoretti 4kids family.
May 3, 2008 at 9:28 am
Fidelis was totally awesome.A great thinker yet extremely practical.Out of all the things she accomplished I remember her for the many little things she did.and the many good conversations we had.I miss her dearly.I can actually see her laughing hard in my mind when she said the sun doesn’t work in canada.she had friends of all kinds,rich,poor,young,old.I’m sure they all feel the loss and the gap she left in the world.Hopefully that gap will be filled by everyone passing on our experiences of her in a practical way-by touching someone elses heart, especially the vulnerable.
September 4, 2008 at 10:03 pm
I went to college with somebody called MARK WAINAINA at CITY OF LOND COLLEGE CLASS OF 2001 DMS COURSE, please anybody knows this man please give him my contact/email address, he is a KENYAN.
Thanks,
EDWARD ALEX MKWELELE
edwardmkwelele@yahoo.co.uk
December 6, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Fidelis, it’s been several months since you’ve but I miss you miss you big time. This is the prayer that I wrote on March 5th, 2008, the day you passed on:
My Father and Almighty God, I come before your throne of grace with my hear full of praise though I know praise comes hard at a time such as this when we have lost a dear and wonderful friend Gathoni who passed away earlier today – but you O God are God and you change not and so my God I know that I can trust you. Unlike man who changes every so often you are the same yesterday, today and forever. Gathoni’s journey ended today – hard to even say that but I know that she is safely tucked up in heaven where we shall meet when our time comes. I feel totally crushed and almost helpless especially when I think of how her family must be feeling. I pray that you may visit each of her family members and console them. Give them your grace that is sufficient to carry them through this huge lose. May your hand be upon them during this time of great sorrow. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
January 30, 2010 at 4:36 pm
I was shocked to find this news by accident. It is now about 1½ year since the death of this dear person.
Fidelis will always be a great source of inspiration for anyone that wants to promote real change.
Met her at her projects home, Maseno, near Kisumu, in my young days when doing field research for a master thesis in tropical agriculture. As a development work professional, I know that many things can be said about how best to promote change and development among rural poor. Fidelis acted it; the very best of it. She wasted no time making long smart speaches but just lived out her call, our call, and established a remarkable and genuine partnership with the rural poor. She identified herself with the poorest and forgotten – those people who are often invisible and out of reach for the mainstream development organisations. I am convinced she will be missed long by a lot of people, to whom she communicated God’s love. By helping to restore people’s dignity, she showed us that true poverty is when you are unable to use the ressources at your hand – how few they may ever be.
May her memory and the spirit of her gentleness and care never leave us – then we would be really poor.