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.)