Kawangware
Representative: Micah McElveen
In 2005, located in the slum of Kawangware, Micah McElveen built Vapor’s first center for humanitarian aid and sports ministry. This center has proven to provide great opportunity for life, both physically and spiritually. Kawangware is one of the fastest growing slums in Nairobi, Kenya with a population of over 300,000, one of the poorest of poor in Kenya. Residents are plagued by an almost complete lack of clean water and sanitation, rampant crime, and high unemployment. The spread of HIV/AIDS in Kawangware is believed to be between 30-45 percent. Many children are abandoned due to the atrocities this disease possesses. As a result, some children are forced to live in the streets of the slum, never receiving proper hygiene and care.A random encounter with Shawn Koonce, then an administer for the World Hope Project, a faith-based relief and development organization, sent Micah to Kenya in January 2005, where Shawn believed someone desperately needed to minister in specifically soccer. Micah stated, “Worldwide, soccer is the number one sport. In the slum of Kawangware, we chose to leverage soccer. The children didn’t have playing fields, cleats, or balls, they would make balls out of trash or anything they could find.”
The center consisted of building 11 soccer fields on 5 acres of land, which began a sports league that now invests in over 900 young people, and many have made decisions to follow Christ as their Savior. There are currently 36 paid staff all of which desperately needed aide, who were trained by Micah and today lead Vapor Sports Ministries in Kawangware. Each leader runs a department, set of coaches and has multiple responsibilities to oversee.
A well was established, the Ruth Well Project, and now aids Kawangware’s inhabitants with clean drinking water. It was named in honor and in memory of Micah’s grandmother, Ruth Lyle. Her heart’s desire was for the people to have clean drinking water, as well as, learn of the abundance found in the Living Water of our Lord and our Savior. The price tag of the well in Kenya was nearly $40,000. In 2008, the 2nd phase of the Ruth Well was completed and will allow greater community water capacity and will provide higher water yield to the soccer fields. This will allow the beginning of micro-businesses to help cut the resources required in the states, and to make the centers more self-sufficient. From the revenue generated in the micro-businesses, Vapor will be enabled to continue imparting sustainable life change in Kawangware.
In addition, Vapor sponsors 50 children’s educations, through the generous donors of Hasmin’s Friends partners. This program of child sponsorship will be carried out through all future centers. For more information, you can call us at (256) 208-2060.
The center consisted of building 11 soccer fields on 5 acres of land, which began a sports league that now invests in over 900 young people, and many have made decisions to follow Christ as their Savior. There are currently 36 paid staff all of which desperately needed aide, who were trained by Micah and today lead Vapor Sports Ministries in Kawangware. Each leader runs a department, set of coaches and has multiple responsibilities to oversee.
A well was established, the Ruth Well Project, and now aids Kawangware’s inhabitants with clean drinking water. It was named in honor and in memory of Micah’s grandmother, Ruth Lyle. Her heart’s desire was for the people to have clean drinking water, as well as, learn of the abundance found in the Living Water of our Lord and our Savior. The price tag of the well in Kenya was nearly $40,000. In 2008, the 2nd phase of the Ruth Well was completed and will allow greater community water capacity and will provide higher water yield to the soccer fields. This will allow the beginning of micro-businesses to help cut the resources required in the states, and to make the centers more self-sufficient. From the revenue generated in the micro-businesses, Vapor will be enabled to continue imparting sustainable life change in Kawangware.In addition, Vapor sponsors 50 children’s educations, through the generous donors of Hasmin’s Friends partners. This program of child sponsorship will be carried out through all future centers. For more information, you can call us at (256) 208-2060.
