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American's gift enhances church's Kenyan work

MALINDI, Kenya - The creation of Pope Francis Home - a transitional home for abused and at-risk children in this very poor coastal city - shines a light on the ways the Catholic Church is present in some of the poorest parts of the world.

Workmen prepare a concrete ramp for a building at the St. Francis Home in Malindi, Kenya. The home, with 13 buildings, will serve as a transitional shelter for sexually abused children. (Georgina Goodwin / For the Philadelphia Inquirer)
Workmen prepare a concrete ramp for a building at the St. Francis Home in Malindi, Kenya. The home, with 13 buildings, will serve as a transitional shelter for sexually abused children. (Georgina Goodwin / For the Philadelphia Inquirer)Read more

MALINDI, Kenya - The creation of Pope Francis Home - a transitional home for abused and at-risk children in this very poor coastal city - shines a light on the ways the Catholic Church is present in some of the poorest parts of the world.

It is a presence that includes the priests and nuns and brothers of the diocese, with international relief agencies, Vatican assistance for church construction, and the compassion of lay people in far parts of the globe.

Early last year, Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the Baltimore-based international relief agency of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, got word that a wealthy American, Brian Soukup of Fort Collins, Colo., wished to build an orphanage in Africa.

"We didn't know what to say," Lane Bunkers, CRS's officer in Kenya, recalled at his Nairobi office. "We don't do orphanages anymore."

Instead of warehousing parentless children until they turn 18 - the model of decades past - CRS and most similar organizations now seek to place at-risk children with families, Bunkers said.

"And so we explained to Mr. Soukup our current thinking. Then we told him that the bishop of Malindi had been trying for years to raise money for a transitional shelter for children, and that it was going very slowly. Would he consider doing something different?"

Soukup agreed to fund, at a cost of $2.9 million, the Pope Francis Home according to the vision of the missionary bishop of Malindi, Emanuel Barbara: a home for abused and other vulnerable children.

"My only goal was to help the poorest of the poor," Soukup, 61, explained.

By age 40, he had made a fortune in commercial and residential real estate in Colorado and was able to semi-retire, he said. He now spends much of his time at his ranch, "doing things like irrigation and fixing fences."

A devout Catholic, he was serving on the board of Catholic Charities USA, he said, "when the situation in Malindi came up."

"A lot of people overuse the word blessed, but the man upstairs took good care of me," he said. "So I feel it's my duty to take care of others."

Construction on the 21/2-acre complex of stuccoed buildings began in July. The land, along with a large, thatched-roof home, was donated by an Italian family who used it for a vacation home.

The project was nearly complete last month when a guard swung open its secure gate to reveal a dozen men with shovels and wheelbarrows, pouring concrete for a ramp to the electrical generation shed. Other workmen were landscaping or installing a door.

All of the structures are painted cream or yellow inside, their pebbly exteriors gray with lime trim, and await only furniture, kids, and the missionary nuns who will counsel them. The opening is weeks away, the bishop said.

The Rev. Bernard Malasi, head of the Malindi Diocese's office for children, and construction supervisor Shaba Mweni offered a quick tour.

Built of stuccoed cinder-block, spare yet handsome, each single-story building features a corrugated green roof and concrete floors. The buildings include offices, a convent for four nuns, a dining room and kitchen, separate dormitories for boys and girls, open-air sitting areas, a 10-bed maternity ward, and a wide chapel where purple-and-white conch shells already serve as the holy water fonts.

The trunk of a neem tree, native to the region, is already in place as the base of the altar. (A few dozen ants still called it home.)

"Most of the children have never seen anything like this in their life," said Shaba Mweni, the construction manager. At present, many sexually abused children are sent to shabby state homes with few resources.

Malasi said the home will house girls up to age 18, but only boys 15 and younger. "We don't want unnecessary problems," he explained.

While children of all faiths will be welcome, the campus will not have mosques or chapels for other faiths, the bishop said, because they are difficult to administer.

Soon to rise nearby will be a Catholic primary school serving both the home's residents and outside students, whose tuitions will defray some the home's operating costs.

"We also don't want them hidden away," said the Rev. Albert Buijs, vicar of the diocese, "because there's no reason for them to be ashamed."