A few kilometers outside Kisumu, one of Kenya’s most impoverished cities situated by the tropical waters of Lake Victoria, lives father Markos, a Greek-Cypriot bishop with one mission. In a country that is best known for its scenic landscapes and wildlife rather than its poverty-stricken people, he aims to help as many of them as possible. In the western part of Kenya almost one in three lives in absolute poverty (that’s below the $2.15 international standard per day), without running water or medicine, and in a community with a high prevalence of HIV and other diseases.
Markos Theodosis, Bishop of Kisumu of the Diocese of Kisumu and Western Kenya under the Orthodox Church of Kenya for the past six years, has been wrestling with securing enough funds through foreign donors so that, with the support the Orthodox Diocese provides to schools and entire villages under its jurisdiction, thousands of needy people in western Kenya, especially children, will see their lives improve. As he says, “for people there, the least is the most precious.”
“For us here, every day is a fight,” Bishop Markos tells Greek Reporter during a short visit to Athens, Greece. “Every morning, from the moment when we wake up, dozens, hundreds of people come to us to ask for something—tuition for their children’s school, food, medicine. The same happens to the villages that we go but every day, every night, we say ‘Thank God.’ The grace of God has never left us, even through the most difficult times. We cannot help everyone; it’s impossible. And it’s sad when we have to tell someone that unfortunately, we cannot provide any help.”
Difficult living conditions in Kenya where the Greek-Cypriot bishop fights poverty
Bishop Markos talks about the arduous living conditions that still prevail, even though Kenya’s economy is the largest and most developed in eastern and central Africa. Extreme poverty is still all too common in the country of 55 million.
People are so poor he says, they cannot afford to pay for their children’s school expenses. “Whenever we can, we help so that children do not drop out of school, we also provide them with food,” he adds, explaining that currently there are about eight schools under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Kisumu, not including others in the remote parts of the region that are about five hours away. All of them have hundreds of students, as many as 600 each.
But the biggest problem is access to clean water. According to the United Nations, over 40 percent of Kenya’s population doesn’t have safe drinking water access. The situation is especially problematic in remote, rural villages where drought also prevents people from growing their own food. “It’s extremely important when we drill water wells for these people,” says Bishop Markos, “otherwise they take the buckets and head towards the mountains, in the springs, even the children when they are on a break at school, they go to bring water with their buckets so when they come back they have water.”
Bishop Markos, who was born in Johannesburg to Greek-Cypriot parents, and studied Theology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, is a humble man. He wants the Diocese to be as close to the people as possible, so they visit the approximately 40 Orthodox Churches under the Diocese of Kisumu and Western Kenya as often as they can, because, he says, it’s difficult for the people to come to them. “Distances are very big and it’s not easy for them to travel through the dirt roads and the mud when it rains.”
Once at a church, they perform a mass and bring food for the local people. Their daily staple, he explains, consists of corn, rice or beans. When there’s a big feast, the Diocese also brings them fresh fish from Lake Victoria, which supports Africa’s largest inland fishery.
Most of the Orthodox churches built in western Kenya are still made of straw and mud, just like the old houses in the country’s villages.
“We are trying to help these people too, to repair their churches so that they have a dignified church that is not destroyed by the rain,” Bishop Markos says. “They have tin roofs so when it rains, many times they cannot perform a mass.”
The number of Orthodox faithful in Kenya has been increasing in recent years, so more churches are being built. Currently, according to the Diocese, there are about 300,000 Orthodox Christians in Kenya. The bishop says they baptize more every day, who may be “illiterate and not know much, but they come to church every Sunday to receive communion.” “They are simple, pure people who easily accept our Faith,” he says.
As the needs of many Kenyan communities remain massive, so does the will of the Diocese to help the country’s poor. Its monthly expenses are about $8,000, including a small $200 compensation for each of its priests to support their families—an amount that is not easy to gather. “It’s mostly done through pleading and donations from foreign countries,” Bishop Markos says while on a tour to various countries to secure future funding.
Then, his voice beams with pride and joy when he talks about their latest project, a honeybee farm that has been made possible through such a donation from the United States. Honeybees thrive in western Kenya, he says, because of the forests, the flowers, and the eucalyptus trees. They have already begun production and packaging of the honey, which will then be sold in the local market and will help the Diocese cover some of its expenses.
By accident, Bishop Markos says, they also stumbled upon an icon of the Virgin Mary online, holding a beehive. The icon, known as “Panagia Melissou” (Virgin Mary of the Bees or the protector of the bees), is believed to have blessed them to start the project and now takes pride of place at the honeybee farm. So despite the hardness of life in Kenya, he has no choice but to remain optimistic.
“What gives us the most joy is these little children,” he says. “We do many christenings, and these little children who have nothing other than a smile and the clothes they wear, this pure, sweet smile, give us strength for a better future in Kenya and Africa.”
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