Pouring out hope for Africa’s children

Missionary Janine Stellatos explains how Metro World Child is bringing the Gospel, food and practical care to children facing poverty, danger and despair across Africa. She spoke to Chris Rolfe

Shortly before Janine Stellatos began working as a missionary overseas, Metro World Child asked her a question: “We might need you in India, in the Philippines, in New York. Will you go where we need you?”

Janine took a packet of sugar, tore it open, poured it out on the café table and replied: “Wherever you send me, I will pour myself out.”

She was sent to Africa, where for the past 14 years her heart has stayed true to that promise, no matter how hard missionary life has been.

Last time I spoke to Janine she shared poignant stories from her work in Kenya. This time, we caught up to talk about her wider role in Africa.

Janine, let’s start with your new role. Where are you working now?

I’m still CEO for Metro World Child in Kenya, but I’m now regional director for East, West, Central and North Africa too. That also covers Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Nigeria, with other nations pending expansion as God opens the doors.

The situation you face in Kenya can be harrowing and unstable. Tell us what’s been happening there recently.

It’s been hard. We’ve had a lot of demonstrations against the cost of living and many have been shot dead. Just in the past week, 16 young girls lost their lives when a fire was started deliberately in their high school. Every week things like this rip your heart out. The poverty is extreme, too. Every day I get calls saying a family has no food or a family is on the street because they can’t pay their rent.

There are no free food programmes here, and parents struggle to find a few shillings for school lunches because they don’t have stable work. Then there are school fees and uniforms too. Very often kids end up on the street begging instead of going to school. Some go for days without food.

It sounds like an overwhelming situation for you and your team. How do you cope?

It does get overwhelming at times but you just pray for more grace. I’m going into my 15th year now and I’m here to stay because in Metro World Child we don’t quit. People here are so used to being let down. We have to be in it for the long haul to make a difference.

You run lots of children’s programmes. Can you tell us about these?

They are really important because the Bible says when you train a child in the way they should go they will not depart from it. If we don’t reach these children, other groups might.

Our programme incorporates life and peace skills. It’s interactive, with songs, games and drama. We teach the Gospel in four simple steps: God loves me; I have sinned; Jesus died for me; I need to decide to live for God. We also teach about one simple truth every week, “your words matter”, “don’t let your anger grow, let it go”, things like that.

We’ve also begun a programme in high schools where we teaching an additional 28,000+ students weekly. They face lots of issues with peer pressure, homosexuality and period poverty, with girls missing schools because of menstruation. We’re looking to provide reuseable sanitary kits that can last two to four years for a very low cost. We also want to provide kits for young men with underwear and soap because some get ridiculed for lack of underwear.

What are some heartwarming moments from this work, and what’s tougher to deal with?

We work in schools which have between 2,000 and 6,000 children. When the Metro vehicle arrives the kids come running towards you in their hundreds, shouting “Metro! Metro!” and literally knock you over because they’re so excited. We love seeing that.

But the situations they are going through which we try to help with can be tough. Some are similar to the UK, peer pressure and bullying. But some are more extreme. Many kids in Kenya get sodomised, raped or lured away for money. There are many underage pregnancies in primary schools. There is also child marriage and FGM. We just want to get the Gospel out to these children and show them love. We do see lives being changed. We’ve had children telling us they want to give their lives to Jesus.

Interestingly, Metro World Child has started delivering these programmes in UK schools too. Can you tell us about that?

That began recently, in April. We’re already working in quite a number of schools, reaching up to 4,000 children, and there are many more waiting so we’re looking to grow that. It’s the same programme that we do all over the world because it’s the same need, we need to reach these children with the Gospel.

We’re actually in 24 nations now and there are many more to go to. I have three waiting in my region here in Africa and a number of high-risk areas are opening up to us too, so we’re trusting that God will open doors.

Finally, you provide a lot of practical support through your sponsorship programmes. Can you share some ways they’re helping people?

We just built a kitchen in a school. The health authority had closed it because it was too near the toilets. But it fed a number of our sponsored children so we couldn’t let that happen.

We also discovered that while sponsorship provides food for children in school, some were only eating half their meals and were taking the rest home for their families. So we came up with an initiative where sponsors can go an extra mile to help us purchase food vouchers for families.

It’s helpful if people can offer to sponsor things like water tanks or painting a classroom or cementing a floor in a school, too. There’s so much need, and so many families who are desperate. Sponsorship makes a big difference to them.

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.