Kenyan Mission a Labor of Love
For the Journal-Constitution
Published on: 02/07/08 In his retirement, Kevin Corcoran isn’t spending time on the golf course, or pursuing any other sporting adventures. His focus has turned to a different sort of field &mash; a mission field, and not a very glamorous one at that.
Here’s how the area is described on the Maji Mazuri ministry’s Web site:
“More than 3 million people live in Nairobi, capital of Kenya in east Africa, and two-thirds of them live in slums like Mathare Valley, where Maji Mazuri operates. There, some 500,000 people live crammed together in huts made of bits of tin, wood and cardboard. There is no sewer system, no clean water, no electric power, no paved streets. Unemployment is very high; crime is rife; illegal alcohol and drugs are plentiful; violence is endemic; and HIV/AIDS is widespread.”
Corcoran has founded the U.S. arm of Maji Mazuri, which translates to “clean water” in Swahili. “That’s symbolic,” he said, “because the charity started in a community that had, in the middle of it, a sewage-ridden stream.
“A lot of people there are living their lives close to the margin of death,” he said. “Can they get enough clean water and food to stay alive?
Corcoran met the founder of the program, Wanjiku Kironyo, on a 2003 trip to Africa to visit his wife’s missionary parents. Kironyo is a family therapist who began the program in 1984 as a counseling center for women and children in Nairobi’s slums.
The ministry has grown to include quite a few projects that include a children’s home, an entrepreneurs’ cooperative, a Head Start program, a school and a farm project.
Corcoran became more involved, opened a ministry office in Dunwoody, and enlisted volunteers from four area churches to support the outreach. Currently, Dunwoody United Methodist, St. Luke’s Presbyterian, Mount Pisgah United Methodist and St. Patrick’s Episcopal churches are participants. Metro Atlantans, mostly on the Northside, have signed on to sponsor 94 African children.
As “president, chief executive and copy boy” of the U.S. office, Corcoran is proud of the funds that have been raised.
“I’m a businessman by background, with a master’s from London University. I like to run a very tight operation,” said Corcoran. “Since we started Maji Mazuri USA in 2005, we’ve raised $497,000 and our expenses are less than 1 percent.”
Corcoran and his wife cover the costs of running the Dunwoody office, and he personally funds his twice yearly trips to Africa. It’s a labor of love for Corcoran, who lived a few years in east Africa in the 1970s.
“Almost anybody who spends time in Africa falls in love with it because of the people and the simplicity of the country,” he said. “It’s very authentic.”
Maji Mazuri’s U.S. office address is 4783 Summerset Lane, Dunwoody, GA 30338. www.majimazuri.org
