Christian Friends Of Mentally Ill

About CFOMI

CFOMI is a medical mission. We are a community of the Catholic Worker Movement and our Catholic Workers are known as “Rafiki”. “Rafiki” is a swahili word that means friend. We believe in a simple lifestyle in an intentional community called “Boma” a swahili word for home and spiritual values based on the philosophies of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. This we do with the sole purpose being to serve the severely mentally ill. We are grounded in the bible, prayer and christian faith in our call. All the values listed as our core values speak to our DNA. We currently live off grid.

We started in February of 2016 as a group of 10 people living with severe mental illnesses in Siaya County in Kenya. The story however starts a bit earlier on. It starts with the story of the first chairperson of CFOMI Japheth Obare. He has experienced paranoid schizophrenia since 1995. In 2015, he had a psychotic episode that his family got involved in. He later developed severe depression as a result of medication put secretly in his food by his family. He started having suicidal thoughts and started planning for suicide. While in the process of doing so, he decided to seek help as well and realized that there was none around. He eventually got some help in terms of hope from the British Columbia Schizophrenia Society in Canada. That is how he realized the need currently in the Kenyan mental health space after living in the USA for five years.

He decided to do something about it. He organized a group of  ten people and  with the help of the then British Columbia Schizophrenia Society Executive Director Deborah Conner, we got registered by the Kenya government as a society. Our focus is on advocacy, health and meaningful relationships for the severely mentally ill. The organization focuses its work in Siaya County in the south western part of Kenya.

Any christian of legal age can join us as a staff aka “rafiki”. We provide free room and food plus a work permit for non Kenyans. We also provide a small amount of monthly stipend to our rafikis. CFOMI is located in Anyiko sub-location in Siaya county along Yala-Anyiko Road. CFOMI does not provide medical or crisis services. If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, please contact your local emergency services.

Vision

The vision of CFOMI is making life better for the severely mentally ill. This is our primary focus and it’s what drives us.

Mission

The mission of CFOMI is three fold namely health, advocacy, and meaningful relationship for the severely mentally ill. This we hope to achieve by partnering with other stakeholders who want to see a positive change in the lives of  people living with severe mental illnesses.

PROGRAMS

The five PROGRAMS run by CFOMI are:

1. Elimisha Jamii Campaign, a mental health education Program.
2. Vijiji Program, a community mental health advocacy Program.
3. Project Furaha, a psycho social Program.
4. Boma Program, a case management Program.
5. Program Dawa, a medicine Program.

Other Programs we are praying for are:

1. Project Karibu, a clubhouse program.
2. Project Ubuntu, a therapeutic farm program.
3. Siv Arnesen Children Program.

Other PROGRAMS run by CFOMI are:

1. Tuinuane Program, a membership recruitment Program.
2. Rafiki Program, staff Program.

You Can Support Us In Three Ways                                                              

If the good Lord puts it in your heart to be philanthropic towards our course then we would appreciate it very much. We know we live in a world that is scarce in resources and the resources are finite. So every gift is regarded as a precious resource from the good Lord. The second way one can support CFOMI is by subscribing as a member. All our members are dear to us and we cannot make it without them. The third and the last way you can support us is by buying in our affiliate Amazon store. We receive commission for every successful qualifying purchase and programs. We do pray for all our supporters.

Our Promise of Good Stewardship

We consider every gift we receive a precious resource from the good Lord. We direct every donation to its targeted program, provide honest and accurate reports to our donors, and keep overhead costs to a minimum. We handle funds with utmost integrity and hold our missionaries in the field to the same high standards by asking them to document costs and the impact of their outreach. We only spend 5% towards fundraising and administrative duties. 95% of the raised funds goes directly to the targeted programs.

How We Serve

Rather than create new institutions to work with the mentally ill, we support the existing infrastructure of families, churches and government who are already serving the severely mentally ill. In addition to being the most cost-effective way of serving the severely mentally ill, empowering these churches allows us to support the Church’s spiritual mission and its important position of leadership in communities. We also believe in a community based approach in solving mental health problems and not institutionalization of the mentally ill. We currently serve approx. 100 people per month.

PRAYER NEED

Working with people in the ground, attest to the level of resource scarcity. Finance becomes the central challenge both to us the providers and the patients. There is extreme poverty among patients. You find that patients have no money to pay for transport to the hospital or even worse, lack food. This makes it hard to go seek treatment because they would rather go looking for food than going for treatment.

Rate of poverty in Kenya is still severe and this feeds into the mental health problem. That is why the majority still relies on Faith Healers and Traditional Healers because they accept different modes of payment like cows, goats and chickens and can even provide treatment on debt while hospitals require cash.

By supporting CFOMI as our member, you join forces with our rafikis who are working day and night to ensure that life is better for the severely mentally ill. Be the change that the world desperately needs. The light that forever shines in the darkest parts of the world. Join CFOMI in making life better for the severely mentally ill.