Long Beach's Justin Rudd Is In Kenya Thru Oct. 13 Working With Lakewood-Based Christian Group Helping Children Orphaned By AIDS
(Oct. 1, 2014, 6:58 a.m.) -- Long Beach's tireless charitable organizer, Justin Rudd, is in Kenya through October 13, working with Lakewood-based Tumaini International, a 501(c)(3) non-profit that describes itself on its website as a "faith based Christian organization that provides for the basic needs of orphans & vulnerable children who have been affected by AIDS and their immediate families in Kenya."
Mr. Rudd left LAX on September 29 and landed in Nairobi, Kenya on September 30. A few hours later, the CDC confirmed the first Ebola case in the U.S. from a visitor who traveled from Liberia in West Africa and showed no symptoms on the plane but became symptomatic a few days later in Dallas.
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Kenya is in East Africa. Liberia is in West Africa. Nairobi Kenya is more 3,200 miles from Monrovia Liberia. But Kenya isn't shrugging the deadly Ebola virus. Nairobi is an air traffic hub for Africa, and in August it closed its border to flights from west Africa. Kenya has thus far kept its borders closed despite pressure from the World Health Organization, the International Civic Aviation Organization and the East African Community Civil Aviation Society and Security Oversight Agency who variously say the risk of Ebola transmission through air travel is minimal (source: AllAfrica.com).
If any of this troubles Mr. Rudd, he hasn't shown it on the internet. Prior to the trip, he wrote in a fundraising page he created that he's on a "14-day service trip that will include his running the Machekos Road Race for AIDS orphans...I'll be serving with a team of friends and runners from the Long Beach area."
[Rudd text, link above]...We'll be working and visiting alongside children orphaned because of AIDS in the villages surrounding the rural area of Masii, Kenya -- about an hour outside of Nairobi. The purpose of the trip includes connecting with sponsored AIDS-orphaned children; visiting homes and school; and connecting with business co-ops...One of the projects we'll undertake is helping with construction of a 3-room place for a grandmother and her young grandkids (AIDS orphans) who are currently living in a small 1-room place. A highlight of the trip for me will be running the Machakos Road Race (half-marathon) on Sun., Oct. 5 with about 3,000 Kenyans as we help to raise money to educate some AIDS orphans...IT'S NOT EASY FOR ME to leave Ralph and POTUS the Bulldog. And, it will be tough to leave the day-to-day work I do in Long Beach, but I know that God has given me this opportunity to continue to make differences in lives of people I'll come in to contact with in Kenya...To get me there, each person on the team is raising funds to cover their airfare, housing, transportation and meals. I'm shooting for extra money to cover vaccinations and some other minor expenses...I am blessed to be a part of many great opportunities, and count on my friends and family for their prayers, financial support and encouragement as I serve.
Kenya is nearly 10,000 miles from Long Beach...but many here are keeping Mr. Rudd in their thoughts and prayers. LBREPORT.com will have more on his latest journey as we learn it.
