Wednesday 20 March 2025 was a wonderful day for BUILD in Kenya, as it marked the registration of a new support entity for BUILD’s work in Kenya, ‘BUILD Training Initiative (Kenya)’ (BTIKe).

The Kenya BUILD team, led by Canon Capt Benjamin Kibara, were increasingly realising that in order to grow and sustain the work they need to raise further resources locally as well as externally. So the registration of a Company Limited by Guarantee as a form of charity or not-for-profit is an important and exciting step forward for the work.

BTIKe will operate as a hub for income generation and resources, and for guiding the growth and development of the work of BUILD in Kenya. The initiative’s newly formed board met earlier in the year as part of the process while waiting for the official registration. They are an inspiring group, and represent a wonderful mix of gifts and abilities, including a lawyer, a finance expert, a property developer, a staff member of a large Nairobi church, a professor of theology and a management consultant.

One significant outcome of the initial gathering was a fresh approach to the support of our training-of-trainers courses in Kenya, with local churches getting behind those they are sending for training in a well-planned and deliberate way. This has already been happening in an ad hoc way, with local participants in the west of Kenya finding support for their studies, but the work has been overly dependent on external support. 

Next month, a new BUILD-based diploma course at Carlile College, Nairobi will start with a new cohort. It will follow the usual pattern of two years of block-release study, with the development of local training groups taking place during  the course. However, this time students who come from more well-resourced communities and churches are being asked to develop a support group of individuals who can get behind them with prayer, finance and wisdom, and, in turn, benefit from the training themselves. 

We will still need to source and provide bursaries for those coming from areas that are less well resourced, such as from Marsabit in the northwest of Kenya. But in the long term BTIKe hopes to create additional funds for those coming from poorer communities as part of this initiative. We trust and pray that it will be the first of many such creative and innovative interventions. 

Featured picture, left to right Kennedy, Josphine, Geoffrey, Wangù, Paul, Mercy and Ben