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HALALA NEW JERSEY CHAPTER
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HALALA NEW JERSEY CHAPTER INVITES
YOU ALL TO OUR NEXT FUND RAISING EVENT
YES WE CAN SAYS THE CHAIRMAN OF HALALA NEW JERSEY CHAPTER MR. HENRY NABUTETE As the chairman of Halala chapter in New Jersey and a Patron of Halala USA/ I feel it is important to affirm to you that Halala leaders in both US and state chapters believe in themselves and the mission they have undertaken in bringing a mobile medical unit to Western Kenya.Some of your worries are how to raise this large amount of money in five years as promised. True, this could be discouraging but all we need to do is to become creative thinkers. And our thinking should not go beyond our godly given skills and ideas. Let us look at ourselves and examine all the skills and ideas we can put in use (both godly, given and those acquired through out our life experience) Let’s put all these ideas together and see which one we can use to raise the funds we need.Without thinking too hard, I can give you examples of how I will contribute to the mobile medical unit using only one of many skills, my sweat and a little bit of your help. I plan to come out of retirement and run in NY city. Marathon, and two other major marathons in United States. The funds that will be raised will go to the mobile medical unit and the other will go towards 50 wells in buluhya land. Also, I plan to walk from the north most city of New Jersey to the south most city of New Jersey. I plan to take my son Sammy and Tony Maenar of CHINI YA MTI- I mentioned Tony and my son because they have a background of tolerance and endurance prepared to take on such task. With proper organization those two events can bring us much-needed funds without scratching our brains but using our skills. If we can raise just a quarter of the total package, then we can turn to various organizations and institutions and see what they can do for us. Remembers we are loaded with bright and willing Kenyans in health, legal and Education institutions that are just waiting to hear how they can help us through their field of work. We have legitimate organizations in this country who would like to see what we have done before they can think of helping us with funds or materials that we can use. So, my fellow members, before you can let those people who have not tried anything that we are doing discourage you, or before you allow those non-members who are jealous of Halala’s mission, divide us, with the intention of destroying us. Please, look at Halala’s objectives again then go back to the time when you decided that Halala was the right organization to join. I will not ask you to make up your mind again, because your first one was the best one you made. All I will ask you to do is to come up with as many ideas as you can that we could use to raise money towards the mobile medical unit. Then take the best two and send to Halala US President. We plan to compile all the ideas we came up with to be utilized in raising funds for the mobile unit.Also, I would like to caution those who are attacking Halala and its leadership, that we are members of Halala, because we believe in its objectives. Therefore we don’t want anybody to misuse the organization by creating issues that do not exist in the organization. We want to help ourselves here in United States and those we left at home the best way we can without breaking the laws, on either side. The problems people face at home are: jobs, food, health, water and Education. If there is anybody out there who is doing something in the areas I have mentioned all I can say is [thank you] and continue doing that. Or if anybody has a better way of doing it, share information with us with no strings attached better still, start an organization that can do that without involving Halala.The idea of helping ourselves here goes beyond, just helping each other incase of death and sickness. We would like to see that our children don’t forget cultural deeds of their grandmothers and grandfathers. We want our children to be proud of their mother country and understand that we are here for reasons that we cant do much about. And therefore to grow up knowing who they are, and grow up to be who they want to be without doughting themselves or feeling inferior of where their parents or grandparents came from. I want our children to understand and love everything about themselves including the food their parents and their grandparents were raised on.Halala plans to help our children by introducing cultural awareness classes, where they will learn Oluhya, Swahili, abaluhyia values including home economics. Our spiritual leaders like Pastor Esipila and a line of certified teachers are going to help us accomplish these particular objective.Halala is strong in the objectives they would like to tangle with here and home. All I am asking for is people with ideas and time to spare when asked to reach out, and help with funds to get things done.For now I will stop here, but I want our members to know that, “ Home is where you make it” our future must be invested in our children here or home. Nobody can do it by himself or herself. We can do it as a sincere group with objectives that have no strings attached. “ The Halala way” is one way we can do it.NEW JERSEY LEADERS ISSUE A STATEMENT ON POLITICS IN HALALA Halala NJ Chapter is in agreement with the statement issued by Halala USA President dissociating the organization from individuals with political motives infiltrating the activities of the organization. Halala NJ remains committed to the welfare objectives of helping ourselves in our communities in the Diaspora, and extending our focus to the struggling communities in Western Kenya. We invite everyone with like minds to join, share and participate in our welfare activities and projects. We particularly dissociate ourselves with political utterances made by some individuals at various Halala Chapter events in NJ and wish to clarify that we are in no way represented by this kind of views. The leadership of Halala NJ is not aware of the existence of Halala International, and cautions those misleading our members to refrain from such careless pronouncements. Signed by the President of Halala New Jersey Chapter - Henry Nabutete |
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Halala New Jersey enters its third face of recruiting New Members and keeping them active. We take this opportunity
to welcome our New officials who took office last month - Charles Lukoba as a secretary, Sellinah Lizzy as a treasure
and Aurelia Onyango as a welfare co-ordinator. Welcome and lets stay Halala for a better tomorrow.
AFC LEOPARDS DRIVE PLANNED FOR 31ST OF JANUARY 2009 A major member recruitment drive is planned for Saturday 31st January 2009 during the first Ingwe Open Day to be held at Nairobi Railways Club starting 9am till 5pm. The all day event will also showcase AFC Leopards recently unveiled products and programs to members of the public and the entire AFC fraternity expected to attend in large numbers. The club's Secretary General and head of marketing Richard Ekhalie revealed that a client service team is being put in place to enlighten the attendees of the various products and programs on offer. (This will be a one stop shop for our fans and members to get more informed about our new order and benefit from the prevailing products and programs," he said. An ordinary membership goes for Kshs 1,000 per year with the super membership fetching Kshs 5,000 per year. Whereas the former can only cast a ballot in an AGM, the latter can vie for a post in top tier club management and branch level. Both will however enjoy first access to season tickets and merchandise. The event will also mark the beginning of branch network revival with each branch paying Kshs 10,000 to be registered. Each branch promoters must also file a list of ten or more registered members forming the branch base. A provision exists for independent members without any branch affiliations. Among the products on offer will be replica jerseys, season tickets, Ingwe Funeral Policy and Ingwe calendars/posters/bumper stickers. The programs to be showcased include Ingwe Entertainment & Hospitality Program, Ingwe Youth Development & Coaching Program, Ingwe Traveling Club, AFC Capital, AFC Foundation, Supporters of Leopards (SOL) and Club 100. The Open Days will be held every month rotating in Ingwe strongholds countrywide.(posted on 17th July 2009) WHAT IS HALALA? Halala USA is a charitable non-profit, non political, non denomination and voluntary organization that aims at uniting the Luhyas Living in the USA and abroad to support western Kenya through self help projects. Halala plans to stem diseases through community education programs and provide access to healthcare services.Halala also plans to educate foreign-born about the land of their ancestry, culture, and heritage.Halala provides a comprehensive welfare program addressing amongothers; funerals, special events, and special circumstances.BECOMING A MEMBER
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People Profile The Luhya of Kenya Religion: Christianity and Animism Population: 4,990,600 Location: The Luhya (or Baluyia as they call themselves) tribal homeland is located in western Kenya north of Lake Victoria from Kisumu to Webuye going north and south, and from Kapsabet on the east to the Uganda border on the west. This area of Kenya has been described as the most densely populated area of the world, exceeding even India in population density. There are also large pockets of Luhya in Nairobi and the surrounding area. History: There are various migration traditions among the different Luhya groups. Some believe they migrated from Egypt. Other Bantu peoples as well as Nilotic peoples, have a tradition of origin in "Egypt." This is taken to mean a northern area from the Sudan or Ethiopia farther north. The first "white man" the Luhya had contact with was probably H. M. Stanley as he voyaged around Lake Victoria. In 1883 Joseph Thomson was the first European known to pass through on foot, and was influential in opening the region to Europeans after his meeting with Chief Mumia. Afterwards, there were bloody skirmishes mostly with the Bukusu sub-tribe which came to be known as the War of Chetambe. The Wanga kingdom was very similar to the Ganda kingdom and other monarchies in Uganda, an unusual form of government for Bantu peoples. Mumia was actually the last king in this line and was acknowledged by the British as a "chief." Identity: The Luhya are classified as a Bantu people, based on their language. The name Bantu means "human beings." It appears that over a period of centuries, successive waves of Bantu speakers migrated into the area. There was thus a common underlying origin and language-culture base, but with diversity over the years. There are 18 sub-tribes of the Luhya in Kenya, one sub-tribe in northern Tanzania and 4 in Uganda. The Luhya call these groups "houses" of the Luhya. The Luhya are culturally and linguistically related to neighboring Bantu peoples, but exhibit differences. Despite the tradition of origin in "Egypt," the Luhya culture and language show relationship to the Ganda and similar Bantu in Uganda, whose traditions indicate they came from central Africa. These contradictory traditions are indicative of the mixed origin of the group of peoples now called Luhya. Tradition and linguistic characteristics of the various sub-groups indicate that various small groups of Bantu-speaking peoples settled over a period in these areas. They developed a political unity during the latter stages of the colonial period. Throughout the early years of living in this region, they were at war with their Nilotic neighbors, the Teso, Nandi, Maasai and Luo. Records of these wars date back to the 1750s. Despite this enmity, many Luhya families have intermarried over long periods with the neighboring Luo, a Nilotic people. It is common to find Luo names among Luhya, particularly the Ragooli (Maragoli). They are agricultural people living mostly off the land. The western Kenya area is rich, fertile highland soil. In recent years many of the youth have gone to the cities in search of work and a better life. They are extremely tied to tribal traditions and superstitions. Language: The Luhya groups do not all speak the same language. Some speak varieties of what is called the Luyia language ("Oluluyia" in the language itself). Others speak what are classified as the languages of Bukusu, Nyore, Hanga (Wanga), Idakho- Isukha-Tiriki, Saamia and Ragooli. There is much debate about where there is a central Luhya language. There are Bible translations in Ragooli (Maragoli) and a standardized "Luyia" language. But many have trouble reading either of these. The common languages used among the sub-tribes are Swahili and English. (In linguistic reference, the spelling Luhya refers to the people and Luyi a refers to the language.) Each sub-tribe has its own traditional language and customs. The traditional language is spoken in the home almost exclusively. There is similarity between several of the sub-languages and the Luganda language of the Ganda (Baganda) of Uganda. Bibliography Ayot, Henry Okello. History Texts of the Lake Region of East Africa. Nairobi, Kenya: Kenya Literature Bureau, 1977. Barker, Eric E. The Short History of Nyanza. Nairobi, Kenya: East African Literature Bureau, 1975. Makila, F. E. An Outline History of Babukusu of Western Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya: Kenya Literature Bureau, 1978. Were, Gideon S. A History of the Abaluyia of Western Kenya: c. 1500-1930. Nairobi, Kenya: East African Publishing House, 1967. Western Kenya Historical Texts. Nairobi, Kenya: East African Literature Bureau, 1967.
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