Help Joseph help the homeless
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From Waterbury Hospital....
"Every day Joseph Ochieng’s phone is filled with text messages or voicemails from homeless or formerly homeless people. He’ll zip across town in his Dodge SUV with food, furniture, a few dollars, and a bed for someone who needs it. And every Saturday he stops by St. Vincent DePaul Shelter or other locations to pick up people for breakfast at the Seventh-day Adventist Church, where he is an elder.
Joseph has been a PCA at Waterbury Hospital for a decade, working nights. This gives him more time, he said, to dedicate to his calling: helping those less fortunate.
He grew up in Kenya, where his mother is a preacher and his father is a retired teacher. A calling started when he was young, still in school studying to be a clinical officer back in his home country. He used what spending money his parents sent him to feed homeless boys. Since 2014, Joseph’s work with the homeless has intensified after he began to live “a life of sacrifice and self-denial.”
“Taking care of people has helped me a lot,” he said. He says that life and work with the less fortunate is very fulfilling.
Every Tuesday he delivers groceries to the homeless and to those who have moved on their own. Throughout the week he drives around to the St. Vincent DePaul Mission, the area's largest homeless shelter, and other locations where homeless individuals congregate to give them food, clothes, shoes and job applications. He also provides spiritual help by running weekly Bible studies.
Joseph uses his own funds to pay for storage unit rentals where he keeps furniture and other items that homeless people who manage to get into apartments need to furnish their homes. People he has met as homeless call him to ask for basics like beds, mattresses, couches or pots and pans.
In his car on a random Tuesday, Joseph had an old TV that he was delivering to someone, dishes for another person and a set of clothes, including sneakers for another man.
“He goes out into the field to provide for the needs of those who may not be able to get direct services,” said Sarah Elizabeth Carabetta, Executive Director of Acts 4 Ministry, which provides furniture, clothing and housewares for people in financial distress including the homeless.
Joseph has been recognized by his own church and by Shalom SDA Church, another church in the City that works with homeless populations. His deep faith drives him in his work with the homeless. Joseph doesn’t have much money, yet as word of his work has spread he gets help with donations from others including the formerly homeless and is able to help more people. If his work were to have a name, it would be called “God Provides Ministries,” he said.
Great job Joseph. The world needs more people like you.
"Every day Joseph Ochieng’s phone is filled with text messages or voicemails from homeless or formerly homeless people. He’ll zip across town in his Dodge SUV with food, furniture, a few dollars, and a bed for someone who needs it. And every Saturday he stops by St. Vincent DePaul Shelter or other locations to pick up people for breakfast at the Seventh-day Adventist Church, where he is an elder.
Joseph has been a PCA at Waterbury Hospital for a decade, working nights. This gives him more time, he said, to dedicate to his calling: helping those less fortunate.
He grew up in Kenya, where his mother is a preacher and his father is a retired teacher. A calling started when he was young, still in school studying to be a clinical officer back in his home country. He used what spending money his parents sent him to feed homeless boys. Since 2014, Joseph’s work with the homeless has intensified after he began to live “a life of sacrifice and self-denial.”
“Taking care of people has helped me a lot,” he said. He says that life and work with the less fortunate is very fulfilling.
Every Tuesday he delivers groceries to the homeless and to those who have moved on their own. Throughout the week he drives around to the St. Vincent DePaul Mission, the area's largest homeless shelter, and other locations where homeless individuals congregate to give them food, clothes, shoes and job applications. He also provides spiritual help by running weekly Bible studies.
Joseph uses his own funds to pay for storage unit rentals where he keeps furniture and other items that homeless people who manage to get into apartments need to furnish their homes. People he has met as homeless call him to ask for basics like beds, mattresses, couches or pots and pans.
In his car on a random Tuesday, Joseph had an old TV that he was delivering to someone, dishes for another person and a set of clothes, including sneakers for another man.
“He goes out into the field to provide for the needs of those who may not be able to get direct services,” said Sarah Elizabeth Carabetta, Executive Director of Acts 4 Ministry, which provides furniture, clothing and housewares for people in financial distress including the homeless.
Joseph has been recognized by his own church and by Shalom SDA Church, another church in the City that works with homeless populations. His deep faith drives him in his work with the homeless. Joseph doesn’t have much money, yet as word of his work has spread he gets help with donations from others including the formerly homeless and is able to help more people. If his work were to have a name, it would be called “God Provides Ministries,” he said.
Great job Joseph. The world needs more people like you.
Organizer and beneficiary
James Whiting
Organizer
Waterbury, CT
Joseph Ochieng
Beneficiary
