Meet the children
David
Wekesa and Silas his brother are the two boys who started the
ball rolling - they had been wandering the streets of Naivasha for more
than a week before they found their mother, her body cast on a heap at
the local mortuary.
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This is
Stephen He was abandoned at a bus stop when he was just a few
months old.
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Kevin
Maison came to Saidia with his two cousins Caroline and Mary.
The three children had lost their parents to AIDS, and were living with
their alcoholic grandfather, who could not provide for them.
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Mary Wangiri
lives with grandmother 1 1/2 miles from Gilgil.
Grandmother is loosing her sight. They have one hen and a small patch
of land where they grow maize to eat, they have no income. Sponsorship
means that Mary is able to attend school.
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Mary, Caroline and
cousin Kevin had been living with their alcoholic grandfather
for a year since their mother died of AIDS. The grandfather was unable
to provide for them, and all three children were suffering from
malnutrition. Mary (aged about 2) was so weak she could not stand.
Many of the other children arrived at
the orphanage in circumstances equally harrowing. But what all the
children find on arrival is safety, comfort, food, shelter and support.
Saidia Children's Home employs a social
worker/manageress, a house mother, a teacher for the younger children,
and a house keeper. All the children will be given a home until they
are able to fend for themselves. The nursery children are taught
'in-house' before going on to attend the local primary school. After
that we will have to find fees to send them to secondary school or
vocational training. Hopefully this will launch them into the adult
world on an equal footing with their contemporaries.
On arrival at Saidia, many of the
children had missed long periods (or all) of schooling, and were a long
way behind their contemporaries. Until recently we employed a primary
teacher to help them catch up. Now all the children are on a level with
their contemporaries, and attending the local primary school.
In a situation such as ours it is very
easy to provide food and shelter, and think that you are doing all that
is required. But kids need more than that: If they are to survive in
the adult world when they leave they have to acquire the life skills
that other children learn from their parents. To this end we make it a
priority to involve the kids as deeply as possible in every aspect of
the running of the home, from fundraising to dishwashing. We also have
to provide a stable, secure and loving environment where the kids can
develop self-esteem and confidence. In short, our little community
functions like a family, not an institution.
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