Nanyuki Visit-September 2012

September 2012

Carolyn and Bill have just returned from two weeks in Nanyuki and had an extremely fruitful trip.  They assisted the Charity we are partnering in Nanyuki – Ndege Wa Pori – with feeding the street children in the town centre and made many new friends in the children.  This experience was quite overwhelming and extremely humbling.  The children’s ages ranged from 3  years old.  One girl, aged 12, was pregnant.  The children are fed in a back street local cafe and before they have any food, they have to give up their glue bottles – the vast majority of them are addicted.  When it is time to leave they cry as they desperately want their glue bottles back.  The smell of glue in the cafe was overpowering.  They were all so grateful for the help they are being given and each week some of the children ask to go to school.  Whilst Carolyn and Bill were there, six children were transferred from the streets to the Hope N Home Orphanage following the children’s request to go to school.  When this happens, arrangements are made for them to go to the Hope N Home Orphanage, who we are also supporting, and the long term plan is to get as many of the children off the streets as soon as possible.  When the children become residents in the orphanage they received education.   Ndege Wa Pori is in the process of constructing a new kitchen at the Home and our Charity has pledged to fund the construction of a dining room.  At present the children have to eat their food outside.

The street children are filthy and most of them have no shoes.  If you give them anything such as a new pair of shoes or decent clothes, they are just sold to buy glue.

Up to now Paul Hammond from Ndege Wa Pori has been focusing on children up to 16 years old and this week he is extending feeding for the older ones.  The site which houses the Hope N Home Orphanage is at present being extended to accommodate up to 300 children and it will incorporate a Half Way House for the older children.  There will be training facilities on site so that they can learn various trades and how to become self sufficient.  We hope there will also be on site a craft outlet where the older ones can have their own small business or craft shop and there is even a plan for a car wash.  Several of the older street children are soon to be receiving some training on a local farm, all of which has been organised by Ndege Wa Pori.

Our Charity is, at the moment, experiencing problems with the administration (Child Welfare Society of Kenya, which is NOT a Government organisation) in Nanyuki Children’s Home.  This is due entirely to the fact that we will not give any funds raised by our Charity directly to them.  We will ONLY pay contractors, schools or suppliers directly.  We are attempting to rectify this problem with direct communication with the Minister of Gender and the Kenyan Prime Minister and we also had meetings with local dignitaries.   A young lawyer in Nairobi who was, himself, a street boy several years ago, has offered to help us with this problem. Carolyn and Bill did manage to help some of the older children from the Home by buying them school books, toiletries and paying for glasses for one of them with Charity funds.  The glasses have been needed by one boy for over 12 months!  They will continue to fight to help these children  as they need us more now than ever before.

Whilst Carolyn and Bill were in Nanyuki, a shipment of aid which had arrived from the UK via the British Army was being unpacked and arrangements were being made by Paul Hammond to distribute food, computers, sewing machines, clothes, bedding, farm tools and many more items that have been donated by people in the UK, to local orphanages, schools and children’s organisations.

This visit has been extremely successful in cementing the relationship between Nanyuki Children’s Charitable Trust, Ndege Wa Pori and the local community.  Please visit You Tube and search for “Nanyuki Street Children to Get Help”.  Jointly, our Charities are giving the children so much hope.

Thank you to all our sponsors for your generous support and any new sponsors would, of course, be greatly appreciated.