Visit December 2015

VISIT TO NANYUKI DECEMBER 2015

Our first visit was to see the children in The Simama Transition Home and, as usual, we were given a wonderfully warm welcome. We took T shirts, woollen hats, toys and sweets donated by us and our friends, the Big Hearts Square Group in the UK, which were so well received. The boys LOVED the football we gave them – Alfred was in charge of that. We danced with the children and they entertained us beautifully. A donation was left for the Home and some food bought for their stock cupboard.

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Our next visit was to NEEMA, a Home run by Annie from the United States, which takes abandoned and unwanted babies. There are too many to mention. This photo is of Caroline with a new born baby – only a few days old – who was abandoned. The baby was very sleepy and did not want to be fed, just cuddled.

A donation was left for Neema from us and toys were left for the children from the Big Hearts Square Group. As it was Christmas time, many of the children had gone home with some of the staff for the Christmas period and Annie was left with a few of the tiny ones.
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Our next visit was to the prison – yes, the prison! We visited the female wing in Nanyuki Prison, together with a Doctor and some personnel from the British Army. This was a real eye opener. There were 28 female prisoners and five of the inmates’ children housed there – one baby only a few days old. When we arrived, we were shown into the cell (just one) where all the ladies were locked away at night. It was one dark, concrete oblong room with no windows and only one blanket on the floor at one end. The prisoner with the new born baby was sitting on this blanket and had obviously just been feeding her baby before we arrived. There was nothing else in this cell and we wondered where all the bedding was, if there was any at all. The compound that housed all these ladies was tiny and our hearts went out to them. We enquired what the reason was for all these ladies to be there. The answer was surprising – mainly child abuse. We knew that one of the ladies there had been sentenced to five years as she had tried to kill her two year old son. We met this little boy a few days later and he was a beautiful, normal little boy. It was heartbreaking to imagine what he had been through. The reason she had tried to kill him was because he kept running away to find food as he was starving and she could not cope with him. We felt some strange emotions that day. The real reason for our visit was to take sanitary products for them and provide them all with a pair of pants – just one pair. Although we had many pairs to give them, they were only allowed one pair.
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Christmas Day was spent at the Furaha Foundation Home – a fairly new home in the town housing yet more ex-street children. We, in conjunction with our hotel, the Falcon Heights, provided the children with a feast for their Christmas lunch – chicken, sausages, meatballs, chips and salad and, of course, lots of sweets. The hotel did an absolutely marvellous job of taking all the food, with staff, and gave the children a truly wonderful experience. The children had a great time. The day before, we had been shopping and provided some cooking equipment for the home, plus some exercise books and pencils for the children.

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Boxing Day was spent in the park in town where a party was held for all the street children, street families and orphaned children. The Nanyuki Ndio Home Group had spent months organising the event which was a great success. Tents were erected to provide a temporary bathroom, Doctor’s tent, D.J’s tent and clothing tent. Water was brought in to provide washing facilities, new clothes were given to the children, Dr. Andrew provided medical attention to all who needed it, food was freshly prepared and provided for everyone and even Father Christmas came, bearing gifts. There was face painting and balloons which the children loved. We donated nearly 500 T shirts which were distributed on the day, together with clothes, shoes and gifts sent, via the British Army, from us and the Big Hearts Square Group.

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Several months ago we agreed to fund the setting up of a car wash business for the ex-street boys, which was initiated by Weru Mtoto Joy House. It was an absolute joy to finally see the boys working, cleaning cars and commercial vehicles in the Joy House compound. Joy House is a community based organisation specialising in assisting the ex-street girls and boys by providing them with a means of earning a living. They provide courses in tailoring, hairdressing and beauty, carpentry, car mechanics, cookery and much more.
The boys looking very pensive!

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Food was purchased for two other orphanages in the area – Hope and Home and One More Day for Children’s Safe House.
School fees were left with Caroline and Doreen for several children we are sponsoring, together with funds for everything needed for the children to attend school – toiletries, school shoes, pocket money etc.
Finally, we would like to thank everyone for their continued support which enables us to help these children in many ways.

EASYFUNDRAISING.ORG  has been very successful – we now have 35 supporters who have raised well over £500 between them. It really is “free money” and if you shop on line and have not registered yet, please take a look at the website and register.

2016 is going to be a busy year for us as the Royal Air Force, Brize Norton, has offered us space on their aircraft going to Nanyuki in August/September for any aid we would like to send out with them. Needless to say, we are extremely grateful for this opportunity.

Once again, thank you all so very much for your continued support and we both wish you a very Happy and Healthy New Year.

Carolyn and Bill Kirk,
Nanyuki Children’s Charitable Trust
www.nanyuki.org