Karibuni Update

Joy shares news of some of her travels and experiences visiting the Karibuni Children projects our church and circuit support.

I visited all the projects Karibuni supports; Embakasi, Limuru, Njoro, Meru,Township, Mwithumwiru School, Maua Aids orphans, Disability Community centre, Tharaka, Upendo, Hunajeza and Kibra, I lost count of the number of beds I slept in, and the mileage I did by car and train.

Each visit was inspiring, shocking, distressing, and brilliant by turn as I met.the children and the staff caring for them and visited some of the homes in each place.

The new assistant Social Worker at Kibra is Walter. Walter was a pathetic little boy in the nursery when Bill and I first met him – malnourished and a bit afraid of these two white strangers! Now he's a confident, qualified young man who took me visiting the families, relates so well to the carers and the children and knew their backgrounds and situations. That was one of the miracles this year!

Some of the home visits were harrowing – the grandmother, Mary, caring for two children with a constantly leaking roof over her 8ft x 10ft home, a sheet of polythene over the bed to keep them all dry. When the sheet was full it overflowed into the small area next to her cooking pot. Another family sleeping on a piece of cloth on the mud floor, the child with a chronic eye problem, the Rastafarian father caring for his two sons and sick brother who just had six chicken claws to make soup for their dinner with ugali (boiled maize and water).

Before I left for Kenya, some generous people at church gave me money 'to spend in Kenya where it's needed while you're there'. Among other things I was able to pay for the repair of Mary's roof and get her a mosquito net, buy two mattresses, pay for the little boy to be treated at the eye hospital, and buy a bag of groceries for each of the families I visited. A little goes very far
in Kenya – more miracles!

Thank you for so much support for Karibuni Children,

Joy