Thoughts from Katy Day after 5 weeks at Kibera and Meru Children's Home


As the final part of a year-long trip around the world, I had arranged to visit and help out at two of the projects currently supported by the Karibuni Trust. First was Tusaidie Watoto Nursery School in Kibera slum, Nairobi, before moving north to Meru Children's Home, Kaaga.
I stayed with a host family in Nairobi, and travelled into Kibera slum each day with one of the teachers. It was a shock to me on the first day as I was confronted with the sheer size of the slum – I had been to many poverty-stricken areas on my travels, but none of this size.
As I entered the small school, many eyes watched me curiously and I became very self-conscious! At first the children kept their distance, but it didn’t take long after I was introduced, for them to surround me, stroking and touching my skin and hair and tugging on my hands! I sat in on one of the classes in the morning, and sang songs and played games with them at break time. The compound was so small that the classes had to take turns to play the games, but they seemed really happy playing there. Even more children arrived at lunchtime from the Primary Schools to collect their meals, so it was pretty crowded then! In the afternoon I did an art activity with the oldest class and taught them a song, but it was a bit difficult because of the language barrier.
I was particularly affected by the story of two young sisters at the nursery – Fridah and Josephine (both under five years) who were suffering from jiggers – a nasty infestation of bugs that burrow into the soles of the feet from living in such dirty conditions. The teachers make sure the girls wash their feet when they get to school each day and treat them to help get rid of it. They arranged for me to visit their home on another day, to see the conditions for myself.
As I walked into the heart of the slum, I was greeted by children all around, shouting ‘How are you?’ It was surprising to see these dirty children smiling and contentedly playing among the rubbish and sewage on the paths. The girls live in a one-room mud shack with their father and three older siblings – their mother left them when they were babies as she could not cope. The others were out, apparently looking for food or work, and the girls were quiet and sullen as they reluctantly showed me their home.

It occurred to me then how much the project has done for them in enabling them to be educated. If it wasn’t for that then they would have no hope – you could see how happy they were at school compared to how they were at home.

After a few more days at the nursery in Kibera, I moved on to Meru Children's Home, Kaaga. This was an amazing place for the children, and they were so enthusiastic and happy to see me. I was immediately welcomed into their large family, which is exactly what it felt like. They call the house parents ‘aunty’, ‘mam’, ‘uncle’, and one of the cooks, ‘Jojo’, which means ‘Grandpa’. The compound is green and spacious with swings, a slide a roundabout and all kinds of animals for them to look after, including cows, goats, dogs and even rabbits!

They are also in the process of building more houses there to make room for more children in the future. It was quite surreal in comparison to everywhere else I’d been and I loved it so much that I extended my stay there to over three weeks instead of two! While I was there I was privileged to be able to attend a day at Mwithumwiru Primary School, which most of the children at the home attend. This was a great opportunity to see how the children were doing at school and to speak to their teachers, and I was very impressed to find that many of the children are in the top five ranking in their classes.

I also managed to take most of the children to a local pool and give them a proper swimming lesson – a first for most of them - which they thoroughly enjoyed.

At the home itself I got stuck into the daily life of cooking, washing, cleaning and painting the food store for them, which earned me my Kimeru name of ‘Nkatha’, which means helpful and hardworking! It was sad when the time finally came to leave, and they threw me a special farewell party with a cake and lots of singing and dancing, and even a poem dedicated to me! It was a touching end to a wonderful and eye-opening experience. The children in both of these projects have been helped so much and have come so far, but unfortunately there is always more work to be done, and more children to be helped.

Katy Day