I have had a busy summer as a mum and haven't really had a chance to do any of the community side of our work. We did, however manage to do some fundraising and two Tushinde events in the UK raised over £3,000 combined. A big thank you to everyone who helped.
The events also generated lots of enthusiasm and interest as well as finding five new sponsors (659 left to be sponsored!).
My break from volunteering in the slums though, had made me less focused and my enthusiasm less fervent. Today I was back though and it only took one house visit to remind me why I care so much.
We are following up children who had scored as 'severely underweight' from our nutritional survey day back in March. It seems that often children go hungry if there are school fees to pay for older children who are at seconday school, but not in Mogra.
Mary is one such child. She is six and a half years old and lives with her parents. They lived in a one roomed house with a bare concrete floor and no furniture; my friend and I were given plastic buckets to sit on. They had a bed but with no mattress. Mary sat on the floor, her little skinny legs infront of her and her head drooped, she appeared to have a real sadness about her. Mary's elder sister, Irene did very well in primary school, finishing with a score high enough to get her into one of the prestigous government sponsored secondary schools. However, her family have struggled with paying the fees of £100 a term and she was thrown out two weeks ago.
Mary had another sister, Jacinta who was attacked and raped last year. Her injuries were so severe that she died at home two days later; the family had no money to take her to hospital. She was only seven years old. It was a real struggle to hold back the tears when I heard this; I pretended to be consumed in writing the details on my sponsorship paper, but I was keeping my head down until my eyes were dry. I know the slums are insecure and children are vulnerable. I have seen posters around with details of lost children and heard various horror stories, but I had never really though about it with empathy - being abducted, raped or murdered was just another risk to children in Mathare.
Today made me think differently; not only does little Mary have to live with hunger and poverty, sleeping on a concrete floor every night, but she will always carry with her the loss of her sister. We can help her with food and education, we will take her eldest sister into our secondary school, so her parents don't have to worry about fees. My friend and I are going to buy them some mattresses. But we will never be able to remove the injustice that was done to her sister and her family.
On a brighter note; the new kitchen in the school is coming along well and will be well and truly ready for the improved feeding programme to start on Monday 4th October. We plan to maintain the porridge programme and to improve the quality and size of servings of food at lunchtime every day. It won't just be maize and beans day in, day out, there will be meat and fruit too. Now we have secured funding to protect our feeding programme for the next two years, we can work on improving all other aspects of the school and further helping the community it serves.
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