Kenya & Tushinde - my experience

I left Sydney 9 December 2011 and headed to Kenya for a five week retreat to visit a dear friend. Five weeks eventually turned into a three month temporary living arrangement and here I sit on my second last night in Nairobi.

Over the last three months I have experienced many adventures and can say that I toured Kenya and did the most I could with my time here. Along the way I met an amazing woman, Megan Wright. I was aware of her volunteer work but not of the extent of it until I learned the full story of what got her to where she is now. Megan runs an organisation called Tushinde, a small charity that seeks families in Mathare who are in desperate need of sponsorship. Megan’s social worker Beth, another amazing woman, travels deep into the slums weekly and locates new families to assist while visiting existing families to check their progress in health, living and education.

Both Megan and Beth, such outstanding and admirable women with huge hearts.

I started volunteering with Tushinde and I met wonderful families. Little Shadrack, a six year old boy who lost both his parents a few years ago stole my heart. Shadrack’s older sister was taking care of him however he was neglected and eventually when she started a family of her own she moved away. Shadrack was left on his own. His neighbor Joyce, took him in. Joyce told me how Shadrack loved school but of course income was low and irregular so she didn’t have the funds to enroll him in school. I decided to become Shadrack’s sponsor and see he enters school before I left Kenya. I’m pleased Shadrack will be starting school at Academy No. 10 on 5th March. I visited twice more with gifts for Shadrack. A school bag filled with stationery and a new outfit. His heart shone through his eyes, such a tremendous little boy with such spirit. On my last visit Joyce told me Shadrack told her he wanted to return to Australia with me. She explained he wouldn’t be able to speak the language and communicate. Shadrack pledged to her he would excel in his class and would learn fluent English so that he would be able to speak to me regularly. Needless to say, hearing that filled my heart with joy.

I think what blew me away the most was when you would ask these kids what they wanted or needed they would tell you text books for school - there was no desire for games, toys or electronics, they really just wanted to learn.

Tushinde enabled me to support a child in need and for that I am forever thankful to Megan and Beth.

Tushinde continues to grow and finds needy children but of course Tushinde needs more sponsors to accommodate these families. Please check out the Tushinde organisation. If sponsorship is something you have considered then I urge you to look into sponsoring via Tushinde. It’s a worthy cause and their generosity and work goes so far and makes a huge difference to so many. There are no administration costs so all your donation goes to the needy families. I am so fortunate that I have been able to see all the hard work first hand, it’s been remarkable and forever memorable.







Eli Saad
Sydney, Australia.