Sorry for the quiet in the past few months. We have been crazy doing all the boring but necessary things that are needed to do things properly: Trips downtown to get the revenue PIN number, numerous trips to the bank and the NGO Bureau to add signatories, hours writing employment manuals, policies, standards for practice, trying to recruit a country director (post is still vacant, if anyone is interested) editing memorandums of understanding etcetera etcetera. None of it makes interesting reading for a blog! However I am pleased to say that our Day Care venture has started. We are into week three and have high hopes that it will be a great support for mothers in the slums who have to work to feed their families. For those of you who haven't read the previous blog; malnutrition in the slums is rising as food prices rise. One group of children that are really suffering is the six months to three year age group. This is because the mothers have to go to look for work to feed their family and often leave their pre-school child or children in woefully inadequate situations. This can either be in 'daycare' which is often just a tiny room with one woman watching as many as 20 children or sometimes they just lock their babies in the houses alone. The venture is in partnership with three other groups: There has always been a day care facility at this site and it has been run by Mathare Mothers Development Centre (MMDC) which is supported by the umbrella organisation GROOTS (www.groots.org). The third group is two highly motivated women who have founded 'Tiny Totos' an organisation whose ultimate aim is to open low cost, standardised child care for families growing up in informal settlements (www.tinytotos.org 'Toto' is slang swahili for 'child'). GROOTS and Tiny Totos are very keen for the project to be sustainable, so the mamas have to pay something small. If they don’t, they might just drop the kids off at day care and go back to bed…. Tempting I’m sure for all of us, but doesn’t really encourage these families to stand on their own two feet. We are running the venture as a pilot to see what works and what doesn’t. We all hope that offering good quality day care with supplemented nutrition will appeal to mothers and they will send their babies to Tiny Totos and avoid the danger and neglect of informal day care. But with the slum community it is always hard to know. Our first days have had a few hiccups: In the middle of our food hygiene lesson we were visited by a rat, just happily walking around on a ledge in the kitchen. The fortified porridge still hasn't arrived from the government, water has been scarce in the area and therefor jerry cans are expensive...... All part of the learning experience. Before Tushinde and the partnership became involved the children had only one day care worker, no food and no activities. Now, there is fortified porridge every morning four childcare workers and different activities every day. We are aware that there is a lot more work to be done with training of staff, setting up of procedures and standards for good practice, but just go into the centre with two tables, a pile of office scrap paper and some half used crayons creates a great response from the children.

I have toys (bags and bags of them). But there is a feeling by all the other groups involved that if we drown MMDC in donations, it reduces their sense of ownership and subsequent community involvement. It is more important that we make toys and use local materials. So the children have the crayons, empty bottle shakers, a football made of plastic bags and their voices to keep them entertained. As to Peter, the boy that inspired this whole venture: He is much better; smiling, pulling himself up and slowly putting on weight. He is not quite well enough to start on the ARVs, but it shouldn't be long now and then we can all breathe a sigh of relief.

The human face of rocketing food prices

If anyone has read the newsletter, they will have heard of Beth, our community liaison worker. She is dedicated; spending every day in the slums, when she could quite easily make her excuses and spend more time in the office. She has that quiet way of steering you towards the things that matter. One day we had a tight schedule; trying to organise help for a mother who has a spinal tumour, finding uniforms for children who have been sent home for being too scruffy....there was a lot to do. However, Beth suggested that we met the mother of one of our sponsored children as she was back in town after being away for a long time. It didn't strike me as a priority, but I agreed. What Beth hadn't told me was that the mother had reappeared with her youngest child, 11 month old Peter. As soon as we saw him, we knew everything else could wait. He was undoubtedly the skinniest child I have ever seen. He weighed just 5.4 kilos, the average weight of an 8 week old. He had no body fat, so clung to whoever held him for warmth. Yet at the same time you could tell that every movement, even swallowing was painful and he tensed when you tried to move him. He had terrible diarrhoea and his mouth was dry and full of sores. His mother was said to be positive in the past, but she was saying now that she had been cured with a miracle and was not taking any medicines. She was clearly sick and malnourished herself and seemed to have given up on life for both her and the baby. We took the baby to the excellent clinic (run by a German Charity, Arzte fur die Dritte Welt); despite her protestations that they weren't interested. Not surprisingly the doctors started him on intensive feeding, antibiotics and mouth treatment immediately. Seeing such a tragic case has made me ask questions: How many children did the feeding programme see like this? The answer was 40 this month, double what they saw in February. Why is the referral rate going up? No it wasn't just the good reputation of the clinic, all centres were seeing a rise. Food prices rocketed last year and they have stayed up, people have used up their fat and money reserves and now just can't buy enough food. How well do children on the programme respond to treatment? It usually takes three weeks. The success rate is high as long as all the accompanying diseases are treated successfully. It also made me ask more questions. How important is nutrition at this age? For Peter, it was clearly a matter of life and death. But, for many of our children, they are more likely to suffer from chronic underfeeding: if the mother gets work that day, everyone eats, if she doesn't, they sleep hungry. It seems that the first thousand days of a child's life are the most important. This thousand days is from the moment of conception to the child's second birthday. The levels of glucose, stress hormones and micro-nutrients in-utero has an impact on the rest of the child's life. For a girl, the life of her own children is affected, as a girl child is born with her eggs ready to mature. The quality of breast milk continues to have an impact on the child's development and early weaning, with foods with low nutritional value being used, further add to the problem. This, and frequent infections can lead to stunted growth, not only in stature, but in brain development. Stunting usually occurs before age two and its effects are largely irreversible. (www.thousanddays.org) Where can Tushinde help? If the future of a child is determined by a mother’s health during pregnancy and breast-feeding; then how can we help if we are a charity which provides support to children with education and nutrition hand in hand? There is one area that is sorely neglected: Often in Mathare, children are left in ‘daycare’ whilst the mother goes out to look for work. This is completely unregulated and mother’s pay around 15p to leave their child with an unqualified worker who will have up to 20 pre-school children and babies at one time. The babies are kept in a small, unlit room (houses in the slums don't have windows), rarely given anything to substitute their mother’s milk and often just have one portion of water and porridge the whole day. This is where we can help. The first thousand days are not only important with regards to nutrition, but also stimulation and interaction; in other words- early education. We see that no charity or community group is acting on this. When a child is most vulnerable to damage, but also the most receptive to intervention, many in the slums are being locked away in dark rooms.

We are about to embark on an ambitious new project to try and make a difference. In partnership with the feeding programme, some enthusiastic volunteers, and a Nairobi playgroup for the wealthy, we are going to transform a daycare unit into a safe environment where small children can eat well and play. We have very little funding; Tushinde is giving some and two volunteers are reaching in their own pockets. It will only run for three months and this will give us the opportunity to iron out any difficulties and make sure it is right for the community. But we all hope, for the sake of babies like Peter that it will be a success and that we don't just have one day care facility that continues to run, but many. We hope that each child, at the most vulnerable, yet receptive time in their life will be given a better start. If you would like to support this venture or just find out more, then please contact me on megan@tushinde.org.uk

Thank You.

Just a quick entry to say that we raised just enough money (£200) to re-house Collins and his family in a house away from the river and to buy them replacements for the items that were washed away. When everything is settled, We'll post some pictures on facebook. In Mathare, you can't turn up with £150 worth of new stuff in a day or your are asking to be robbed, so we are doing it in installments. A big thank you to Kay, Collins's sponsor. He is so lucky to have you!

Disasters and Poverty

On Sunday night the Mathare River burst its banks. In the flash flood the water rose over a metre and people woke to find their houses filling with water. There was mass panic as mothers tried to bash holes in their roofs and throw their children to safety. In the pitch black no one could see what was happening. One mother and her one year old child were killed as they were swept away. Three people are still missing. One of our sponsored children, Collins lived by these banks. One wall of his house was washed away, and everything but the bed frame was taken with it.


Collins has not had the best start to life. He was born in 2006, to parents with the chronic infectious disease that is so prevalent in Mathare. His mother followed medical advice and neither he nor his elder sisters or baby brother have been infected. His mother and father struggled to look after their children. Although they both worked; their low and unpredictable salaries as casual labourers was rarely enough to make ends meet. Things got even worse in December 2010 when Collins’s father was killed when a car mounted the pavement and knocked him down as he walked home from work.

There was no compensation, no pension, no help at all for his mother. Within months they were evicted and had to move to a tiny hut, precariously close to the banks of the Mathare River.

Things were getting better, sponsorship for Collins from Tushinde meant he was in school with a uniform and his mother received £3 a week towards the family’s food bills. Collins’s mother had got her sewing machine working again and she was able to do a bit of extra tailoring work in the evenings. When we visited her earlier this year, with a present for Collins from his sponsor, there seemed to be a bit of happiness in the tiny home (see photo above).

It just seems so unjust that tragedy generates tragedy; that destitute people are caught in a downward spiral. If the state cannot provide a safety net and the community is already stretched, then whole families are lost to the most unimaginable poverty.

I would like to think that as Collins is supported by us, that we can help this family. Although our primary aims as Tushinde is to help with nutrition and education, we cannot turn our backs on this family in their hour of need. They have nothing; no clothes, no food, nothing to cook on or with, and no furniture. Tonight they will sleep with loaned blankets, under the rainclouds, in the grounds of the local police station.

If you feel you can help or feel happy to forward this message to others who might be able to help, then please do so and ask anyone who wants to help to use our just giving page www.justgiving.com/tushinde and write the reference ‘Collins’. Hopefully we will be able to re-house the family and get them back on track again with all the furniture, clothes and utensils they need. If we get more than enough, we will put the money aside and make sure we help any other families who have similar housing crises.

Mama Collins in her house, the mud line on the drapes is the high water line.

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.

Life stories from the slums.

We had a journalism competition at the school in Mathare to see if any good writers could help me with stories for Tushinde’s newsletter. Most were like geography or history essays and certainly beyond the 200 word limit I had set. However, one stood out, it was still way too long, but Anastacia (pictured left) said she didn’t mind if I pasted it on the Tushinde blog. I am hoping with our volunteer coming in October with the aim of doing a photo-journalism project, it will give more children of Mathare the confidence to tell their stories.

My Life by Anastacia Chepkoech

I was brought up in a happy family in rural Kenya until 2003 when my step-father died of throat cancer. He had always loved me like a daughter and life became so hard without him. My mother, three brothers and I struggled to face the challenges.
We had to move to Eldoret as my mum was a different tribe from my Dad’s family and she feared for our security.
My mum did her best to make sure that we got the necessary needs. By then I was ten years old and my youngest brother was two.
On December the 26th 2007 my brothers and I went to stay in Kapsabet with my maternal aunt for the New Year. We left my mother happy and sound and never thought that something bad would happen to her, never thought that this would be the last time we would see her. If only I knew, I could have tried to save my mum or die with her, but it’s too late. We stayed there for one week only to be called on the Saturday by my Mum’s friend who broke the sad news to us. I almost had a heart attack and thought I would die the next second.
Thought it is hard to share, and also painful, my only mother was burnt alive by mobs during the post election violence when we were gone. They attacked in a house full of smoke and fire and burnt every part of her until she was beyond recognition. The people who killed her had no human heart, they were animals. That is why it is hard to forgive. I don’t think I could ever face them and say ‘I have forgiven you’
Life became really hard and I became the mother and father to my siblings who had no-one to turn to. My brothers were taken in by my step-father’s family, but I was rejected as I was from a different tribe.
I moved from my aunt’s to my grandmother’s in Mathare and I was just about to be moved again as my grandmother is weak, when my uncle found out about Mogra Star Academy and I applied for a place there.
Since the day I cam to Mogra to study, I have been lucky because even if I lack food at home, I can get it at school as it is part of the programme. Mogra has helped a lot of needy children who have problems more serious than mine. I pray that god gives us strength to overcome these misfortunes in our lives.
My dream is to become a doctor so that I can be able to save lives of people who have cancer like my dad, or if I fail, I will be a lawyer so that I can be able to fight for the rights of weak people like my mother. I do hope that justice will be done. I want justice to be done.
Life in the slums is a daily challenge. The biggest problems are poverty and health status. The environment is full of sewage and poor housing. People help us, but they forget to show us is how they came to their existence, to success, how to go about it and where to go. Food and pity alone cannot solve our problems. They that have developed must lead us in the direction to overcome poverty.

30 children a day finding themselves alone.

Last Friday, Kasarani children’s office, which covers the area of Mathare, turned up at the Rescue Centre with two five year olds, a six week old and an older baby that they wanted to give us. The government department are in the process of shutting down a children’s home near to us that is so poorly funded and so badly managed that four children have died in the past few months. We begged and pleaded with the Children’s Officer that we could not take the children as Mogra Rescue Centre is overcrowded, broke and does not have the staff or facilities for babies.

They pleaded back and we ended up keeping the older baby. She is called Angel and she is fourteen months old. Her hair had been braided by the older children, but she was covered in sores from untreated nappy rash and the dirt was so ingrained that her skin had become pulled tight and broken. She can’t move, but she has a smile for everyone.

This other children’s home, we shall call it the ‘Silver Shepherd’ was opened by an independent Kenyan church. Initially it had money and support and was doing well, but it lacked any planning and any structure. There were two pastors in charge, one went to the USA to fundraise. He did well at first, so the second pastor went up country to open a second Silver Shepherd Children’s Home in rural Kenya. After a while though, support in the US dried up and the Pastor based out there had to feed himself and support his own family, so he spent more time working and less time fundraising. The other pastor in the countryside was kept very busy with the second project and washed his hands of the first. So the Silver Shepherd Children’s home was run into the ground. Staff weren’t paid and didn’t turn up for work. Nappies didn’t get changed, clothes didn’t get washed and food didn’t get cooked. The four children who died, died of simple infections; they were dirty, malnourished, and never got to see a nurse.

In the meantime Kasarani Children’s Department is kept very busy; it covers Mathare and many other slum areas of Nairobi and has an average of thirty referrals every day. This is 30 children who need residential care, it could be because they are orphaned, abandoned or simply so abused and neglected by their parents that they cannot live at home for their own safety. Often, Tom, the Children’s officer can deal with it ‘informally’; he can find a Mama who will take the child in and care for it whilst they follow up the case. Tom does not know exactly how many Mamas he has like this, but it is in the hundreds. He says that every single person working in their office has at least three rescued children at home; simply there was nowhere else for that child to go at the end of the day.

How easy is it to turn a child away? How does it feel to know that you, yet another adult has failed that child? Silver Shepherd should be a wake up call for us: our children are fed and clothed, yes, but we only have four staff and none have had a break for over two years. We have 132 children, just enough to pay the bills. No spare to employ a nurse, or even for trips to the clinic. And we are still really struggling to implement any structure.

The Children’s Office knows all this, yet they are still calling us about that six week old as the baby has nowhere else to go….