Orphaned, poverty stricken, life was rough but madam julie came to their mercy

When I was in standard four at Kigaa primary school, the parents of my class mate Kamau died of AIDS. Kamau?s parents had five children. Kamau being the eldest, and the family lived in a rented one single room at Kiamworia market they were labourers and earned their living by tilling other?s land for only seventy shillings each day.

The children left behind had a hard time because they had no one to depend on because the neighbours thought that they had AIDS , as their parents . To the eyes of the neighbours Kamau?s family was a curse.

Kamau thought that he will never continue with school because he had no money and he would live as his parents, tilling other?s land in order to feed the family but a sponsor came to their aid and he continued with school as though his parents were alive

Kamau did his KCPE and was on top of the school and was invited to one of the national schools. The neighbours thought that Kamau will not continue with school because there was no one to pay for the fees. They were amazed when the sponsor gave a cheque to the school for the fees and all personal items and the young sisters and brothers of Kamau were take to a rehabilitation centre by the same sponsors. The neighbours now always talk of Kamau?s family as a sponsor helped him get education and Kamau is now a teacher at Kigaa primary school.

Rehabilitation Centres

There are many rehabilitation centres in the country, bit I am familiar with Toll and Ruiru rehab centre situated at Ruiru town in Thika district where I live. These centres are for the destitute people who are either

1. street children

2 orphans

3 disabled

4 AIDS victims

5 children of parents who live in abject poverty among others

In the centres, these people are given shelter, food, clothes and also learn, all taken care of by sponsors. In these centres the children will grow responsible and develop skills that can help them in future and the community at large.. The lives of these people which seemed so hopeless have turned into a bed of roses. The sponsors are pivotal to this.

Sponsors

The individual?s sponsors or organisations who have taken the responsibility of caring for people who are destitute. They visit these families and know the magnitude of their problems, and the way to help them. In our area, Kigaa they have paid school fees, and medical bills, and those at the rehab centres have too benefited from this program.

Computer Project

The volunteers and donors though from Out of Africa have greatly played the role of helping our children, by giving them

Computers
Typewriters
Maintaining and servicing them
Teaching computer classes

This has played the role of added skills to our children and also the parents are relieved the cost of taking their children to computer courses which are very expensive and not affordable to poor families.

This being computer age and people should be computer literate. It is advisable also to open a school for these advanced courses from form four and above for these children, so that they can compete with others, for skills and job opportunities. In the short and long term the demand for computers will be so high due to the increase of children to rehabilitation centres, schools and village polytechnics.

The schools the volunteers work with sponsored children

I have visited and talked to the children in these two schools in Ruiru and I have observed the following

1. the children are sheltered in the school
2. their meals are prepared for them
3. their clothes are washed
4. there is medical care
5. the children are guided and counseled
6. they are taught how to read and write as in other private and public schools
7. they are clothed

The children in these schools have found hope, and restitution. They have met other children of the same background. They feel cared by he school and they live a normal life as other children even in absence of their parents. All this made possible by sponsors and volunteers.

My views

1. Through good tangible work of these schools, there is a great mobility of children coming from the streets and villages, to seek their new life to school and in future the school will not be able to cope with them and therefore an expansion of the school is needed

2. The sponsor/ volunteers should sensitise to the local communities of the need to cater for the needy children because the problems of these children end up becoming society?s problem.

3. Advanced courses in various fields and skills are needed, so that these children also have a chance to compete with other children in job opportunities

4. The revolving fund

After acquiring the needed skills, in school the children will not live at school for ever. Some will be employed and others not. Therefore the society will be overburdened with a large number of people who are unemployed. They need this fund in form of loans to start small businesses and the money be recovered.

5. Computer projects

This being a computer era, many computers are needed to cope with the large number of people flowing from streets and villages to the school.