Although nothing 'exciting' or 'out of the ordinary' happened, I feel that these days still deserve a mention because I have found out some really interesting things about why Grace has come back to Kenya so soon after she was last here!
She came to Kenya in January? of this year to do exactly what I myself am doing and through the same company! Although she was here for 2 months.
Whilst in Mlolongo she discovered that there was a huge problem concerning 'street boys'.
These are almost always boys and they are a variety of ages and due to being either orphans or coming from poverty stricken families they end up on the streets. There can earn a tiny bit of money picking up 'plastics' and taking them to buyers who in turn receive money from large companies who recycle them.
However, not only do these boys have no shelter at night and minimal food during the day, they also very easily get into bad habits such as drug taking, a very common form you see daily on the streets is glue sniffing. It's a type of gum used to glue shoes back together and the empty or nearly empty bottles are tossed onto the streets (there are no rubbish collectors here, it gets tossed onto the street and then burnt in piles) where the boys pick it up and sniff the remainder. The boys can also not afford to go to school, and they are very often of primary school age which means that they have future, so to speak, other than living on the streets for the foreseeable future.
So when Grace was last here, she decided that she had to do something to help and so set up a rehabilitation for street boys project. This involved finding a cheap but suitable shelter, a teacher and a cook. I have seen, since being here, that she now has all three and she also funds the lives of 11 boys. I know that this is quite a financial struggle as apart from a few bits of fund raised money and the occasional offer of food, she pays for it all herself and this comes in at around 1000GBP a month. I think that she is amazing and once I am back in the UK I want to provide all the support I can, in terms of fund-raising and also just being someone else who has seen first hand, the change she has brought about in these boy's lives!
this is just a brief delve into what she does but I am sure that as soon as I am back home and she has set up a website etc I can provide more information and start to fundraise.
My primary objective is to raise enough money to provide the boys with a school sports kit!
Lottie x
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment