This family, which spans three generations, live in a 10'x10' corrugated iron house in Mathare Slum. We are supporting five children from this family through school and we also take care of their medical needs. A food donation once a month helps with the household budget.
This family really wants to stay together and despite their tough living conditions, they are very positive and a good education for the children is their top priority. Without our intervention, the only alternative would be to split up the family and place the youngest children in a residential home.
Having to give up your children to a home, and for the children to have to enter one, is viewed with the same dread and sorrow as Irish people once looked on the prospect of the Workhouse. There is a welcome move here in Kenya to supporting destitute children in their community rather than in the often unregulated Children�s Homes. Maintain Hope is taking a leading part in implementing this policy in Ngong.
So deep is the poverty sometimes, that parents present their children as orphans so that they at least receive some support. Through a network of Social Workers and community based organisations, we are able to keep families together and ensure that their vulnerable children are given a chance. We have established valuable links with the schools which our 40-odd children attend and we receive regular updates on their progress and achievements.
One of our 'old boys' from the earliest days of Maintain Hope, Julius Arega, spearheads our intervention in the Ngong area. Having been raised in a Children�s Home, he is determined to keep families together if at all possible. While, with our help, he graduated from college and has prospered, he believes that nothing can replace family life, even if that life is lived in very humble circumstances.
Our sincere thanks to everyone who supports our work. I wish that I could find the words to tell how much your help is appreciated here and how much of a difference it makes.
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