Where people give more than they have

Gone Fishing Part#1

“Live your life by stretching out your hand to help someone else’s”

Growing up in Nairobi’s Kibera Slum often means living with seven siblings in a 3x10 mud house. To get there you traverse sewer alleyways laden with rubbish up and down and around and around. You pass by makeshift shops selling charcoal, sardines, insect laden fruit, next to barbers and amongst chemists offering pregnancy tests. Once you get inside the little mud house it’s a haven of love and cleanliness where freshly washed clothes hang out to dry. Where crafts are made to sell on the side of the alleyway to bring some money in. They tell stories of babies born with disabilities hidden from the world, of deaf children sent to boarding school, of fathers who’ve fled the day a baby girl is born. The house is made up of the living room is the kitchen is the bedroom. It might cost 3500 shillings per month plus you pay to go to the toilet 10 shillings a time so you learn how to get around that system. A 5L tub of water is 5 shillings and then you still need to boil it for safety. On leaving the home, a mother carries her child to school for 45mins each way or when old enough they walk on their own. What strikes me is how proud they are of their homes and how much they do with so little.

And then you meet the angels of teachers and volunteers who’ve grown up and live in Kibera and yet choose to stretch out their hand everyday to give a better life to the children born with disabilities at the Mary Rice Centre. Angels including Ester, JayJay, Naomi who are patiently strengthening these children physically and emotionally building their confidence day by day. Asante Sana beautiful angels. #EdmundRiceFoundation #EducateToLiberate