Volunteering in Kenya: Part 5
Day 6: Impossible Goodbye’s
I start the day off with the final yoga class at New Horizon, with Grade 1. I enjoy it just as much as every other class I have done this week with the children, my heart feeling full afterwards. For me, yoga is a tool I use to calm, focus, and bring more steady confidence and concentration into my day. Whilst many may say that yoga is not something that can fix the harsh reality or problems that some of these children are living with, I hope I may have taught some techniques that they might be able to use the next time they are feeling angry, sad or lonely.
Next it was time to say goodbye to the classes at Peggy Lucas, which I knew was going to be difficult having inevitably grown close to some of the children even in the short time I have been here. I popped my head into each classroom individually, at each time being greeted with the well rehearsed, sing song welcome of the whole class, “Welcome to Grade 2, we are happy to see you and how are you?” and for the goodness only knows how many times this week, my eyes are streaming once again.
I pass around the classes receiving tight squeeze hugs, heartfelt goodbyes, air blown kisses and beautiful words. A mix of emotions stirred in my belly, but overall I felt so grateful for all the love, energy and kindness this community have shown me over the week.
Home Visits to Vulnerable Families
UCESCO Africa have many different projects ongoing, one of which is home visits to the most vulnerable families of the children at school. I hadn’t had time to join any yet this week and was keen to accompany them to one before I left, so this is how the rest of my last day panned out.
When visiting the homes, UCESCO bring food staple items like beans, rice, flour, cooking oil etc to stock their homes. They took us to see Pamela, a woman in her sixties with the saddest eyes I’ve looked into. She was smiling as she invited us into her new home where UCESCO have placed her recently to get away from a very bad prior living situation, but in her eyes I was met with a deep feeling of sadness.
Pamela welcomed us in and as we awkwardly bundled 4 of us into one of the 2 tiny rooms where one of her grand daughters was. It felt like I had been punched in the stomach. This grand daughter was born with a physical disability and can’t leave the house, so she lives on the small single bed and is unable to experience life outside. What’s more, Pamela has 4 daughters and another 6 grand children, ALL of whom share the two small single beds in this close apartment.
My brain frantically looks around to calculate how 11 people even fit inside the house never mind to sleep. My mouth turned bone dry and my heart ached. How on earth could this be better than where they were before? What has this poor family endured?
*TRIGGER WARNING: this next part is extremely shocking and will upset readers.
As Pamela recounted her story, she got upset mid sentence. All of her 4 daughters had children between the age of 13-15, due to a lack of education and availability of contraception. The youngest daughter fell pregnant when she first came onto her period. Entering this stage of womanhood, she felt shy and didn’t know who or where to go to for sanitary towels. When a stranger offered to give her some free of charge, if she would have sexual intercorse with him, she obliged, unaware of the consequences this would bring about. AGED 12. I cannot ever forget the pain forever embedded in Pamela’s gaze, as she recounted this story.
It’s impossible to imagine what that feels like, but there stood in the cramped, hot bedroom, I had a sudden urge that I might faint. I had a drink of water and thanked the family for showing us their home, and gave them the food supplies we had brought. As soon as we got back to UCESCO, I outlined that the first project for the money raised I would like to go towards bunk beds built for Pamela and her family, to change their unimaginable sleeping conditions.
*UPDATE: 2 months on and UCESCO Africa have kindly sent weekly updates on how our £5,000 raised is helping the community. Indeed, one of the first projects was to construct bunk beds in Pamela’s home, and Edna told me she was so overjoyed she couldn’t stop crying and praying.
Watch this video for an update on where your donations are being spent!
UCESCO Africa Goodbye’s
When we left Pamela’s home I passed by the office to bid farewell to the UCESCO Africa team. Their work is inspiring, I just wish we were able to connect global systems on a better scale.
There is so much waste, so much excess, so much overproduction in the world, and so many people really have nothing. I can’t stop thinking that the world really is broken, how on earth in 2024 are we living in a world where millions of people are living in these unimaginable circumstances.
The £5,480 I have raised will be an incredible help for a lot of people, and will continue providing school meals for the kids at both schools, some will go towards construction of a new school in another slum, and part will help cover school fees for families who are unable to cover the cost month to month. I feel good about the money and am eternally grateful to everybody who donated to the cause, and I look forward to seeing the growth it’s able to provide. But I can’t shake the haunting feeling that we cannot continue with so many people living in such difficulty circumstances. We must keep sharing, keep talking, keep ideating, on how the problem can be approached on a bigger scale.
To anyone who is thinking of volunteering - DO IT. If you have the time, space and love to give, there are so many who need it. I have learnt more from this experience than I could have ever imagined, and know it will not be the last time.
