On
the Sunday of 6th April a good number of our members visited Watoto
Wema children’s home in Ruai. This is an initiative that is usually coordinated
by the Reach Out Program (ROP) of AYICC-K. ROP is a commitment to support the
Watoto Wema Centre, an orphanage with over 56 children (35 of them are boarders)
through visits, donations and mentorship. AYICC members are always dedicated to
contributing time, money, foodstuff and clothes towards making life better for these
children.
We
converged in town then proceeded to Ruai at around Midday. It was along ride
for the first timers, and fortunately we got their in time. On arrival we were
shown around the home and it was amazing to see quite a number of developments that
the Centre had made! There was a newly built boy’s dormitory sponsored by the
Safaricom Foundation which was already complete, a girl’s dormitory and a
classroom were almost complete, a new spacious kitchen had been put up, and a health centre was under construction too!
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The Girl's storey dormitory next to the Boy's dormitory |
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Evidently a lot more is yet to come... |
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The boy's dormitory donated by Safaricom Foundation |
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The Heath Centre under construction |
They
also a number of projects running, for instance they had established a vegetable
garden on which they were growing healthy sukuma
wiki (kales) and spinach, the number of poultry had also increased
tremendously, a cattle shed had also been constructed which will host two dairy
cows. You wouldn’t also believe that they had purchased a TukTuk! We branded it
the ‘school bus’. They were now able to easily ferry shopping and even the
children from the shopping center to the home.
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Also present.... |
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The Tuk Tuk...and of course DJ React was present |
After
the tour the ladies prepared a delicious meal, of rice, cabbage and beef stew (we
bought them 5KGs of meat)…..while the gentlemen interacted with the kids. We
had lunch at around 3 PM with the kids, and thereafter had mentor-ship sessions,
grouped as the girls and the boys, and had one-on-one talks that mostly encouraged
them to work hard and do their best in schools. Some class 8 candidates presented some of their essays which were exceptionally well written. We also introduced to the kids
what AYICC does and planted a seed of environment conservation, which is an
aspect that ROP plans on implementing to grow future environmentalists.
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The ladies braved the smoke in the kitchen...
..and eventually lunch was ready!
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Then came time for serious business...
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Later
on we assembled to present the gifts that we had, and as always it rained
sweets once again (the smiles on their faces…priceless). With the money
generously contributed by our members, we bought them 10 Litres of cooking oil,
5 large tubes of tooth paste, several packs of tissue paper, 5 bars of soap, and
with the rest of the money paid for 20KGs of maize floor that would be
processed by the local miller. Donations by our members included a bundle of
toys, stationary and several bags of clothes.
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One of the donated toys |
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Play time was here....
Everyone was in |
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In groups... |
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...and more |
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Determined to win |
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'listen up guys'... |
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More games |
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...and more |
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And of course dance we did! |
*sigh* what an amazing day that was.......oh, and this boy is such a gem. Future president.
We left centre at around 6 pm leaving behind us a happy Watoto Wema family. The next visit is coming up in July, do not miss out!
The ROP team wishes to thank everyone who contributed to the success of this day in one way or another. Lets do this again next time....
Compiled by Victoria Chengo & Mercy Amboka
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