Back in 1987, my parents-in-law Gordon and Orma Walls spent 2 years working with the Maasai in a community outside Nairobi, Kenya. They helped build a clinic, school rooms and a demonstration farm. It was there that they first met Wanjiku Kironyo, who was later to become the Founder and Director of Maji Mazuri, but was at that time providing counseling and family therapy to the Maasai women.
A firm friendship develop and 17 years later, in 2003, my wife Lyny and I travelled to Kenya to see her parents, who were on one of their many extensive repeat visits to work with their Maasai friends. Gordon introduced us to Wanjiku, and she immediately took us to visit the Maji Mazuri programs.
Lyny and I will never forget our first visit to the Mathare Valley slum to see Maji Mazuri and meet her team; then on to the Children’s Centre in Kasarani which cares for physically or mentally disabled orphans and abandoned children. We were overwhelmed!
Sadly, later that year, Lyny’s father, Gordon Walls, died after a short illness. Although he never said so directly, we felt that he wanted us to continue the family tradition of helping in Africa.
And, that is what we are doing…..
