Maji Mazuri

The orphaned or abandoned children at our Maji Mazuri Children’s Centre are in most cases (but not all) physically or mentally challenged. Those with purely physical handicaps, and the able-bodied, have been living at the Children’s Centre alongside our mentally challenged children and this is not ideal for them. We had enrolled them in the local state run elementary school, and despite the challenges of huge class sizes (75 and more) and the fact that they were new to the school, and in some cases seemed ‘strange’ to the physically fit kids, they did pretty well.

It has always been our intention to move these children to our Kiserian campus in the countryside where we have a flourishing school (with class sizes of 20 to 30) and a farm. What we needed was residential accomodation. Well, we have completed a new dormitory, and kitchen and dining room, and they have been fully equipped. This means we were able to move 18 children to Kiserian a few weeks ago. They have a foster mother who cares for them, as well as several helpers to cook, do laundry and so on. The school is right next to the dormitory and there is a large playing field.

We thought you would like to see the comments that some of the children made, below. (We will make sure they all have blankets – see Victor’s comment!) Many thanks to all our supporters for doing so much to help make this possible. This is a wonderful step forward for these children. It also means that we have more space in the Kasarani Children’s Centre for new orphan cases, and to cater better for our mentally challenged children.

Susan Mando: “My new school is called Maji Mazuri. We have 11 classes. In our school we have a big farm! we eat food with vitamins. I am so happy in my new school.”

Mary Wairimu: “My new school is very comfortable because it has a lot of land. The land is very fertile! I am in grade 7 and I am very excited and enjoying the weather so much.”

Victor Ouma: “The school is very good but its too cold! The land is also very big! I’m in grade 7 and my class teacher is teacher Stephen he is the best teacher I have ever had! The dorm is good but it is very dull in the evening as we have no television!”

(When we have reliable electricity we will get the children a T.V…!)