Safety, Shelter & Food - Vulnerable Kids in Kibera

Managing a household responsible for the lives of the 20+ children that call St. Vincent's Rescue Center home is no easy task. Every day requries constant effort and attention to ensure that the children we care for --- children who have been through so much trauma in their short lives --- have what it takes to succeed. 

Our House Mother, Grace, and our board members manage the various needs of our home. This means much more than merely feeding the children, maintaining our rescue house facility and sending the children to school. It means too, ensuring HIV+ children get their medication, managing new children coming into our home, reintegrating children to their families, ensuring protection of children who come to us from abusive households and going to court for cases of abuse of children now under our care, working with the government to address land rights issues of children in our care and enduring the long process of getting birth certificates for children without them, among many others.

2015 has been good proof of the ups and downs that we navigate as we manage our household and care for children's complicated needs. We have faced challenges in transitioning children into secondary school after changes in the government system left three of our children without a school, devised activities for children to continue learning in the face of a 5-week teacher strike, managed the situation of a runaway teen, supported a child whose best friend drowned during a class trip he was also on and provided care to two sisters placed with us by the government after their stepfather attempted to kill them. While our scope of work -- providing care to 20 children -- may seem small, the challenges we face are not.

Also this year, our team was faced with the task of finding a conducive learning environment for one of our children who has a serious learning disability. Alice* has been with us for six years after she was found abandoned in a local market at the age of 7 or 8 with not a single known family member. When she first came to us, she could not even speak to tell us her name, let alone read or write. Over the last six years, we have been working with Alice to understand her learning challenges and help find the support and environment needed for her to succeed. Supporting children in Kenya with physical or mental health disabilities is a serious challenge as almost no resources exist. We get no support from the government to help address the specific needs of children like Alice.

For the past two years, Alice had been in a boarding school where she was gaining practical skills, but we observed that her learning had stalled and she still could not read or write. We felt she was capable of more given the right environment. So we took her for another medical assessment this year and received a referral to a day school in Nairobi where we enrolled her. One of our older children takes her to school each morning and our house helper, Anastasia, picks her up at the end of each day. Since May of this year, Alice is enjoying the gift of a talented teacher trained to work with students with disabilities and we are seeing good progress. She is increasingly vocal and has even begun to write! 

There is never an end to the challenges of running our home. We take each one as they come and do our best with the resources available to continue providing care to each child in light of their individual needs.

*Alice is the name used in this report to protect the identity of the child under our care.     

St. Vincent’s rescue center is currently home to 20 children ages 7 to 21 years old. This interview was conducted with one of our youth, Dennis, aged 19 years. Originally from Muranga County (a few hours north of Nairobi), Dennis been with our rescue center since 2010. A recent high school graduate, he is waiting to start university at the beginning of 2016. We asked Dennis questions about education and life in Kibera to give you - our donors - a sense of the potential of youth in Kibera and the challenges they face in reaching their life goals.

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Q: Where did you go to secondary school?

A: Olkejuado High School

Q: When did you graduate?

A: November 2014

Q: What are you doing now?

A: I am taking a short term course in computer programming at Tunapanda institute [in Kibera]. It’s scheduled for three months. I attend classes on weekdays from 9am to 6 pm.

Q: How did you get involved in the computer course?

A: I learned about it from a friend who is also involved in it.

Q: What are you learning in the course?

A: I am learning python - a computer programming course - and 3D painting

Q: Are you enjoying the course?

A: Sure I am. Am doing what I love.

Q: Why do you like computer programming?

A: It's fun. I enjoy it because I can make games using languages that I learn and it's fun

Q: What do you want to do in the future?

A: I want to do programming and study computer science, but that won't be possible for now.

Q: Why won't it be possible?

A: I have been selected [at a Kenyan university] to study another course different from the one that I want and I have to take it. The government selects for you a course and then you have to study that. After high school when you have attained a pass mark, they will give you a loan to study a course in the University and they select a course for you. You repay the loan with interest after you are done with school and have a job.

Q: What course were you placed in?

A: Bachelor of Science in innovation management technology.

Q: Do you have to go to that university?

A: I have to because I received no other choice to get to university.

Q: What would be your dream job?

A: I don't think I’d like to work for anyone. I would like to build my own software. I have an idea of developing an app to solve a problem in our country.

Q: Can you tell us what your app idea is?

A: Not for now. I'm still working on it. I'm still learning the basics, so I have to learn more before I can bring the idea to life.

Q: How are you going to reach your goals?

A: I will have to take the course [that was selected for me] and then I can continue learning [computers/IT] in my free time.

Q: What do you think about the education system in Kenya?

A: It's pathetic. It's the worse you can have because of exams. When you are in school, the teacher tells you that you are supposed to do this because it will be in the exams. It's all based on the exams. In the final exam, you take it for a month. You are tested on what you have learned over the past four years in that one month and that's not good. They should grade you for your performance over the four years. There are no practicals. You can't solve real life problems with what you learn in schools, you are only taught to pass exams. 

Q: What do you like about living in Kibera?

A: I like the people around me. They show me that I'm still worth something. Whenever I go down into the slum, I feel a sense of belonging. Someday I would want to do something for my community. People are nice in the slum. I have friends in the slum. I enjoy playing games with them. Sometimes I share with them what they go through. It makes me feel like part of them.

Q: If there is one thing you could change about Kibera, what would it be?

A: I would change the education - the way people study. I would teach them to be creative. And I would change the way they think about life. For example, the National Youth Service was working in Kibera and they would clean the streets in the morning and when you would come back [in the evening] you wouldn't be able to see their work. I want to do something about it in my future if I can.

Q: What would you want to do specifically about the garbage problem?

A: I would give people civic education and I would develop systems for them to manage the litter. I would also want to teach youth computer skills and programming so that they can help solve problems.

Q: What do you think is biggest misconception about Kibera?

A: People think it's the dumbest place in the world. People think it's the worst place to live, but I think it's the best. The people here are good.

Links:

• St. Vincent's Website