Protect 150 children in Kilifi, Kenya

Seven years old Akango cannot believe his transformation from the streets to school.  At Grade two, he is even dreaming of becoming a doctor.  The boy hails from the slum of Runyu in the outskirts of Mombasa City. The slum is known for illicit brewing of alcohol and abuse of drugs

Akango is the last born of a family of three boys and one girl.  Their single mother was arrested in 2018 and jailed for a crime she never committed. He was left in the hands of their aged and sickly grandmother who has got no source of income.
“Life was so hard for us and we used to go without food for two days as we waited for a well wisher or a neighbour to offer us food. When we did not get any, we started loitering in the slum looking for leftovers and plastic bottles to sell to get some coins to buy food”, says Akango.

Their grandmother had no control over the situation given her frailty due to old age and ill health.
The young Akango goes on to say that things were hard for him as his age could not allow him to scramble and earn space to survive in the slum streets with other older children, so he played in the streets with other young colleagues while his two brothers moved across the street stealing metal scraps and any other item that could give them a few coins.

“I would move around shops, kiosks and even dumpsites looking for something to eat”, says Akango. After getting tired, he would just sleep anywhere, even on dangerous roadsides. His health started deteriorating and he developed some skin diseases and his toes were full of jiggers. No one in the slum society could do anything about the children’s condition due to poverty among the residents.
Akango calls the day “fortunate”, when social workers from Grandsons of Abraham Rescue Center were doing street rescue, came across him at one of the dumpsites in the slum and rescued him.  He was in a pathetic state, tired, sickly and could not walk well due to jiggers that had infested his feet.

Once at the Center he was taken for medication and put on a nutritional diet.  He also narrated the story of his two brothers who were also in the streets too, and the center went to look for them and rescued them too.

After a short stay in the drop in Centre in Mikindani, Akango and his brothers were transferred to Abrahams Education Center to continue with education.

Akango is an ever smiling boy, active and very hardworking. Presently, he has build up resilience and at Grade 2 he says he is working hard to become a doctor. He is so happy to see himself and his brothers schooling together to achieve their dreams in life.

Thanks to our supporters like you, who donate through GlobalGiving, Grandsons Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre was able to rescue Akango and his brothers, an intervention that ensured these little ones are able to find hope again and can enjoy their young age and good health to grow up normally and dream like all children.
Akango can boldly say....'I was a stranger and you took me in ' and in him a responsible citizen is in the making. 

Grandsons of Abraham end the year with happy news for all our supporters. With little practice, no equipment nor the needed gear for the game, the boys moved from the county to national and international baseball competitions in a span of one month. The Team also produced the best and youngest national player of the year. Now they are celebrated champions in the country.

It all started when boys who are participants in the school’s Baseball team at Abraham's Education Centre participated and emerged victors at the Jack Robinson Tournament at Chang’ombe Primary school in Kaloleni, Kilifi County on November 14, 2021.

As champions of the County, they would represent the coast region at the national competitions held at Kenyatta University in Nairobi the following week. It was here that the boys’ prowess in the game was noticed. Despite little practice, the boys came third at the national games and one of them, Ramadhan (16 years old) was crowned the best and youngest player of the year.

“We were the youngest Team and it was our first time at the national level. We even played against Teams from the Universities. Playing at the prestigious University of Nairobi is something we had never dreamt of, and we are very grateful to all who support us to reach our potential not only in academics but also in extra curriculum activities”, said David, one of the players.

Following their spectacular performance at the National Level, the Grandsons Team had three of them chosen to play in the national team in Uganda. They played in Uganda on December 12^th and 13^th 2021 where they competed with international Teams as part of the Kenyan Team.

Another player, Salim says that “this has been a great opportunity for us. It has exposed us to the world of Baseball Competitions as it has been our first time to compete. The exposure was very good and even made us to go out of the country. It has been very exciting and motivating”

Following this, the Grandsons have been requested to participate in all future games. “We cannot wait to participate in more games in the future”. Says Ramadhan.

Baseball is not famous in Kenya but in countries like the US, Japan, South Africa and the UK. So how did the boys at Grandsons get involved in it?

“One of our older boys, Darius learnt it in high school where he had met an American friend, Jimmy. When Darius returned to Grandsons of Abraham Centre, he taught the game to his colleagues”, says an elated Sr. Janefrances, the Director of the Centre.

Darius, would later join the national baseball Team after high school and he is now a baseball coach. Since he introduced the level 5 game to his brothers they started playing it for fun with no equipment at all, but improvised ones.

Thus it was a blessing when recently, the President of Baseball in Kenya Mr. Titus visited Grandsons, and introduced Baseball 9 that uses equipment. The boys practiced for only two days after which they went for competitions at the County level and emerged number one.

“Can you imagine even without our own equipment we won? All what we used for the competitions was borrowed”, says a thoughtful Ramadhan.

Following their win, other boys want to take part in the games. Now Grandsons have instituted two teams. A Juniors Team (7-12 years) and a Seniors Team (Ages 13 – 17). They seem happy to play and nothing can deter their spirit even without equipment, regalia or team kits. A true Christmas gift for you, our friend who continues to support us through GlobalGiving.

It was jubilation for Grandsons of Abraham when the results for the national Kenya Certificate of Primary Education results were released in April this year.  Despite a year long absence from school due to the COVID 19 pandemic, eight of the rescued children performed very well and in July reported to some of the best schools in the country. 

A proud Joshua is determined to be a neurosurgeon when he finishes school.  As he prepared to report to school his joy was evident as he joked with his colleagues.  “I cannot imagine that I am joining the secondary school of my choice. Attaining higher education seemed very far for me at some time in my life and I cannot but thank the well wishers who support Grandsons of Abraham to keep us in school”. 

Joshua garnered 389 out of a possible 500 points in the national examination. For him it was a dream come true when he received the news.  He has vowed to work even harder in secondary school so he may become a neurosurgeon.  He says that it was a real challenge when COVID 19 hit and they had to stay out of school for a whole year. 

When his mother died Joshua remained with his stepfather and an older brother.  He dropped out of school because they could not afford even the food to eat.  Teachers in the school he used to attend decided to organize with other pupils to bring him food.  At some point he got sick and stopped going to school.  His older brother had already started using drugs and initiated him into the habit, following which they ended up on the streets.  It was from here that they were rescued and ended up at Grandsons of Abraham, where after rehabilitation they joined school at Abraham’s Education Centre.

Four years down the line Kevin sees his life as changed for the better as he has just joined secondary school.  His older brother too has completed his primary school and has also been accepted in a secondary school of his choice where he intends to work hard and become an engineer.  When not in school the boys enjoy playing football and reading novels. 

Though they are grateful to Grandsons of Abraham for taking them back to school, it is because of the generous contributions of great people like you, who keep donating through GlobalGiving, that Grandsons of Abraham is able to keep Joshua, his brother and many other young people in school, and give them hope for a brighter future.

Mother and son were lost in words when they were reunited after several agonizing years.  The path to the reunion was not a simple ordeal though.  Sr. Janefrances and the social workers at the Grandsons of Abraham Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre had worked for many months to try and trace the home of Jasper, a boy who had lived at the centre for a few years.

“When he arrived here, he showed a desire to study and kept saying he missed his parents and siblings”, says Sr. Janefrances.  “He however could not remember how to get to his home, when we asked him to take us there though he knew the name of his village.  At first he was afraid to go back home.  He did not want to leave school and the friends he had made here.  However we had to assure him all would be well, and that he would continue with his schooling.  Eventually he was willing to meet his parents. We quickly got in touch with the local government offices in his home County of Taita Taveta and the search for his parents began in earnest.” 

When the parents were eventually found, they were overjoyed to learn that their son was well.  They could not wait to hug him again.  And so it was, in the month of November, when lockdown rules due to the COVID 19 pandemic were eased, that the Grandsons Team made that memorable visit to the outskirts of Voi town in Taita Taveta County.  It was joy and jubilation at the village to be reunited with their son.

Jasper, like many boys on the streets, did not intend to live in the streets.  However, circumstances forced him to end up there.  When Jasper's parents could not afford money to buy him school uniform, books and writing material, he knew it was the end of his schooling.  Young though he was, soon he would land in Mombasa with a dream to change his life forever and the lives of his parents and siblings.  Though he had no knowledge of the big city, he knew looking back was impossible. He had to make a living at the tender age of ten. He was taken to the city by a distant relative who promised to give him work so he could earn some cash and send some back home to his parents who had four other siblings to look after and had no source of steady income for the family upkeep.

After only a few days in Mombasa, he wandered alone and could not find his way back to the relative's place.  As evening approached he feared for his life but could not trace his way back.  He says when some older boys saw him, they knew he was new in the city and invited him to stay with them.  The rest is history.  They would go around the town foraging for food and plastic bottles to sell until he got rescued and taken to Grandsons of Abraham Centre.

Thanks to supporters like you who donate to Grandsons of Abraham rescue and Rehabilitation Centre through GlobalGiving, Jasper and many other children like him can be reunited with their families.

This year has been one of the most challenging for the twin Centres of Grandsons Rescue and Rehabilitation and Abraham's Education Centre. Our work is spread between the Drop in and rehabilitation Centre and Abraham’s Education Centre where most of the children are in school.

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic Abrahams Education Centre, which hosts children from the locality also, was closed down like all other learning institutions in the country. In mid march when our President Uhuru Kenyatta announced a lockdown of the country, all learning institutions closed down and all our children in schools around the country had to come back home to Grandsons.

Street work also came to a standstill and the children remained indoors for the next 7 months plus. Panic set in as donations in kind which assist the children a lot, could no longer reach the centre. It was also difficult to get out and visit some of the institutions that regularly supplied the Centre with what the children needed like flour and groceries. Fear was everywhere. How would we manage in this difficult time of uncertainty created by the pandemic?

There was need for extra expenditure to ensure we adhered to the protocols necessary to protect our children from exposure to COVID-19. There were masks to purchase, sanitizers to buy, increase hand washing points and ensure enough detergents for this exercise, and many more.

We are still struggling to continue providing for the children, yet we are very grateful for supporters like you who donate through GlobalGiving. You have enabled the Centre to continue providing for the children and ensure their safety and health.