Safe babycare for single mums in the Nairobi slums

This project, Joy Babycare,  is going very well and we now have a stable care giver with back up support. We have spent a lot of time on sourcing suitable educational and play materials, including as many items as possible that are locally made.  Joy Babycare benefits from supervision and support  from Lillian Omwenga, community worker, who following her visits to similar projects in the UK has been a continuing inspiration and guide.   We are now looking to set up a similar project in a different area as the need for this kind of resource is so great.  It is difficult for single unsupported mums to both care adequately for their babies and find day labour in safe surroundings that will enable them to earn money for food.    Regular routine  health checks of the babies is also very beneficial and enables problems to be recognised before they become serious. The mums greatly value the support  they  too receive from the project.  We are finding that 'our babies' settle well into school as the environment is more familiar to them than it would be had they not attended our nursery.

I am unusually uploading this report on behalf of Daniel Marungu, Chief Executive of Tiba Africa Foundation as he is currently rather unwell and seeking hospital treatment 300 km  from home where there is poor internet connection. If you would like to support him or follow his progress  while he is ill please check out 'Daniel Marungu' on the on-line website Go Fund Me.

Thank you for your generous support to Joy Babycare.

Andria on behalf of Daniel

Dear Friends, donors , colleagues and all wellwishers,

We send greetings to you all wherever you are. Here is our news from our projects in Nairobi.

We have continued to see babies develop into school-going children. Every time we meet them with their parents there is always a feeling of gratefulness and happiness in our hearts as the care givers and in their hearts as young single mothers. I am sure, children too say thank you for the care they receive when their mothers are in the mid of struggles of life.

At  Abundance school, we are sometimes surprised when we are paid visits by our  former alumnae. Some have grown big, some are still in school while some have completed secondary education. Such experiences keep us moving. We are motivated to look more into what we give to children than the challenges we face in school.

Our breath ambassadors have always kept on teaching us that however big your fall is, you can still rise up and shine. Some of these people  enrolled in our program with no hope to live. But when they meet others, breathe and share their fears, positive transformation begins taking place in their lives; people that were once worried, become lively and vibrant.

We wish to thank our well-wishers for continuing to support us. We wish especially to thank Andria for her unchanging solid presence. She has continued to check on our progress, mother our projects and  to offer direct financial aid, through Tiba Africa Support, especially when we hit the wall and there is no fund to meet our emergency needs.

At  Abundance School, though closed for a short holiday, the year started tough with strict regulations by the Government whereby all schools were required to enrol the school, pupils and teachers on the government portal. Through thick and thin, we secured a school enrolment number. We are now enrolling our pupils. The challenge is that many of our children do not have birth certificates  yet it’s the number one requirement document for a pupil registration. We are working with local leaders to see how these children can acquire birth certificates.

At a time we were almost giving up on our talent concert, TBF-UK voted  to give Tiba the rest of  the money for the concert; £500.We were  thrilled by the news on GlobalGiving that our micro-project for the Abundance School concert had been fully funded. We are indeed thankful and hopeful that this is going to mark the beginning of identifying and nurturing creativity and talent among our pupils.

 Above all is our biggest question; WHAT POSSIBILITIES OF BULDING A SCHOOL HAVE WE ? This desire and need has kept taking much of our attention. We wish to invite all our wellwishers to seriously start thinking of how this dream can be realised. Our Government is undergoing serious challenges and as a result they tend to make decisions that don’t favour the poor. Building our own school, will protect us against such untimely threats because funds spent on rent can be channelled into benefiting children directly.

Using our Joy  Babycare model, we also  hope to open more similar  branches hence bring services near to the needy and creating better employment  for young single mothers.

We are also deriving a marketing strategy that is going to help us sell breathwork to a paying market hence generating  income for our activities.

Kindly consider inviting your friends and colleagues to commit to regular donations. This will free us from the pressure of sourcing for funds, hence focus our energy on delivering the best services we can.

Thank you very much for your love and support to us which we feel deeply.