Matheri's Neediest Children

Not for the Faint Hearted

One of the volunteers told us about this orphanage in the middle of the Matheri Slum, she had said it was really bad but I was in no way prepared for the emotional roller coaster that I went through today. We all decided to pitch in 1000ksh and buy as many loaves of bread as we could as well as some basic meal ingredients such as maize flour so that they could use it to make ugali.

This orphanage is not run by the Thomas Barnardo place that I am with, so we were doing this ourselves. When we first arrived I was greeted by the owner/mother/woman that looked after the 240 children. She gave me the most heartfelt hug I have ever had, and she was an absolute stranger.

She knew that we had come with some supplies. This woman does not like to see children on the streets so she takes them into her "orphanage" and tries her best to provide for them, she sells milk from her cows and begs in order to get by and buy the smallest amount of food for the children. I don't think they have regular meals, 1 small meal a day if they are lucky.

When the children saw us, they were all sitting in a dark room and then they all came to see us as they could tell we had food for them. We then started handing the loaves of bread out in halves. The kids got half a loaf each. I have never been so shocked in my life. I watched as they grabbed the bread out of my hands and ate it as if they have not eaten in days and days. It was so upsetting. I tried not to get emotional in front of the kids as they obviously don't know any different, but some of the other volunteers found it too much too. I had to leave the room as I couldn't bear to watch for much longer. I saw two of the children sussing out the volunteers and realising that he could get more than everyone else, so he did and he was hiding bread up his T-shirt. It was very obvious as he was so skinny but it just shows that he is aware that he might not be eating again for a while, so it is really everyone for themselves. I sat with some of the younger ones as they shared out their bread and on wee boy kept trying to offer some of his bread to me, but I was giving it straight back to him.

We then got a "tour" round the orphanage from the mother woman and she showed us where they all sleep. There is a boy’s bedroom with about 8 bunk beds, and she said that 70 children sleep there. In the girls room there are 42 kids! And in the mother's room there are about 60 between 3-4 beds and she sleeps with many in her bed.

 

In this picture the kids look so happy and I can’t really imagine what they have to smile about. There were flies all over them and they didn't even move. It felt like watching something that you would see on the TV, but it was real life.