Help me raise some funds for Action for Children in Conflict in Kenya! In return for your generosity, I will give 5 donors chosen at random a 12″ x 18″ print of any image from my archive. When you make your donation, please make sure you leave a comment here as well so I can get in touch.
AfCiC have asked me to help raise £500 to refurbish the Wathome family home. And help give Wilson the opportunity to be a child once again. Towards this aim, I am asking for your money! If you would like to make a donation please go to my Just Giving page – Just Giving is trusted and secure, and all donations go directly to AfCiC. Please don’t forget to add Gift Aid to increase the size of your donation!
Earlier this year I spent some time in Thika, Kenya, working with a charity called Action for Children in Conflict. AfCiC does a huge amount of work to help the street boys in the area and has a remarkable success rate – the vast majority of boys that are helped by the charity stay off the streets, and are back in school or in projects designed to give them a start in a career. I was lucky enough to meet many of the former street boys at the Interim Care Centre run by AfCiC. They are dressed in scruffy clothes and the centre is run down and often chaotic – but it has a very obvious feeling of being ‘right’. The boys at the centre are playing, running, reading and arguing – basically being children – rather than struggling to survive the streets of Thika in a haze of glue fumes.
Whilst I was in Thika, I made the decision to help in some way. Like many charities today, AfCiC struggles to secure enough funding to do everything that they would like to and in particular, finds it difficult to secure sponsorship for some of the older boys once they are off the street and ready for school once again. One such former street boy, whom I met several times, is Wilson. AfCiC are currently looking for funds to help Wilson and his family:
Wilson is 15 years old. He is a kind hearted and incredibly caring boy however he has had a very troubled past, and sadly his childhood has been taken away from him – for the past few years he has had to take the role of the father figure in his family.
When Wilson was 12 years old, he suffered the trauma of watching his brother dying in his arms. Wilson’s brother suffered from a fit and despite Wilson’s best efforts in getting him to the hospital, he passed away later that day. Wilson however had been sent back to school that same morning and the death of his brother was never fully explained to him – all Wilson understood is that his brother was no longer at home. Wilson’s father suffered from depression following the incident and his mother left the family home as a result. Wilson was therefore left to provide his remaining siblings with emotional support, as well as finding food and other necessities to survive.
Wilson became involved with AfCiC having spent time on the streets in Makongeni. He would look for food and money, and also use the streets as a place to escape from the problems at home. AfCiC started supporting Wilson and his family with emergency food packages and provided counseling and emotional support to Wilson. He attended a local primary school near his home, but unfortunately, given the amount of education that he had missed throughout his childhood and the emotional trauma that he had suffered, Wilson was very behind in his education. For the past few years Wilson has been struggling at school, and whilst the school and teachers have been supportive of his situation, it has become clear that the only way that Wilson will catch up with his missed education is if he is given the opportunity to go to a school with the capacity to offer him the one to one attention that he needs and where he can be himself without fear of bullying or criticism.
A school has been found for Wilson, however he is finding it very difficult to separate himself from the father figure role that he has undertaken for so many years. Wilson worries daily about the home environment in which not only do they often sleep hungry, but where the living conditions are far below the normal standard of living. Wilson, his younger brother, and his younger sister will ordinarily all share one bed, and when it rains it is not uncommon for the water to pour through the ceiling, soaking them and all their belongings. In the Kenyan winter, which can reach very cold temperatures, this is far from ideal and can only add to the family problems and stress. Not only are the conditions at home very poor, but Wilson’s father has not been able to take responsibility for his children and so normal chores such as cleaning and laundry have been neglected, meaning that the children are often unwashed and left to wear dirty clothes to school. Wilson’s father has been receiving counseling over the past few months and he has made dramatic improvements. Wilson was also able to persuade his mother to return to the family home as this is something that he knew his father wanted but was unable to sort out himself.
It is so important to us that Wilson is able to return to school and focus on his studies. He has missed out on so much throughout his childhood, and without a decent primary education behind him we worry that he will not be able to secure his future. If Wilson was able to return to school, safe in the knowledge that his family were being looked after and that their basic needs were being provided for, we feel it would really help him in moving on and settling at his new school. AfCiC is now determined to resolve the issues at home and improve the standard of living not only for Wilson, but for his whole family. We plan on doing so by securing the structure within which they live, making sure that it is able to withstand the winter weather and the rains. We also wish to make the home slightly bigger so that the siblings no longer have to share beds as we understand that this is not healthy in any home environment. We will continue to provide food packages so that Wilson knows his family is able to eat each and every day, and Wilson will continue to make regular visits to his family to monitor the progress so that he can remain focused at school.
Having met Wilson, I know he is worth helping.
Related posts:
Tel: +62 82145959068
