New Life Nyambene is committed to creating a better future for some of the most disadvantaged and stigmatised children in Africa. Our mission is to rescue and rehabilitate abandoned street children in Kenya and to give them the educational opportunities that are their best chance of escaping destitution.
Even our team, accustomed to the ravages of extreme poverty, were moved to tears by the plight of children they have visited over this past month. Despite only having space and funds for four, we could not leave any of these behind.
This little boy didn’t even have a name, just the nickname he was known by in the village. With an approximate age of 7, he is the size of a three-year-old because of starvation and neglect. Even his language is stunted because he is so rarely spoken to.
We have named him David, because it means ‘beloved’.
Immanuel is between 7-9 years old. He has a smile that covers the darkness that surrounds him. His fingers and toes are infested with jiggers (insects that burrow under your nails) . His case was brought to our attention after his youngest uncle – of similar age – died of starvation a week earlier. Immanuel was lying beside the boy when he died. He ran 10 kilometers from their home to tell the only neighbour who shows concern for them.
Edna 8, Jedidah 10 and Geraldine 13 are sisters who have become virtually feral from neglect since their mother died. Their lives are in danger because there is only one bed in their hut which they share with their alcoholic father, who is violent and mostly absent. They do not even have a pit latrine, but relieve themselves either at a neighbour’s or wherever. They eat when they make enough money picking tea on a local plantation to buy food. Their schooling therefore is negligable.
Douglas was born in 2016. His is the worst case of malnutrition that the team has seen: he has the swollen belly and enlarged head of starvation and he cannot stand straight. His hands and feet are full of jiggers, but he is pictured here at school because he is so determined to get an education that he had attended despite feeling very ill on the day we visited. His mother is alive, but mentally unstable and her whereabouts are not always known.
Just Look now!
There are no words to express our gratitude to you, our donors and supporters for enabling us to save these lives. Nothing works without you. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
David Muriuki loves his new name!
Immanuel’s warm heart and generous spirit are rewarded by joy and a contentedly full stomach.
And the girls are safe now.
Notice Douglas’s gloves, which he is wearing to protect his hands while the medication is taking effect to remove the jiggers.
These are the six we have taken in. They now live with us. The respect our work has earned in the area, and the trust community elders now feel in our ability to support and save such children, mean that there have been other visits and conversations dealing with complex family and community issues around five other desperately needy children – one as young as 22 months at the time of writing.
Here they are. In each case, we are working with tribal chiefs and schools to ensure that they are fed, clothed and educated from within the families they belong to. They will be visited regularly, their progress monitored and they will be considered part of our wider family.
L to R: Immanuel, David, Douglas
Thanks to you, we are building new ‘family’ relationships with loving and safe adults providing care for body, soul and mind. You are changing the world, child by child.
