“May I never be too busy in my own affairs that I fail to respond to the needs of others with kindness and compassion”, these kind words spoken by the third President of America Thomas Jefferson will continue lingering throughout history and echoe in most of the peoples’ minds forever.
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| One of the street boys at Grandsons filling a newspaper crossword |
At Grandsons of Abraham Rescue Centre Mikindani I am preparing to have a counseling session with the newly admitted street children. As usual when I entered the class I wrote the date at the board, 27th April 2010. The day before Daniel had agreed to be the first to share his story. ‘I have been in the street since I was a child. Life there is very tough Mwalimu and sometimes I hate myself, my parents and all the people’, said a bitter Daniel.
‘I don’t have a place to call home thank you to Grandsons for giving me shelter, I don’t have people to call family am nobody just like a tree without roots can never survive’, he furrowed his brows and I could see tears at a distance in his eyes.
‘I feel so sorry for you Daniel, I feel what you are going through however, better spilled water than a broken pot, speak all that is hurting you am here to listen and help you’, I empathized with him quoting Achebes’ literature.
He took a deep breath out as someone who has offloaded a heavy load. All of the boys were silent and listening attentively. An eerie cloud of sadness had started shrouding the entire classroom. The weather outside was calm and cloudy. I could hear birds outside making joyful jingles may be to the creator.
“I wish people would take note of the street children and stop abusing them. I didn’t choose to live at the street it is because I had no option. I had to beg for people to give me food, I stayed for months without taking bath, I slept on the floor outside the street shops. There are so many tribulation Mwalimu street children go through’, said a bitter Daniel.
Erick a young boy of around twelve years I guess was abandoned by her single parent mysteriously.
‘We used to live in the streets of Nairobi. One day on our mission to look for food around Nairobi railway, my mother sneaked me in the train and said to me she was going for a call of nature’, explained an innocent Erick.
‘Having gotten friends in the train and started playing together it never occurred to me that my mother had abandoned me’, sadly explained Erick.
‘It is almost five years now since my mother left me, sometimes I think maybe she was not my mother, for how can a mother do such a thing to her child’, an upset Erick cut short the story and paused.
I didn’t realize Faustine the house parent was standing at the door listening to the boys until one of the boy welcomed him inside.
‘Mwalimu has been conducting street work, he has a lot to share in his experiences as a professional child care’, said the boy in good English.
‘Thank you Hamisi for welcoming me, there are many unfortunate incidents which cause these children to end up In the streets’, said Mr. Faustine. ‘Most of the cases I have experienced are being abused by their people or abandoned. Poverty of highest magnitude, death of parents and conflicts at home among other reasons’, explained a humble Faustine.
‘Once on the street the children are exposed to risk behavior like crime, violence and drugs, they resort to robbery and begging in order to survive and become addicted to inhaling glue and other toxic substances that destroy their brain hence memory lapse’, said Mwalimu Faustine.
Lost in thoughts I was pondering what these children do when they are attacked by sickness, when I was back to the real world and asked Mwalimu Faustine, he pitied the children saying the society had neglected and deprived them of medical care, education, and proper nutrition.
‘They suffer and endure pain from easily treatable diseases such as skin parasites, head lice, asthma, tuberculosis, bilharzia among others’.
The rain had started pouring heavily now disrupting our session that we could not communicate to each other, the wall clock read a few minutes to lunch time, that moment Matata one of the boys who was the Chef cook on duty came and said food was ready; the children who are used to collect food from dumping sites hurriedly left happily to enjoy the meal of green vegetable and rice donated by well wishers.
Volunteering your time, skills and knowledge to work with vulnerable groups like street children requires a special disposition that not everybody can claim to have however, it is the most rewarding thing a person can ever do to make a difference to people living in adversity.
In her most famous quotes Mother Teresa noted that not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love.
