Kofup Meets Need

Olga is 15yrs old. She is sitting on a battered wooden chair in the tiny home she shares with her sisters Pauline 14, and Josephine 13, and her 6 month old baby Velma. Josephine has been sent home from school early feeling ill with malaria. Both parents are dead from AIDS. Before their mother’s death last year neighbours helped by bringing her medicine, then in payment they took all the land the family owned, though its value was far higher than any costs they had incurred.

The girls sometimes work for one of the local coffee farmers helping him harvest his beans, for which they receive 40 Kenya shillings a day – around 30p. They have no other way of supporting themselves, and without land they cannot grow food. The local man who took advantage of Olga and got her pregnant at the tender age of fourteen when she was highly vulnerable is nowhere to be seen.

This little family would be in danger of starvation now if it weren’t for the ‘Badilika Project Orphans Support Club’ funded by KOFUP which has provided the girls with regular supplies of food and medicine and bought school uniform, books and pencils for the two younger girls to go to school. Using KOFUP funds the project is now helping Olga to start up an income generating activity (IGA),setting up a shop in her home selling basic everyday items, which could make her a small profit and help this vulnerable family start to become self-sufficient. Setting up an IGA can be done for as little as £20.

Olga and her sisters will need support for some time to come.Through the dedication of the volunteers at the project and with KOFUP resources the girls are being given some hope for the future.

KOFUP Encourages Play

The Luanda Street Children’s Project, set up in 2002 by Mill Hill Missionary Sisters, provides a place of safety for the many children living on the streets in this small rural community.

Life on the streets is degrading and dangerous and these vulnerable youngsters often turn to glue-sniffing to ease their hunger and fear. At the project they get a decent hot meal at lunchtime and lessons at the informal school.  The sisters negotiate with the children’s families to take them back into the home whenever possible. They also contact local schools with a view to getting the children into the formal education system and provide them with school uniform and books.

On the day we visited there were about twenty boys there –(girls rarely end up on the streets). After their lessons we played cards and other games. Then some of the boys danced for us to the accompaniment of rhythmic drumbeats adorned in homemade grass skirts! Finally they enjoyed an hour long game of football played with the kind of enthusiasm you might see anywhere. It was a real joy to see these kids having fun, the chance to enjoy their childhood.

This small project has made a significant difference to the lives of over 60 children in the past three years and it continues to grow. The sisters are now looking for land where they can build a shelter to house the children temporarily so that none of them have to return to the streets at night.

Kofup Fosters Independence

The Ujuang’a Orphans Support Project was one of the first projects KOFUP committed to back in 2001. Set up by an indigenous Kenyan church, at first the church leaders struggled to know how to care for the many orphaned children in their midst. Yet as time has gone on this project has gone from strength to strength. It now supports 170 children (though there are several hundred more who need help) with regular supplies of food.

A dedicated health worker looks after their health needs. It also provides them with school uniform and equipment, and has been able to pay secondary school fees for several of the older children. During our last visit in 2004 we discussed their need to become more self-sufficient (KOFUP has to date been their sole source of funding).

We were absolutely delighted then on this visit to see the income-generating activities that have taken off in the past year. Land has been planted with millet and other vegetables both for sale in the market and distribution to the orphans and their families. The women are getting together to make mats and clay pots to sell using local materials; and the ‘goat initiative’ has provided twenty orphans with a goat each to look after. When the goat gives birth the new baby is given to another orphan, thereby fostering a sense of caring and responsibility in the community. The self-confidence all these activities has given the people involved, adults and children alike, was clearly evident.