Volunteer Work at the Light Orphanage Centre

This is a special post about the Light Orphanage Centre, locate in the middle of the Kware slum, in Nairobi city, Kenya. My sister and I have been working in this children's home as volunteers for the past three weeks. Our work includes teaching the children, making a profile for each border and non-border attending the Light School, as well as devepoling a blog for the orphanage.

Children at the Light Orphanage Centre

The children and teenagers were very excited to have their first "mzungu" teachers in the orphanage. For some of them, this was the first time they had seen and interact with white people (mzungu). 

Clau with Class 7 students

Classrooms

The conditions in which the children are living in this orphanage are appalling. They have very little food to eat and it’s not very nutritious. But the worse thing is the lack of beds. Currently, there are between 3 to 4 children sharing the same bed (a single bed!). The mattresses are of the worst quality, very old and smelly and full of bed bugs. Some children are sleeping on mattresses on the floor.

Boys dormitory

I am writing to you as I would like to ask your help to buy some bunk beds, new mattress, bed sheets and blankets for these orphans. If a thousand dollars is raised, it will be possible to buy 3 bunk beds + mattresses + bed sheets + blankets for them. If more money is raised, more will be bought.

For those of you who would like to help, below are my banking account details, where you can make a deposit of any amount you like. I will take photos of the beds, mattresses and linen bought with the money raised. I will take photocopies of all the receipts and email them to everyone who wants to help these orphans. By the way the kids are just lovely, including Charles, the orphanage's founder, who takes care of all of them.

ANZ Bank

ACC Name: Claudiene Duarte

BSB: 014650

ACC Number: 504825719

Alternatively, donators can make a bank deposit directly into the orphanage's bank account. Details as below:

Equity Bank

Account Name: Light Orphanage Centre

Account Number: 0610 296 227 569
Swift Code / BIC: EQBLKENA

To see more photos and read more about this orphanage please go to 

 www.lightorphanagecentre.blogspot.com

Thank you in advance for any help given to these orphans! As the children always say to us for every little thing we give to them 'God bless you'!

Dowry Celebration in Kenya

The dowry celebration in Kenya is a very traditional ritual. This ceremony is about cherishing the relationships between the husband and the wife’s families, especially the bride’s parents. The gifts of food and money are offered to the bride’s parents, where the celebration takes place. My sister Dine and I were invited by our host-mother Margaret to go up country, in her home town, to attend her brother’s dowry celebration. The interesting fact here is that her brother has been married to his wife for 16 years, but in Kenya the dowry to a wife’s parents can last a lifetime.

  

The Bride with Dine (on left) and I (on right)

The day before we left, I asked Margaret if she had notified her brother that Dine and I were coming to the party. Smiling to me, she replied that in Kenya they don’t count the number of people attending a dowry celebration, they just cook a feast. And a feast it was! We were amazed to see the amount of food being offered to the guests and also the amount of food put on our plates (enough to feed 2 to 3 people). I was starving, as we left home around 7am and started eating only around 3pm. After eating though, I felt so sick with the quantity of food I had eaten. J It was crazy!

Hosts serving the guests

The traditional Kenyan food for a dowry celebration includes black beans (the expensive type cooked only on special celebrations), ‘mukimo’ (mash potato mixed with corn and greens), ‘kachumbari’ (tomato salad with onions and green chilly, which I though was green capsicum and had the time of my life chocking and nearly screaming for water!), potato stew (why not more potato!), stewed cabbage mixed with carrot. All accompanied by plenty of chapatti bread. Most Kenyans will eat their food with a spoon. They rarely eat with fork and knife. In fact, the prefered way of eating is with their hands.

Traditional Kenyan food

The above food was for entrée. A moment later came the main course: boiled & roasted goat, which was slaughtered the day before the party, as the tradition demands. Dine and I skipped the main course, which made the guests sitting next us feel very confused. We tried to explain to them that we are vegetarian, but they could not get it why we had refuse the most expensive and most delicious food in the party. Below are Peter and Hanna being appreciated by their families and guests.

Bride & Groom being served goat

The party was very nice and interesting, but one thing that makes me feel uncomfortable  about the Kenyan culture is the men letting the women carry all the heavy load. Below the women are carrying the food and drinks to the party. It is just so different from the Western culture, where the men carry all the heavy weight for the women. Although, I have to say that the Kenyan women seem to be happy to carry out their duties. They were singing beautiful traditional songs as they went up and down the hill to get to the house. They are real warriors! It's just a shame I couldn’t understand what they were saying, as they were singing in their mother tongue.

Women carrying the heavy load to the party

The Bride and the Groom had special seats next to the honored guests at the ‘High Table’ as the Kenyans call it. The honored guests are usually the parents of the bride and the groom and other close relatives. They were the first to be served with the goat.

Guests of Honor

The guests included their extended families, friends, neighbors as well as the International visitors (Dine and I). Once everyone got enough food in their bellies, it was time for the speeches. Dine and I were called to the front to introduce ourselves to all the guests and to take a photo with the bride and the groom. We were a bit shy but happy to do it and to be party of such a traditional ceremony.

The Guests

However, the biggest attraction of the party was the beautiful baby darling Zora. She is one of the sweetest babies I have ever met in my life. We were melting all over her. She also couldn't leave our side and was fighting her sleep all day long.

Beautiful baby darling Zora

Elephant and Rhino Orphanage

The Elephant and Rhino Orphanage does a wonderful work taking care of baby elephants and rhinos ranging between 1 month and 2 years old. Most of these beautiful animals were rescued by the orphanage staff after losing their parents in the wild. Some of them were in very bad shape or nearly dead when they were found. However, after a few months of tender, care and love from their fulltime keepers (carers), most of them looked happy and full of life again. Once they are fully rehabilitated, around the age of 2.5 years old, they are released back into the wild.

This orphan’s project was founded in 1977, in memory of the late David Sheldrick, from Britain. David Sheldrick initiated the work with elephants and now his daughter Daphne Shledrick is following his footsteps.

It’s possible for visitors to foster an orphan elephant. If you ever come to Kenya, you can go and visit your adopted elephant. I can assure you it’s a great experience when you touch one of those gigantic mammals! To learn more visit www.sheldricklifetrust.org

One month old baby elephant

Big celebrity!

The keepers put sunscreen on the elephants’ ears to protect them from getting sunburnt. They and cover their backs with blankets to keep them warm, since they no longer have the warmth of their mothers' skin.

Being spoiled

Two years old enjoying his milk bottle

Herd refreshing themselves with their huge tromps

Having a rest!

Being a bloody tourist

Orphan Rhinos

This rhino was born blind and was abandoned by his mother. Unfortunately, this one will never be released into the wild. In saying that, he has a very good life in the orphanage being loved by his keepers and a HUGE attraction for the tourists. We also had a chance to touch the rhinos.

Endangered Black Rhino



Colossal "Number 2", we had to run! :-O



Giraffe Centre

The Giraffe Centre was founded in 1979 by the late Jock Leslie-Melvile, a Kenyan citizen of British descent. This centre rescues and takes care of the endangered Rothschild giraffe. It also educates its citizens and international visitors about Kenyan’s wildlife.

Giraffe Canteen

The greatest attraction in this centre is to feed these gentle animals. They have a very good life there getting fed all day long by the visitors.

Feeding time

When they have a belly full of food, their keepers have to bribe them to come near the feeding house, so that the visitors can feed them one more time.

Keeper bribing a 10 months old giraffe

The giraffes usually live up to 15 years in the wild and in captivity between 20 to 25 years. There are three kinds of giraffes in Kenya: the reticulated giraffe, which has dot spots up to their feet and three horns; the Maasai giraffe, which has smaller and darker dot spots as well as three horns; and the endangered Rothschild giraffe, which has dot spots up to their knees and fives horns the male and three the female.

In the past, the locals used to kill them to make bracelets with their tail and other ornaments with their skin. It’s now illegal to hunt the giraffes or any other animal in the wild. Nowadays, the only ones allowed to kill them are the lions. Lions can only kill giraffes if they are sitting down, as they take too long to get up to their feet becoming an easy prey. However, if a lion tries to attack a giraffe when they are up, a kick of this animal is so powerful that they can kill their predator.

You can also see warthogs in this centre, which is a kind of wild pig. They live peacefully along with the giraffes. The warthog became well-known in the movie ‘The Lion King’, where they named him ‘pumba’. These animals are the ones with the shortest memory in the wild. If they get hunted by a predator and are lucky to escape, they will soon forget about their killer and become an easy prey to catch again.

Warthog - Pumba

Volunteer Work in Kenya

My sister and I came to Kenya to work as volunteers in orphanages. Our second day in Nairobi, we attended an orientation day in a college near the Network for Voluntary Services (NVS) premises. We found this organization to be very professional and organized, compared to the previous one we worked as volunteers in Cape Town (Dreams to Reality). We also found the staff to be very caring and friendly.

There were 38 volunteers, from all over the world, attending this orientation. We heard from another volunteer, that on the previous group there were about 74 volunteers. Kenya is a very one of the first places, in the African Continent, chosen by people to volunteer. Not sure the reason, but I guess it might be word of mouth.


Orientation Day

Here the NVS staff divided the volunteers into groups and took them outdoors to explaing to each group about their volunteer placement.

Learning about our Volunteer Placement

Overcomers Centre for Orphans

We have been working as volunteer in an orphanage called Overcomers Centre for Orphans, which is ran by Pastor Simon and his wife Eunice. There are 22 orphans, who live permanently in this orphanage, ranging between 4 and 15 years of age.

During school terms, there are about 80 extra children, who come from a slum just behind the orphanage, to attend school and get some breakfast and lunch there. The houses in the slums are mostly made of clay with metal sheet roofs. 

Bagladesh Slum, in Rongai

There are about 4 regular teachers, who work in this orphanage earning a small allowance at the end of each month. Due to the little money the teachers receive, not many of them stay for a very long time at Overcomers, so the volunteers play a big role in the orphanage teaching the children. Teachers and volunteers some times teach 2 different grades in the same class as there aren’t enough classes in the orphanage.

Crossword class

Brazil History class

I have also been teaching the children to exercise regularly. I've included a bit of boxing at the end of each exercise class, which they love!!! We exercise on a very tough floor but the kids never complain, to the contrary, they are always smiling and asking me for more. The harder I push them, the more they enjoy it.  J

Exercise class

Apart from teaching, we also play a lot with the children. My sister and I taught them many games from our childhood in Brazil that didn’t require a lot of fancy toys, apart from chairs and balls. During the month of August, it’s school holiday in Kenya, so we have been interacting only with the orphans at Overcomes. At the beginning of September, we’ll meet all the other 80 children coming from the slum.

Skipping Rope

Chair Song Game

Brazilian Game - 'Queimada'

The children don’t have much in this orphanage, so they have to be very creative. Every thing they find around is turned into a toy.

Joana playing with a 'tyre hula-hoop'

One of the favourite toys we could get the children was a soccer ball. Similarly to Brazil, here in Kenya they love to play football. Brazilian football players are very popular here in Kenya and most children and teenagers in the orphanage, can proudly name most of them. J

Soccer Match

The children at Overcomes are very disciplined. On our arrival in the mornings, they are always working - some are doing the dishes in the kitchen, others washing their clothes or mopping the floor and the oldest ones cooking porridge for everyone.

Kids doing the dishes

Beds are made every day!

One thing that all of them enjoying doing, be them children or teenagers, is to play with our hairs. One day, I had five girls making plates on my hair, so I would come close to look like a Kenyan woman. After the girls got tired and left, I spotted all the boys staring at me. Sure enough, when I invited them to plate with my hair they had the biggest smiles on their faces and within seconds were all over my head. J

Kids plaiting my hair

By the time Dine and I leave the orphanage we are feeling quite tired from all the energy we spend with kids. Sometimes we manage to have a quick nap before dinner to recharge our batteries. I also feel lethargic sometimes when the sun is too hot. . It was a good decision to come to Kenya during winter rather than summer. Sometimes I just feel like sitting and relaxing with the children (when they allow us a break!).

Precious little Denis, Frederick and I