LADIES IN ACTION AT WORK 2011 PART THREE
We have gone through the phase one- food distribution and phase two tree planting. Now we go the phase three medical camp.
We had a medical camp at Gilwatsi School on May 21st and treated almost 350 people. Second medical camp was held at Kisatiru School in Vihiga district. Here about 300 people received medical attention and medicines.
Dr. Beryl Mrs Nisha Haria at Pharmacy.
DR Francis.
Earlier when Marja and Monica were here we had a very successful Animal Camp
Cows; bulls; goats; dogs; cats; pigs; and many other were given vaccinations and were sprayed with teak prevention medicine.
The final project school building and library building.
Due to lack of funds and very high cost of construction we have not been able to build schools. But this did not stop us from building libraries. So far we have built four libraries in Vihiga district and one more to come at Rabour –Kano planes.
Children spend more time studying in libraries and the results of the schools improve in high standards.
Our new project of collecting plastics and making mattress is beginning to be quite a success! Below is a letter from the Kisumu Youth Football Association:
Hi Mr. and Mrs. Pabari -
Thank you again for initiating this mattress project! We at KYFA are so impressed with the simplicity yet innovation behind the idea. If we can get a few more teams on-board, this would be a really interesting story for the media to cover.
The Obunga Babes club is pretty excited that they have already finished their first mattress. Opiyo tells me that they are giving them to their players first, those who don’t have a mattress to sleep on. But they have already gotten requests from customers who are willing to pay 400 and up. I am going to circulate information to all of our clubs hoping that they will be motivated by the Obunga players.
Thank you again!
Trees, trees and more trees!
As most of you know, the Ladies in Action have various activities including:
1. Food Distribution
2. De-worming Programs
3. Tree Planting
4. Medical Camps
5. Animal camps
6. School Building
7. Library Building
The first part was related to the food distribution.
Now for the second part which has been one of the big programs has to be cut down due to a shortage of volunteers. Tobias Kadongo‘s retirement has made it impossible to carry on on a large scale. However, we still managed to de-worm about 7000 children last school term.
Our third phase is tree planting. Our aim is to plant thousands of trees.
The above are pictures of Kisumu Football association children planting 100 trees in Obunga .
The children have also agreed to collected all the plastic bags floating around and make mattresses. The material is donated by Klara Foundation and Ladies In Action.
Tree planting at KISATIRU Primary School
Children are briefed how to plant trees.
So far following schools have received trees:
- KISATIRU Primary School 155 trees
- Igunga Primary School 300 trees.
- Obunga 100 trees.
- Kisumu Remand Home 100
- Joseph, one of the Sue Dean’s orphans who is doing farming at his rural home 50
LADIES IN ACTION AT WORK 2011
The year has been a busy one. Most of our volunteers have returned to their home countries and Tobias Kadongo retired. Chotu and Nejla have been handling the work together. Chotu doing most of the field work alone or with help of donors.
We have slowed down on deworming due to lack of man power but during the last three months almost 7000 children have been de-wormed and six schools received 728 mugs and 7 large cooking pots (sufurias)
Food distribution has been very successful with various donors giving away generously.
In June, we had the daughter and son-in-law of Mr and Mrs. Morzeria who gave to 100 old people at Sarafina’s home.
Above: Bharti from India at Kit Mikay and Hiraben Primary School
Below: Lataben Shah and family members also at Kit Mikay and Hiraben Primary School
Mrs Hayer who is our regular donor has been most generous and donated more then ten items:
The Dhokia family also donated food and other items at Kombeya Chief’s camp while Saliesh Shah gave 525 packets of milk for school children in Rabour district. Mr Jayvantbhai who is also our regular donar gave away maize meal; salt; matches and cooking fat to 120 old people at Kombeya Chief’s camp.
Maize Meal for Arise and Shine Orphanage:
Thank you very much to all the continued support we receive to keep reaching out to so many need people.
LADIES IN ACTION has not been without ACTION during 2010
2010 has certainly been full of very exciting events for us and between having two new grandchildren born in the space of one month in two different parts of Kenya, we have as you can imagine between very preoccupied – but that’s not to say there hasn’t been any ACTION in 2010! Lots of news to report on so here are just a few snippets…
Medical Camps
We held quite a few medical camps including:
- Nyak Community on 15th May and 243 children and adults were treated.
- 3th March at Morning Star Nursery School and about 250 children and adults were treated. Here they also received 100 trees and 150 old ladies received food donation in form of maize meal.
- 24th July 2010 at the Renja Primary School and 390 children and adults received medical treatment and medicines. Thank you to Nishaben and Harleys for taking care of the medical camp and medicines,
A record total of 199 schools were visited and 29201 children were dewormed during this term of April to June 2010!
School Development
- Nyakongo Primary School received 30 chairs for the library. 15 chairs paid by Klara Foundation and 15 were bought by the school.
- Mercury primary school received 4 benches for the children to sit on, EMO received 5 benches and Forine received 4 benches.
- Sianda Primary School received mugs and sufurias for the feeding program
- Igunga Primary School highly benefited with construction of a library. They also received 18 benches ( would accommodate 54 children ) and 350 trees.
- Langi Primary School got their well completed , thanks to Sue Dean of Jesey. Langi also received 383 books for their library.
In addition, Ladies In Action received 42 bales of maize flour from Eldoret Grains Ltd which was distributed to Langi community, Igunga community and Sharifinas old ladies.
Environmental
- On 31st May we donated 300 trees to Renja Primary School.
- Tuesday 10 and Wednesday 11th August Tree planting at Nyakongo Primary School .and Langi Primary School Kindly donated by Raj Sembi, daughter of Manjit and Lily Sembi of Ndugu Transport Ltd, Kisumu
Nutrition
They also gave milk and bread to 300 children at Nyakongo and 300 children at Langi.
Raj Sembi also distributed milk and bread at the Remand Home
Wednesday 12th August Babu Pabari and Chotu Pabari distributed milk and bread to 300 children at the Hiraben Primary School , they also gave maize milk , bread and cooking fat to 80 old ladies at the school kindly donated by Suresh Pabari.
Wycliff’s last days
Our life with Wycliff began about one and half years ago when we found Wycliff on the streets of Kisumu. He approached me while my wife was shopping in the main street of Kisumu. He came and said to me, “Sir, I don’t want money, I don’t want food, I just want to go to school.” So we got him off the streets. He was given a roof under his head and three meals a day and we put him in school. Wycliff was always special – he had a look in his eyes of surety. He knew what he wanted and was going to get it. He performed very well at school and soon became everyone’s favorite He had taken our hearts.
Wycliff joined the group of boys that we have been looking after for several years. He became one of the extended family members. We admitted him to the Daisy Special School for Disabled with our other boys. He was in good hands. But not long after, the Headteacher called to tell us that Wycliff was very ill and had to be admitted to hospital. That is the time we found out about his real sickness. The doctor in Kakamega gave him some blood and he gained his weight. We decided to bring him to Kisumu where the doctors at Aga Khan Hospital informed us that his bone marrow was not functioning .
We wanted Wycliff to have as normal a life as possible so we put him at the Our Lady of Grace School where we have Mandela, Emily, Amy and Helen. Father Martin was always there to help Wycliff – take him to the hospital or doctor.
For the last ten months we have been bringing him in and out of hospital and constantly finding donors for blood. His last few weeks in the hospital were not very good and after giving him the last four units of blood at the Victoria Hospital the doctor discharged him. Realising that Wycliff was losing the battle to stay alive, we talked to his brother to discuss with the family so he could come home and spend his last few days with his grandmother.
He was fortunate to be with Father Martin at the time he passed away. We pray for his soul to rest in peace. We shall all miss him dearly.
I would like to thank the Headteacher and staff of Daisy Special School in Kakamega; Doctor Espira and his staff at the Nala Nursing Home where he was first diagnosed. Many thanks also to the headteacher and staff of Our Lady of Grace; the Management and staff of Consolata Hospital. Sr. Vincent and staff of St Vincent’s Hospital in Muhoroni. We are deeply grateful to all the blood donors – it is not possible for me to remember all the names, but special thanks to Dr. Darryn Knobel who helped find us so many donors. Our special thanks to Father Martin who was always there and helped him in every way. And of course we cannot forget Susan Deans.
I must not forget Dr. Kilimo who took special interest in Wycliffe’s sickness as well as Dr. Ongo’nga, Dr. Otieno and the nurses and staff of Victoria Hospital.
Our special thanks to the Aga Khan Hospital, Mr. Imran, Mr Isanya, the doctors and nurses of the Aga Khan Hospital. We are very grateful to the management of the hospital who waived the hospital charges whenever there was a transfusion required. They also waived off two nights room charges and the costs of doctors.
My thanks goes to Mr Tobias Kadongo who went with Wycliff to Kijabe Hospital for treatment to his leg. Tobias looked after him like he was own son.
I must not forget Lia and Hans from Holland who gave so much financial support. Hans is just about to complete 6000 km bicycle ride to raise money for Wycliff to offset some of the costs we have incurred during Wycliff’s sickness.
I would like to thank most of all my wife who was a mother to Wycliff. She made sure he had proper nourishing food and medication. She made sure Wycliff always had the basics like love and water. She would get up early in the mornings and prepare food for Wycliff and send it to the school.
I may have left out many names so please forgive me for that and accept our gratitude.
Wycliff, your life was short but you touched so many of us and reminded us what it means to be a human.
Langi Primary and Nursery School
Not long ago we identified a new school in Seme District near Holo Market that was desperate for help. It was completely run down and the children were lacking classrooms to sit in. The local community, have been very co-operative and helpful and gained the confidence of Ladies In Action.
Thus, Mrs. Shakuntla Shah and her sister came to the rescue and agreed to fund the entire construction. This was later changed and Mr. Sunil Shah, husband of Mrs. Shakuntla Shah funded the whole project which has costed over 5 million Kenya shillings.
Work in progress:
The school now has eight primary class rooms, two nursery classrooms, a library and administration block.
The community not only benefited with a brand new school but they also received assistance for the old ladies and orphans through medical camps and animal camps. In addition, the Women Groups received goats and day old chicks.
Thanks to Mrs. Shakuntla Shah and her husband Mr. Sunil Shah for funding this very large project.
The goodwill does not stop there. On top of all the support receive from Shakuntla and Suni Shah, a great friend and supporter of Ladies IN Action, Sue Dean of Jersey kindly offered to build a water well and the work has already started with over 30 ft dug so far. The school will soon have its own water.
Library for Nyakongo Primary completed – Thank you Ngombe Wire!
At last the library is complete and been handed over to the school authorities.
They are now adding shelves. We have donated almost 950 library books.
The school is now complete with 8 class rooms constructed by the Ladies In Action and financed by the Klara Foundation Holland.
The Nyakongo Primary School and Ladies In Action are very grateful to you to make this a successful event.
LADIES IN ACTION AND KLARA FOUNDATION SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER 2009 REPORT
Ladies In Action are back in the field at the opening of schools in mid September. A lot of areas have been covered and a number of new sites have been added. Tobias Kadongo and Chotu Pabari covered a number of schools by de worming .This was done until first week of October when Chotu and Nejla went on a holiday to Turkey for almost 2 months. Sue Dean from Jersey Islands was very kind to cover for both Chotu and Nejla.
Sue did a tremendous job as you will see from the list below.
- Total of 24714 pupils were de wormed and many were treated for wounds and ring worms.
- The following schools benefited with school benches; mugs for porridge and cooking pots (sufuria):
New Apostolic 5 benches
Salem 4 benches
Miracle Day Care 4 benches
Joy Day Care 5 benches
Joykeds. Received 40 mugs and one sufuria for feeding program.
Kids Star received 200 mugs and one sufuria for feeding program
St Pauls Nursery Nyalenda received 50 mugs and one sufuria for feeding program
Miracle Day Care received 50 mugs and one sufuria for feeding program
Faith Harvest received 45 mugs and one sufuria for feeding program
Joy Day Care received 70 mugs and one sufuria.
LAngi Primary received 10 tables
New Hope received 50 mugs and one sufuria.
Melchizedek received 40 mugs and one sufuria
St Vitalis received 120 mugs and one sufuria
All the above were taken care by Mrs. Sue Deans and our deep gratitude goes to her voluntary work. In addition to this Sue had to take care of Wycliffe and the other boys. Wycliffe had been readmitted at the Aga Khan Hospital and has received 4 units of additional blood. Our thanks goes to Shamir Badiani, Darryn Knobel, Natalie, Jennifer and Kathrin Battle for the units of blood they donated when Wycliffe was in need of fresh blood. At the time of admission at the hospital for second time his Hb was 2.4g/dl and after the transfusion it rose to 10.4g/dl
The final diagnosis is FANCONI ANAEMIA. The doctor feels that he may benefit from Haematopoietic Stem Cell transplantation. Right now he is in our care at our Milimani Compound. Jack and Mandela are with him as it is now school holiday time. The Hb dropped to 6.1 on 23 Dec but on 29 Dec in increased slightly to 7.4. This is a positive sign.
God willing he can go back to school in January 2010.
Talking about schools, we received an an excellent report of Jack. He go 4 A and 1 A- and ranks Number 54 in the Nyanza Province and 4th in his school. Jack has always been hard working and brought good results.
A boy named Wycliff
Like so many others who were never given a chance in life, Wycliff’s story is just another one of those poverty ridden lives that are overrun by the countless images and stereotypes of glue sniffing, dirt ridden street kids of Kenya. I hate what my country has done to the individual. I hate what poverty has done to all of us. The sound and sight of the child on the other side of the window screen is just as much a part of the decrepit social landscape as is the blaring chaos of insomniac matatu drivers and goats chewing away on plastic trash. And in order to see anything positive in the urban junkyard that our politicians have condemned millions of lives to, one has to look really hard; one has to rip off the layer of thick skin that clouds the eyes of the privileged; we have to shove aside the cliches that act as our protection against the reality of others.
And yes, it was just another regular day downtown Kisumu when we first met Wycliff. I will admit that had it not been for the obliged role of a fixer in search of another shot for the camera and another stereotype to fill a few seconds of film time, I would never have met him, at least not by name. He would have been just another street boy. But, that is what we were there to do. The Dutch filmcrew and myself were out to capture some additional content to put the documentary in context. This is Kenya and Obama is about to be the next President of the US. Of course it made complete sense to find some little street urchin, throw an Obama tshirt on him and ask him what he thinks Obama is going to do for his country.
There is no shortage of subjects when you are looking for a vagabond in Kisumu. Step out of the car and there they are. Carry a camera and there will be at least 20 kids high on glue and ready to share a laugh with you or get out of your way for a small fee. When Wycliff limped around all the bigger guys trying to get our attention, one of the crew spotted him instantly. The fact that this documentary actually had a practical and direct benefit to it through creating new markets for local products made it a lot easier on my conscience. The crew were clearly not here to edit the flies on the faces for a ten second guilt trip amongst the Dutch viewing audience. There was a purpose for this and that made it worthwhile. So grabbing the sensational street kid shot was not as much of burden as it usually was.
Wycliff had everything the camera was looking for. He was cute and confident and not bombed out of his head on glue. He had a terrible limp. He came straight up to us and immediately said, ‘I don’t want money or food. I need school books. Please.’ Perfect. I said I had a job for him and if he accepted to tell us on camera what he thought about Obama, then we would take him straight to the bookstore and he could choose all the books he needed. Deal? Deal.
“When Obama become’s president he will help all of us street children. He will take us away from here and give us food and good schools…”
“What happened to your leg?” asked one of the film crew
“The police were chasing me one evening and I was running across the road and I was hit by a tuktuk…”
Ten minutes later we were in the bookstore and Wycliff patiently wondered around and confidently asked the store keeper for a list he knew off by heart and no more. We paid, shook hands and drove away. It was a wrap and we had evening sundowners to concentrate on.
The following day, we went to visit my folks and told them about our encounter with little Wycliff. Dad reacted as soon as I described his limp and his approach. “I know him” said my father, “he approached us very politely a while ago and asked us for school books. When I told your Mom about him, she said we should try and get him off the streets but we could not find him after that.”
Could it be true? Could one of these blots in the landscape actually have a character, an identity, be a person? For my folks, yes but sadly until today, not for me. Years of charity had rekindled my parents sense of being – it comes with a cost though and it had taken its toll on my mother a while ago. For me and I believe for most of us, the most that little boy on the street ever is, is a moment of frustration or pity. Then its over and we get on with our Nakumatt shopping.
That was about two years ago. Life went on for us in the way we know it and like it. For Wycliff, the last two years were the first two years of his life. My folks found him, found out his story, gave him a good wash and he began to live. He had a roof under his head and three meals a day. He went to school and his leg was reset so he could run around and play football like any other 10 year old boy deserves to. He was given what every child deserves: a right to live and a right to have an identity of his own. Wycliff was always special – he had a
look in his eyes of assurity. He knows what he wants and was going to get it. He performs well at school and despite having spent most of his life on the streets of Kisumu, he shed off the hardships and embraced his innate sense of respect and love that still breathed deeply in him. He soon became everyone’s favorite and grabbed Lia’s heart immediately. Lia has been coming back to Kenya regularly to assist the little charity my folks run and when she met him, she insisted on being the one to financially support him. His leg needed a
lot of work resetting as of course he had to live with a broken leg for the god knows how long that had deformed over time.
Wycliff joined the group of boys that Ladies in Action have been looking after for several years. He became one of the extended family members that my folks have adopted along the way and he thrived in his newly deserved environment. I don’t know much about how he has spent his time on a day to day basis as I have had this terrible ability to close out any emotional entanglement with the gutters of our society. In fact, I will be honest enough to confess that despite his new life starting through a coincidental meeting with myself and five others, I rarely asked about his well being. I knew he was in good hands and that was enough for me. I am no different to most of us. Hard skinned and wired to have a short enough memory that will allow myself to enjoy a cappuccino without an inch of remorse while looking at the fleabags sliding their dirty bums and glue plastered lips across the 4wd drive cars parked across from me. Life goes on…
Until Su called a week ago: “Wycliff is very ill and we have had to admit him in hospital…” Like Lia and my folks, Su is one of those exceptional characters that has chosen to devote a part of her life to doing something for the less fortunate of Kisumu. These are characters that are not paid do-gooders. They just do. A few days later, I received an email from Su, copied to my folks who are on holiday in Turkey:
On 11/21/09 8:36 PM, “Susan Deans” wrote:
“Dear Friends,
Sorry to give you such a poor start to the day, but things were bad. My hope this morning was you may get back in time to see Wycliff. However to quote”what a difference a day brings”, he has had one unit of blood, which he should have been given five days ago. He immediately has perked up and the new blood cells are kicking in against the infection, his temperature is down and Grandma Salome with Frederick have been brought by Father Martin’s diver Lucas and they chatted all afternoon.
Father Martin was concerned the family may have wanted him at home, but as he had perked up dramatically, he did not appear like a dying child and in the end this was not an issue. However he is a sick lad, Dr Shiroya is his, taking over from Dr Amolo who we could never pin down. The prognosis is not good, but with regular transfusions and steroids he may carry on for some time. The ultimate cure would be a bone marrow transplant. Not available here I understand.
The diagnosis is leukopenia hypoplasia He also has gardia which has caused the diarrhea. He will be given two more units of blood and all being well will return to Our Lady of Grace when that is completed. Talking to Daktari Tina, our compound pediatrician, l she tells me that cases she has known have the transfusions and do well for a while then they become more frequent to maintain the blood picture. His hemoglobin must be up today as he is a changed boy.
Love Sue”
Does the story end there? It were if it were just a story but I would like to think this flow of disjointed ramble as having a bit more of a purpose, much like the documentary that brought Wycliff to my parents lives.
He needs helps. He needs a bone marrow transplant and Kenya does not do bone marrow transplants yet. He is surviving on blood transfusions but we don’t know how long for. We are willing to do what we can financially do get him out of the country and give him a chance at life but we can’t do it on our own. So yes, I am writing for help. Can you help Wycliff?
If you would like to help in any way, please email: pabari@vicweb.net
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