Orphanage giving hope to kids affected by polls cruelty
About nine years since the 2007/2008 post elections violence that left many children orphaned and homeless, one woman philanthropic effort in assisting the orphaned and vulnerable children in Likuyani sub county is yielding fruits.
Those who would have never stepped in classroom as a result of lack of fees and parental care are now effectively acquiring the otherwise would have been elusive knowledge through her struggles.
Before the election violence that almost threw our country to the dogs, Mrs. Haeyza Night Mutabes, a mother of two sons and one daughter, was leading a relatively quiet life characteristic of any other ordinary primary school teacher in a rural setting.
However, little did it cross her mind the orgy of destruction associated with the infamous period, in which hundreds of Kenyans lost lives, millions of others lost loved ones and property worth millions of shillings was reduced to ashes, would eventually herald a major
turning point to her life.
“I was walking through Matunda market during the post-election violence period when I bumped into three miserable and helpless looking kids,” recalls Mutabes during the interview at her St. Miriam Children’s Home.
“And without a single thought I picked the two girls and one boy and walked them in my house where I started staying with them,” she adds.
According to Mutabes, the children shared with her emotional and ghastly narratives about their families’ fateful moments in hands of post-election violence goons.
“They were extremely traumatized as recounted how the goons, armed with crude weapons, slashed their parents, siblings and relatives to death, destroyed and looted household property before torching houses in front of their very naked eyes,” describes Mutabes who teaches at Matunda Primary School, Likuyani Sub County of Kakamega County.
The painful narratives closed her immediate agenda, which was mainly to help kids trace their parents and relatives.
As Mutabes puts it, the three orphans, Beatrice Mwajuma, Irene Nanjala and Mark Barasa, would unexpectedly become the brainchild behind her present twin centres, St. Miriam Children’s Home and St. Miriam Orphanage Primary School.
“Initially, I used to leave them at my house. However, a few days after I started becoming psychologically disturbed,” observes Mutabes.
The thought of imparting knowledge to children from relatively able backgrounds while doing nothing to the three orphans inside her house was mentally bogging her down.
It was then Mutabes decided to take step by enrolling her ‘adopted’ children to a nearby public school.
Nevertheless, the move did not last long because according to Mutabes the school, where she enrolled the children, consistently kept the kids on road over fees, despite her pleas.
“I kept pleading with the head teacher, trying to make him understand these orphaned products of the post-election violence needed charitable assistance from the community, but it all fell on deaf ears,” she noted.
Instead the head teacher (whose name is withheld) remained adamant and demanded the madam to pay all fees for the orphans.
“When you took them out of the street it must have occurred to you that you were going to manage their needs. Therefore, you must pay money for their desks, watchmen and other requirements,” the head teacher told her.
The inhuman encounter with the head teacher made Mutabes to remove the orphans out of the school and forced her to start teaching them in the house during evening hours.
“I did that for quite some time, but along the way I felt I wasn’t offering the best to my children,” remarks Mutabes.
She was then compelled to enlist voluntary services of a girl who had just completed her secondary education, but had a passion for children.
“In order to make things work well I had first of all to coach the lady on the basics in child care and thereafter I entrusted the kids with her,” she said.
One of the biggest challenges the kind hearted mother faced during the initial stages of her programme was lack of sufficient funds to sustain the tuition programme as well as meet the costs for general upkeep of her family which had expanded to six children by then.
“I didn’t have any extra sources of money apart from my meager salary,” says Mutabes who decided to apply for Khs. 800,000 loan from Cooperative Bank, Kitale Branch, which was used to construct St. Miriam’s Orphanage Primary School on a section of her land.
After the construction Mutabes remembers how she personally hit the road crisscrossing surrounding villages ‘advertising and marketing’ her new orphanage.
She exploited opportunities provided in village chiefs’ barazas, funerals, weddings and other social or communal gatherings where she appealed to area residents assist identify orphaned and vulnerable children for the school.
“The objective at that time was to have as many as possible orphaned, abandoned and vulnerable kids joining the place in order to provide company to my adopted kids,” quips Mutabes.
To her surprise, the department of children services in the area would later begin recommending abandoned and orphaned children to the orphanage.
According to the madam, the response was overwhelming as orphaned and vulnerable children started to walk into the school, “and since then the number has grown from the three to 56 children with twelve volunteer teachers as at now,” revealed Mutabes who described her experience as a teacher for several years.
Maintaining the needy children’s steady upkeep in terms of food and clothing remains another big challenge facing the orphanage, which according to madam has, however, attracted attention of several well-wishers through her own initiatives.
Some of the organisations which support the centre include, Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), Moi’s Bridge Branch, Wamumbi Supermarket, Kenya Assemblies of God (KAG) and Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) churches.
She cites Charles Ogina of Matunda Olive Inn, David Munyaka of Matunda Modern Hardware, Pastor John Gitau (Nairobi), Truphena Ombima (Nairobi), Jane Ayub (Nairobi), Joseph Shikuku (Matunda Sub Location Assistant Chief) and Bright Kyadiva as among those who have variously contributed to the centre at personal levels.
Staffing is another challenge Mutabes presently is grappling with, “since my teaching staff operates on volunteer basis, the rate of turnover is high because neighbouring academies keep poaching my best teachers,” she points out.
Both the orphanage and school are fully registered under the ministries of social services and education respectively.
The orphanage is also a registered centre for Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) and it presented her first crop of 16 candidates for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) in 2015.
“The orphanage recorded a mean score of 253, with our best candidate scoring 284 marks. He has been enrolled at St. John’s The Baptist Likuyani Secondary,” disclosed Mutabes who praised the results owing to the challenges faced by the school.
Among the candidates were Mwajuma, who is now at Matunda Mixed day Secondary school, Nanjala and Barasa who is in a boarding school.
With a total of nine children at the orphanage having been admitted to various secondary schools, Mutabes now calls for more support from well wishers, especially from the department of children services, in order to enable the boys and girls realize their dreams of the future.
“Apart from the little support we receive from the aforementioned donors, I’m relying on my meager salary and income from farm produce to pay fees for the nine who have joined secondary education,” says Mutabes.
With enough land space available for expansion, Madam Mutabes further appeals for assistance from all stakeholders, especially the national and county governments, to enable the home build modern classrooms, dormitories, kitchen, dining hall and water borehole to accommodate the growing number of children.
“I am urging to our First Lady, Mama Margaret Kenyatta to come to our aid,” appealed Mutabes who hails the First Lady for her zealous in championing children’s rights.
Mutabes expresses delight over the progress so far made by the three post-election violence children, “Mwajuma, Nanjala and Barasa will forever remain the turning point for the remaining part of my life,” remarked Mutabes.