The Good Life Orphanage

Over the past three months we have found that although there is a recession here in the UK & Ireland, people are still continuing to support us by organising various fundraising events.

 The pupils of Guardian Angels School brought in storybooks, the result was ten books of the most beautiful books suitable from babies up to ten year old children, We managed to bring two cases full of books out to Kenya so far and the children were amazed with them, second-hand books in Kenya often cost more than a days wages so they really appreciate them.

We are so lucky to count Mary Grady & Caroline Winder from the MTS School of Theatre in Manchester as our supporters, on 1^st March 2009 they organised a wonderful Dance Extravaganza and all the proceeds came to The Good Life Orphanage. The hard work and dedication by all these young people who gave up their time to help the less fortunate makes us feel very privileged.

And again Father Jim Clarke and his parishioners from St Anne’s Church in Fairfield, Manchester had the Lenten Friday Soup & Roll Lunches with the proceeds going to The Good Life Orphanage. Every Friday during Lent Father Jim and the ladies in the parish brought their home made soup, scones and cakes into the Parish Centre and for a donation you could have as much as you want. They never cease to amaze us with the amounts they collect for our charity.

 One of the parishioners from Guardian Angels R.C. Church in Bury ran the Wilmslow Half Marathon for us on 29^th March, he picked up a calf injury the previous week but still managed to complete the 13 mile course in 2hrs exactly, remembering that Andrew celebrated his 50^th Birthday a few months ago (he actually asked for money to be donated to the orphanage instead of presents on that occasion), he finished 2663^rd out of 4000. For anyone who does not know Andrew he is wearing No3774 in the photo below.

Then on Sunday 17^th May Kevin, Emma, Jill, Adele & Anne all joined Gebrselassie and 33,000 other runners on the 10km Manchester Run. It was a wonderful occasion for the City of Manchester and all money raised by our five runners went directly to The Good Life Orphanage. 

We would be completely lost without this continuing support and just want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone involved.

Extract from Jackie’s email – 28th May 2009

 “We got the twins (boys) from Kilifi. Julius and Yusuf Kazungu.  They

come from a family of seven.  The eldest boy is 17 years, then a girl

who is 13 years, followed by twin boys who are 11 years,  a girl who

is 9 years then the twins we have who are actually three years.

 They used to live with their parents at a place called Kipini in Tana

River district but when the parents died they came to live with the

Grand mother, who cannot support them.  the eldest boy will stay with

the Grand mother,  the Girls were taken to Malezi Home in Kilifi and

the older boys to Kikambala Home.  They cannot tell exactly what their

parents died of, they just say they were sick.  We could not go to

their home area in Kipini because it is quite far.

 Apparently, we discovered that the boys have bilharzia - their urine

is mixed with blood.  We took them to Kanamai and they got treatment.

I went on the web to find out more about the disease and thank God it

cannot be passed from human to human so the other children are ok.  I

also called Charity and told her to inform the other homes because it

is likely all the other children have it. 

One of the boys (Yusuf) is jolly and talkative while the other

(Julius) is a cry baby.  I hope he gets some confidence soon.”

Extract from Jackie’s email – 29^th May 2009

 “An issue came up with the relatives of the twins.  Since their parents

died, the relatives were comfortable with the children being brought

up by the grand mother although they did not assist her in any way at

all.  The Grand mother struggled until she decided to look for

assistance through the children’s department who sought homes for the

children.   I think after the children were placed in the various

homes, she went to tell her relatives what she had done with the

children.  I am not sure if it is her son or her brother but an

elderly gentleman asked her how she could loose all those children.

She explained that they were not lost but somewhere getting food,

shelter, clothing and education.  The gentleman insisted that one of

the children has to stay behind so that they are not all forgotten.

I tried explaining to them what we do to ensure that the children do

not forget their relatives or where they come from but he would not

listen.  He did not want to go with both boys and since he is related

to the boy, the District Officer agreed to let him go with the child.

(The jovial one) .  So now we have one.  I was not happy to let one

go, I preferred that they go together wherever they were to go.”

 Think these emails sum up just exactly our staff are dealing with on a daily basis where a relative who has not helped the children in any way when the grandmother was struggling to feed them can come in and split twins up, the welfare of the children does not come first!! As parents of twin girls we realise how damaging it is to separate Yusuf & Julius who have been together since conception. How alone must little Juluis feel as he has lost his parents, grandmother, siblings and now even his twin brother. Even if the relative would not have wanted to loose both children, he should have put the children’s wellbeing before his own feelings.

Jackie was phoning the UK this morning at 1.00am as Juluis is very ill now and needs hospitalization.

What a cruel unfair world we live in where this is allowed to happen, the boys would have been together and well cared for at The Good Life.

So now we have 31 children at the orphanage. The first three houses are complete, and the builder has scheduled for the fourth and fifth houses to be built between September-March, we can’t start until then as it’s impossible to carry out building work in the rainy season!

Following a visit by Ron and Sue Hayes in February, and after deliberations with our Committee at home and our Trustees in Kenya it was decided that these last two house will be especially adapted for disabled children. Many thanks to Ron & Sue for this and many other ideas they came up with to ensure the success of the orphanage. We value visitors feedback as it is an essential part of our development of the project.

Looking at Gracie and Michael now, seeing how strong, healthy and happy they are is testament to the hard work and dedication of our staff at the orphanage. Obviously with any new project there has been teething problems, and we have unfortunately had to replace members of staff, but things are progressing very well.
Caleb who arrived at the orphanage with Moses and Joshua in April 2008 in a sorry state, he was badly beaten and malnourished, is now a happy young boy, yes he is always in trouble but he is just like any other five year old boy.

Both Kevin and myself often say that without the support of friends, family and now an ever-increasing group of people who are willing to help us it would be impossible to operate the orphanage and we really mean this from the bottom of our hearts. The staff, children and ourselves cannot put into words just how important and life changing your help and support is to the project.

Yes, we all are making a difference!

Here is an email I received from Jackie regarding little Helen who we picked up from a rescue centre in Mtwapa in November 2008, we noticed she was well cared for and did not appear to be in the usual disheveled state as the majority of children who come to the orphanage. She would only settle with Kevin & Samson and screamed when a woman approached her.

“Dear Mary,

Yesterday, I received a Court Order from the Senior Resident Magistrate’s Court at Kilifi for Criminal Case no. 1019 of 2008 ordering me to hand over the child name Angela renamed Helen to the mother, one Perris Dhahabu and Police Corporal Rukia of the Mtwapa Police Station. Before handing over the child to the mother, I had a talk with her and you will not believe the circumstances that child had to go through.

Her husband had disappeared from home for about three months, when he came home one day she was sleeping as she was not feeling well. He told her that he was leaving her because he had married another wife. She asked him what would happen to the children as she did not have any money to feed the (Helen and her brother) He told her that he was leaving with them. As he was their father, the mother agreed. What she learnt later from her son (about five years old) was that the “step mother” used to mistreat them and beat them up a lot; they used to sleep on the floor etc. Apparently, the step mother would not mistreat them when the father was around but she complained a lot that Helen would not shut up, she kept crying.
The father instead of taking the child back to its mother decided to go to the Police Station and concoct a story that he had a fight with his wife then she threw the child at him and ran away. He also said he did not have any relative where he could take the child to and he did not know where his wife had gone to. So the Police had to look for a place to take the child.
When the mother recovered, she went to see how her children were, she found the boy neglected with many wounds on his arms and legs. When she asked where Helen was, no one would give her an answer so she decided to go to the Police Station to report that she did not know where her child was. At the Police Station, she was put in for 24 hours and taken to court in Kilifi for abandoning the child. The case was mentioned and given a hearing date but she could not be released so she was locked up at the Shimo La Tewa Prison because she did not have any money to pay for a bond. Anyway she contacted her sister who looked for money to pay for her (after some months). Once out, she started looking for her child and was later told that the child was sold to some “mzungu” by the Police Officer. At a hearing in Court, that is what she told the Court so the Police Officer had to be summoned to Court and produce the Child. I suppose she told her part of the story and we were thereafter given a Court Order to release the child to her mother. The Husband, by the way, has disappeared. They do not know where he has gone to but the Police are looking for him. Helen has been reconciled with the mother.

It all fits together, we were wondering when Helen came how she preferred men than women, it became clear that maybe it was because of the way the step mother mistreated her – but this is just my opinion.

We took them home – Mtomondoni in Mtwapa area, at least we know where Helen is.

Regards,

Jackie”

Helen has been reunited with her mother, it is a terrible system that allows this to happen but at least she was well cared for and loved in the four months whilst she was at The Good Life Orphanage !!

A beautiful Sunday in Albert Square in Manchester, the place packed with people enjoying a good day out celebrating St Patrick’s Day, The Good Life Orphanage committee and families were there as well.

Catherine putting her excellent organisation skills to work again ordered lots of nick- nacks for selling on our stall with all the proceeds going to the orphanage.
It was a great day, seeing old faces and promoting the orphanage, we are fast becoming known throughout the North West with people recognising the charity from recent press releases.

Then to attract more people to our stall, Sean & Eddie played some traditional Irish Music, we even had a very sprightly old lady doing some Irish Dancing.

Then an angel aka Mary Grady took the bucket around the Beer Tent, a brave lady and persuaded them go hand over even more money.
Thank you to everyone who made a donation or bought something, and a big Thank You to Pius on the neighbouring stall for looking after us all and lets not forget Mairead & Margaret, who said they were full of hot air!!

Here we are back in a sunny/rainy Kenya, there has been no rain on the coast since late September so people are praying for the rains to come, every piece of available land is being dug over and prepared.
Life is progressing well at The Good Life Orphanage, our children are doing great and are so happy, it is amazing to see. We have a few new additions and one of the children, Helen, has been reunited with her mother who has been very ill but is fine now.

Elvis arrived from the police station in Mtwapa, he was found abandoned under a mango tree and is about two years old, he is a lovely happy little boy and could tell us his name so we now have an Elvis!!! Mary was picked up from the streets by a Good Samaritan and taken to the local police station, again a beautiful young girl about fourteen months old, she has just started to walk this week.

Juma and Zanibu are Rami’s older siblings, Kevin brought Rami back to visit his extended family and discovered his brother and sister living in another orphanage where they could not even give them one proper meal a day. After speaking to the District Children’s Officer it was agreed that they would be fed and looked after properly at The Good Life so they arrived last week.
And last but by no means least Abdulla, the eldest boy from the family in the village where their mother had passed away has been reunited with his three younger siblings. At eleven years old he is outside our criteria for admission but we felt the need to bring the family together was far more important so we bent the rules slightly.

Even though the majority of the children arrived very dishevelled and malnourished they adapt so easy and within a few days are running around playing with the other children. They are all taught to have good manners and be respectful by their House Mothers and Aunties, it is wonderful to witness the changes to their lives and we have everyone who supports us to thank for this transformation.

Just a quick email today to let you all know about the plans for this year and next at the orphange. If you download this file you can easily see where we are right now, and what is to come over the next 24 months with your help!

We are very busy planning the next fundraising event on Saturday 7th Febraury. Hope to see you all there.

2008 did not start out too good for us, with the post-election violence we could not travel and after a very successful 1st Annual Charity Ball we were itching to return to Mombasa. In February we ignored the Foreign Office warnings and headed back to Kenya, well Mombasa was as laid back as ever, only sporadic violence here and there, we were up & running again. The only downside was all the visitors who planned to come over to help us did not feel that it was safe enough and cancelled their plans.
Thankfully when we returned back to Mombasa in November our visitors started arriving, first Damian & Helen came for one week, they loved playing with the children and spent lots of their holiday at the orphanage. Damian showed them how to play football and we even let him pretend to the children that it was ok to support Bolton Wanderers!!!


Next was Pat, Marie & Anne from Dromore, Co.Tyrone. Pat came out and built the furnace and Marie was on-hand for the opening of Maguire House. Anne was very generous and bought us our first cow, Red Annie, who is having a calf in February and will produce 15/20 ltrs of milk each day then for the children. Marie and Anne accompanied me to pick up orphan children from the village and also a baby girl called Fionnhulagh from Coast General Hospital. They were moved to tears by what they saw and how the people cope. Marie and Pat are also sponsoring the education of a young girl Cynthia at Mikoroshoni Primary School.



Then John & Edna arrived on 8th December, again lots of time spent with the children in the orphanage and they fell in love with Kenya big time !!!We went to Coast General Hospital to pick up Patrick, a little baby boy about two months old, Edna was completely smitten with this lovely little boy. Oh we forgot to mention John caught a big fish !!!


All in all apart from the usual tummy upsets and the ever frequently calling Mombasa Express, we think our visitors really enjoyed their stay.
Our latest visitors have been some of the crew from the First Choice Hoildays flights, Phillippa Hindle who knows Suzy & Luis visited the orphanage along with Zoe and Lee, she were so impressed that she has set up a Face Book Site and we had another five visitors last week,Kandy, Elaine, Nicci, Vicky and Carl, as they saw our children love to have visitors as they sing and pose for photos at the drop of a hat.

Asanta Sana for all your visits and support in 2008, you will be made very welcome in 2009 as well xx

Life is not easy for the typical family in Kenya, as we have discovered. On the 14th December we realised that although little Brenda had been attending a nearby clinic for a chest complaint it was getting worst, she was struggling to breathe. Brenda’s mother had AIDS which affected her mind & as a result she beat Brenda as she ate soil when she was hungry, she is about 2.5 years old and her little face and body is covered in scars from the beatings she received. Unlike the UK there is no NHS here so it is matter of going to different hospitals trying to get the best treatment. As she was so poorly the only hospital that was willing to admit her was Nyali Paediatric Hospital and although we knew it was expensive it was her only chance for survival. She was diagnosed with acute pneumonia and as soon as the doctor saw her he voiced his concerns about her survival chances.
Early the next morning Salim who had arrived at the orphanage with his brother and sister on 4th December was admitted to the same hospital with heart failure. Salim was struggling to breath; his liver & kidneys were not working properly so his body was just suffocating with fluids. What was going wrong. the children were well fed and looked after but two children in the space of 24 hours going down with life threatening chest complaints was very unusual to us. After a long discussion with the resident pediatrician he explained that during this time of the year there are so many airborne bacteria that a high number of children die, we thought that this only happened in the rainy season.
After a few days the children were getting better and Salim was asking to get back out to the orphanage, then on Sunday they agreed to discharge the children, again a massive shock for us, nothing could have prepared us for the actual bill about £850 for the two children and they demanded payment before they would discharge the children. We had arranged a meeting with the main doctor there the previous Wednesday who had given us up to 50% of the normal rates but proper medicines are very expensive over here. So here we were with a medical bill that was the same amount as the monthly salaries for all our staff at The Good Life Orphanage but if the children would not have gone to this hospital they would have died, so we knew we had to get the best treatment for them.
Coming back to get the cheque book to write out a cheque for these cost and wondering just where we would get the money from when I opened an email from Dennis the Heat Teacher at our local Guardian Angels school saying they had raised money for the orphanage instead of doing the normal shoebox collection, this covered the bill with money left over, the Lord does work in very mysterious ways !!!!!!! Here are some photos of Brenda & Salim taken on Christmas Day, as you can see they are fighting fit again xx

Christmas Day 2008 was an alternative way to spend the day, instead of a Vigil Mass said by Father Paul at Guardian Angels Church in Bury, we went to the Cathedral in Mombasa centre, well the homily, which Father Paul is an expert on, was something about joiners and painters, we could not make any sense of, but This is Africa.Then onto the orphanage for our Christmas Dinner.

Well the children all had new clothes on, donated by our dear parishioners and people from Dromore, they looked so smart and Jackie & Miriam had cooked a wonderful Byrini, we had asked for no bones in our which is a sacrilege in Kenya. They used the bones to make a Pilau to accompany the Byrani. The children were so excited, they were sucking lollies which they dipped in the curry and insisted you taste it. What a difference sitting on a Swahili Mat eating Byrani for Christmas Dinner.


We put on the original DVDS we took from Day 1 at the orphanage and the children were amazed to see themselves on the big screen, Joshua did not speak or move for 15 minutes.

We had brought second hand toys donated by Guardian Angels Playgroup and they were wrapped in Christmas paper, each child a toy, Paul Wood from CAPS had given us toy mobile phones and Damian & Helen had bought footballs so you can imagine the happiness on each child’s face when they opened their presents,



We really missed our families but seeing the little faces opening the presents made us realise just what a difference the donations and hard work are actually making to these children.