The Good Life Orphanage

Friday 2nd May 2008, 9.15am local time, getting the plane at 7.30pm from Mombasa to Nairobi connecting to Amsterdam and onto Manchester, please come to Coast General Hospital where four babies are ready to be discharged into your custody at the orphanage. Nico, one of our Kenyan trustees had spent the previous three days working with the local children’s department making sure everything was in place for the release of the babies. There was just four more signatures to get from hospital personnel but unfortunately the lady who signs the release forms first & sets off a chain of signatures was in a meeting, Caroline the young social worker went from office to office getting everything in place and at 3.15pm we were allowed into the nursery to pick up the babies.

Little Kay is only 1.7kg, a premature baby who was abandoned in the hospital when the mother realised the baby was in poor health but a proper little girl she has battled and now is gaining weight.
Roisin a 17 day old little girl who was abandoned shortly after birth but due to the timescale between the birth and when she was found by a good Samaritan, she has been traumatised but thank God she is doing well.

Baby Paul, aptly named after one of the best footballers in the world, Paul Scholes, a lovely little boy abandoned shortly after birth and about two weeks old. We have very high hopes for this young boy, a professional footballer maybe.

And finally Komoto, a beautiful young girl who celebrated her 1st Birthday on 3rd May at the orphanage. Komoto was born with a large growth on her skull, her mother left her shortly after birth and she has been in Coast General Hospital since, no other home would take her due to the birth defect. She cannot sit up but her new housemother Jane is spending time exercising her lower back and legs. Over the next six months we will have a neurologist examine Komoto and hopefully there maybe some surgical procedure to remove part of the growth. Either way she will spend a very happy, peaceful life in the orphanage being well looked after and receiving love & affection from her new family in Flynn House.

With only one hour to go Kevin managed to edit the DVD and catch the flight, pressure and stress but all worthwhile. We have returned now to Manchester & feel relieved that there are now ten children in the orphanage enjoying a new life. This has only been made possible with the generous donations and unbelievable support we have received from each & every one of you. ASANTE SANA

A Typical Monday in Mombasa

What started as a shopping trip for office stationary in Mombasa ended with another three boys in our orphanage. A phone call from the Department of Children to come immediately to their offices where three young boys, Moses 5 years old, Caleb 3 years old and little Joshua 2 years old, had been removed from another orphanage where they had been very badly treated. The boys were in a terrible state, malnourished with malaria. The authorities had closed the other orphanage and the boys had not received a meal for the past 48 hours.

Jackie, our manager, cooked the boys a lovely meal of beef stew and ugali which they woofed down. They were very scared and disoriented but had a little play on the swings and slides. We brought them to the local doctor the following morning who took blood tests which showed chest infections, malnutrition and malaria. After a struggle the boys received injections and medication to cure their conditions.

Their little bodies were marked and when Jackie enquired, Moses told her how they were beaten and burnt by the people who ran the other orphanage. Unfortunately some establishments use the children as a means to get money from tourists, the dirtier & thinner the child, the more money they get. People do not realise they are being conned and often make substantial donations which are just spent foolishly, never on the children or the orphanages.

After five days the boys are more settled but still very wary of men. Moses has started the local school and by all accounts is a very bright intelligent boy. It will just take time and hard work to gain the boy’s trust but our team are very committed and with the help of a child counselor we will ensure they receive whatever help they need.

Jambo from a very hot & sultry Mombasa, we arrived here on 8th February after deciding the civil unrest had not effected the coast as much as we were led to believe. On arrival at Nairobi Airport we were amazed to see only a trickle of people from the Kenya Airways & Virgin Atlantic flight were actually staying in Kenya, the majority were transferring to Zanzibar & other places. Nothing could prepare us for the scenes in Mombasa, we stay in Nyali and although the riots & trouble have not touched down here, there was not a tourist to be seen, the hotels are empty and thousands of staff have been laid off until further notice with no pay!! Spent two hours in Whitesands on Monday evening and only saw three tourists, the peace agreement signed on Friday is so important because this country needs to get back to some sort of normality so people can support their families.

Enough about the problems the 27th December elections brought, our orphanage site is looking unbelievable, all through the two months of turmoil our builders have kept up the momentum & although there has been a problem getting specialist materials everything is going great. The first two houses will be complete by 17th March 2008, the Office / Stores will be complete by the 30th March 2008 and the Farm Managers small house on farming plot will be complete by Mid May.

We are so pleased with the standard of work throughout the site, they have though deeply about how to make the buildings low maintenance and utilise the space correctly. The actual houses are big and as there are four massive bedrooms we have decided that each house will have eight to ten children. We have employed the Matron who seems very capable and the Farm Manager David, he is a very hard working young man who just gets on with things. We are still interviewing for the House Mothers but we know we will find the ideal people soon.

So it is all systems go, we have a final meeting on Thursday with the Department of Children regarding our registration as a CCIS in Kenya and once we receive this The Good Life Orphanage will be legitimate & recognised by the governing bodies in this beautiful country!!!

Check out more pictures on our flickr page!