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 !!

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