Cynthia & Sidi

Mercy’s job is not an easy one, what appears to be a typical day can soon become anything but that, just take last Saturday for instance!

Cynthia, 12 years old along with her 7 year old sister Sidi live about 30km north of The GLO in Kilifi. Although the two girls have the same mother, they have different fathers which appears to be the crux of the problem. The mother having left them with one of their paternal grandmothers went off to Mombasa to work. The girls stayed with the grandmother in a room in a very poorly maintained Swahili House. They were not allowed to go to school but had to carry out the household chores and then be subjected to abuse when the father returned home. After a severe beating on Saturday morning, Cynthia and Sidi decided to run away to Mombasa to try and find their mother. At 4.00pm they were picked up by a lorry driver who thought it was unusual that two girls were walking along such a isolated part of the road, close to Rea Vipingo Plantation. After listening to their story he took them to Kijipwa Police Station where the DCO was contacted who in turn phoned Mercy to assist.

Mercy thanked God when she saw the girls as they could have been abducted, they were very tired and had walked a long distance without any food, water or shoes. She tried to contact the mother but to no avail. After arriving at the orphanage they told Mercy of their plight and she spent the next day doing some nifty detective work resulting in finding the mother and grandmother who were unaware of the girls dilemma. The Mama had to report to the police station first, she arrived along with the girl’s maternal grandmother at The GLO in the late afternoon with a letter allowing the girls to be released into their custody.

Mercy and the staff at The GLO were upset that the girls mother has allowed this to happen, she appeared very well dressed and living a comfortable life whilst Cynthia and Sidi were subjected to daily abuse. The Mama promised them the girls would now remain with her and ensured them that they would not return to their extended family in Kilifi again.

We are an orphanage dedicated to help orphaned and abandoned children but at times we have to be there to help children in all kinds of difficult circumstances. Thankfully on this occasion the two girls are reunited with their mother although they would have gladly stayed with our GLO family.