FROM COMPASSION TO ACTION
A Visit to “Life4Kids” in Kenya
In late October 2024 a group of 11 local residents departed to travel to Nairobi Kenya. The purpose of the visit was to visit the Life4Kids Children’s Home.
The vision of Life4Kids Canada is that “no child be left homeless or abandoned.” The mission of the organization is “to provide a loving home for homeless and abandoned boys in Nairobi Kenya.” Life4Kids finds boys who are living on the streets, destitute, abandoned, and alone. The boys are brought into a home where love, acceptance, and belonging are key components. The home provides loving care, healing from trauma, emotional nurturing, excellent education, healthcare, and quality housing.
There are currently 26 boys living in the home as a family unit. In addition, 3 boys aged 18 or older are financially supported in their community as they complete high school. A further 4 boys are enrolled in post-secondary education. So, Life4Kids currently supports a total of 33 boys.
The trip was organized by the Midland Rotary Club. The purpose of the mission to Kenya was to build a library and computer lab for the boys living at Life4Kids and to create a vegetable and fruit garden to help the home become more self-sufficient.
The members of the excursion had varied reasons for wanting to go. Nancy Hargrave explained that “as a board member of Life4Kids, I was excited to see the home that we have been supporting for several years.” Cathy Tait, the President of the Midland Rotary Club, noted that “the Club has a deep interest in the Life4Kids home and is anxious to see it grow to support even more boys. The trip was an opportunity to see the potential firsthand.” Gord Sedgwick sponsors one of the boys and said he “was looking forward to seeing how the home provides for the boys.”
The travellers did not anticipate the warm and emotional reception that they received when they arrived at the home. As Midland Rotary Club Immediate Past President Jason Wilson explains “even before we arrived at the gates to the home, the staff and boys came running down the roadway, singing, dancing, cheering, and waving Canadian and Kenyan flags. It was a perfect introduction to the wonderful experiences yet to come.”
The trip was especially meaningful for two of the group, 13-year-old Sydney Wilson and 10-year-old Kyle Wilson, the children of Jason Wilson. Sydney and Kyle got to know the boys in the home well and related to the boys in a way that the adults in the group could not hope to.
The travellers each have unique stories to tell. Ron Crane explained that, although he had been a Rotarian for 50 years, “this was one of the most rewarding experiences of my Rotary life and truly exemplified what Rotary stands for.” Hank DeJong described the trip as “one of the most moving and emotional experiences of my life.” Randy Hargrave had the perspective of a Past District Governor of another service club, the Lions Club. He had done mission work with the Lions and commented: “it is very rewarding to see the results of the hard work of Life4Kids Canada and the support of the Midland Rotary Club.”
On January 14th, the group made a presentation to the community at the Midland Cultural Centre. The format was a panel discussion moderated by Fred Hacker, the Chair of Life4Kids Canada. Hacker had travelled with the group and helped to coordinate the visit.
At that presentation, the group discussed the reaction of the Life4KIds boys to the 12 bags of gently used clothes and shoes the travellers brought with them. They recalled their reaction to seeing a goat tied up in the yard in the afternoon and having it for dinner in the evening. They reminisced about eating with the Life4Kids boys and being entertained by the Life4Kids boys.
The Canadian group built a library and computer lab with materials paid for by the Midland Rotary Club and Rotary District 7010. The boys had never had a computer at their disposal, either at home or at school. Now they have 5 desk top computers which will greatly enhance their academic pursuits. The computer lab/library was dedicated to the memory of Pastor Martin Giebel who died tragically this past summer. He had been a Director of Life4Kids Canada. Tribute was also paid to the Rotary Club of Midland and Rotary District 7010 for their support.
The other project for the travellers was establishing a fruit and vegetable garden. Preparing the garden was arduous work. More than 30 staff, boys, and travellers worked on the creation of the garden. But the result is a flourishing vegetable and fruit garden. The garden was named “the Rotary Garden of Love.” And the garden is already yielding produce to feed the boys.
The group had three significant outings while visiting the Life4Kids home. The first was a visit to the slum. More than 60% of the population of Nairobi live in squalor in the slum neighbourhoods. Most boys in Life4Kids were found living alone, abandoned in alleys or in a garbage dump in the slum. While visiting a slum, the local group were part of the identification of two boys who were subsequently brought into the home.
The second outing was to experience a worship service at the church where the boys attend.
The third outing was to take the boys to the Nairobi National Park where the group saw many of the wild animals of eastern Africa living in the wild. The boys were also taken to a swimming pool for what one boy described as “the best day of the year.”
The Canadian group found the Life4Kids home to be loving and nurturing and conducive to personal growth of the boys. The home is a family unit, not an institution. Love, acceptance and belonging are key components. The home focuses on quality care, healing from trauma, emotional nurturing, quality education, health care and housing, all provided with love. The boys are given dignity, respect, love, acceptance, encouragement, security, and opportunity. The staff members themselves live in the family environment in the home. All the children become “siblings,” and all partake in household chores and responsibilities.
One of the questions often asked about the home is, “why do you support only boys?” Fred Hacker, Chair of Life4Kids Canada explains, “our founder originally chose to provide a home for boys. Boys are more often abandoned. Boys are considered to have little value in Kenyan society. Girls have value in Kenya: for their domestic skills, for their ability to earn income for the family, and for the dowries they attract on marriage. There may be as many as 200,000 abandoned boys on the streets of Nairobi.”
Kenya is a country where poverty, deprivation, disease, and neglect result in too many children being abandoned to the streets, vulnerable and alone. Nairobi is a city of more than 4.4 million people. It is estimated that more than 60% of the people in Nairobi live in slums, in grueling poverty. The average slum resident lives in extreme poverty, earning less than US$2.00 per day. Unemployment rates are high. 12% of the population is living with HIV. Cases of assault and rape are common. There are few schools, and most people cannot afford education for their children. Clean water is scarce. Diseases caused by poor hygiene are prevalent. A substantial majority living in the slum lack access to basic services, including electricity, running water, and medical care. Because of poverty, children are often taken out of school to help provide food for the family or are abandoned.
The annual cost of educating the boys and maintaining a home for 26 boys (and a further 7 boys pursuing education outside the home) is almost CDN $170,000. And costs are mounting! There are many reasons for this. Inflation is rampant in Kenya. Kenyans continue to experience supply chain issues. Utility and fuel costs have more than doubled. Drought and floods have caused food costs to skyrocket. The exchange rate for the Kenyan shilling has changed dramatically, resulting in more Canadian dollars being required to buy shillings. The little boys are now in private school (a necessity if they are to get the training needed for post-secondary education). The state-run medical insurance program appears to have collapsed. And four of the boys are in post-secondary education with higher education costs.
Life4Kids Canada is incorporated by Letters Patent in the Province of Ontario as a not-for-profit corporation. It is a registered Canadian charity under the Income Tax Act (Canada). It has minimal overhead expenses (only bank fees, insurance, annual accounting). 95% of funds raised go directly to Life4Kids in Kenya. The home operated in Nairobi Kenya is a licensed children’s home pursuant to the Charitable Children’s Institutions in Kenya.
Life4Kids Canada provides funding representing more than 75% of the cost of operation of Life4Kids in Kenya. Life4Kids Canada is sponsored by private individuals, service clubs, churches, corporations, and community groups.
Life4Kids Canada needs continuous financial support to sustain this important project. They have a budget to meet EVERY MONTH. They encourage everyone to please donate today. Or, better still, to please set up a recurring monthly donation so they we can meet the monthly needs of the boys. Donations can be made on the website at www.life4kidscanada.ca