KENYA: How Nuns Depending on Well-wishers Enkindle Hope to Orphaned and Destitute Girls
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
Ten years down the line, the congregation of Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate are glad that a number of orphaned girls have the opportunity to access basic needs and education through the support of well-wishers and the surrounding community so as to realize their full potential in life.
At Amani Na Wema Children’s Home (loosely translated as Peace and Goodness Children’s Home) located northwest of the central business district of Nairobi, professed Religious women and novices who are in their formation to Religious life care for 60 orphaned girls to ensure they access food, shelter, healthcare, clothing and education and are eventually reintegrated back to their families.
During a field visit by the Catholic Care for Children in Kenya (CCCK) which a program of the Association of Sisterhoods in Kenya (AOSK), in collaboration with the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA), it was noted that the Sisters have nearly an empty orphanage after Covid-19 broke out and the government placed stringent safety measures to help contain the spread of Coronavirus.
In an interview with AMECEA online on how the nuns manage to care for the orphaned girls without a permanent source of sustainable income, the Religious women responded that they trust in Divine providence, well-wishers and the surrounding community who have been supportive since the establishment of the home.
“Since most of our children are from the slums around, we normally visit their families and the surrounding community, letting them know about our apostolate and what we do. We also pray with the Christians in Small Christian Communities (SCCs). Through these acts, the community got to know us, what we are doing, our needs and they began finding out more on how they could be supportive to us,” Sr. Caroline Chebichi a social worker at the home narrated.
The nun added, “We also offer Catechism classes in the parish; we teach Sunday school children and our own girls are part of these programs including the PMS (Pontifical Mission Societies). They also attend Sunday Mass in the parish.”
At Amani Na Wema, admission is done after a thorough evaluation in the families of the orphaned girls to ensure that any child admitted is actually needy. There are 30 children in primary school and 30 in secondary.
According to Sr. Chebichi who has worked in the home for nearly 6 years, the nuns have been receiving weekly donations of foodstuffs and other items not only from the community around but also from the parish where they belong and other surrounding parishes.
Besides, the nun explained, “When the children have closed schools and are back in their families and during the time of reintegration, parishioners and other volunteers come in intervals to clean the rooms and the children’s clothes.”
The nuns opted to care for girls specifically following the charism of their Congregation which focuses on empowerment of women and girl child. Whenever they encounter a needy orphaned boy child, they recommend to other children’s homes that care for the boys or both girls and boys.
Explaining how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted their apostolate, the nuns disclosed the difficulties the girls have experienced back in their families because of the long stay at home and lack of basic needs such as food.
“When we follow up our children who are currently at home, most of them have not been accepted in their families for having stayed away for so long,” Sr. Chebichi stated and continued, “Some of them come back to the children’s home to express their challenges, while others call to ask if they could be allowed back because the situation in the families is not favorable.”
Recalling some of challenges the children have encountered, Sr. Chebichi explained painfully, “One wanted to commit suicide because she wasn’t accepted in the family and most of the time she was feeling out of place when with other children.” While “Some also escape from their homes and come back to the children’s home asking us for help.”
As a remedy to these challenges, the nuns who work entirely on their own in the home without any employed person have been calling the guardians of those children who escape from home to understand the problem. Then, they offer advice and request the guardians to accept the children back home.
“Where counselling is required, we engage professional counsellors who come to attend to those who are to be counselled,” Sr. Chebichi disclosed.
Besides the donations of food, clothing and other basic items from the surrounding community, Amani Na Wema Children’s Home have sponsors from Italy and Spain who mainly support basic education of girls.
“We also ask for bursaries to subsidize their education; parishioners also support us by regularly having a special collection in the church,” the nun added.
She continued, “We are very grateful to the community around us, we really feel part of them, they have accepted us, they have embraced what we are doing, and through them we get professionals and other volunteers who have been of great support to us.”
