This coming Tuesday evening, a group who travelled to Nairobi, Kenya to visit the Life4Kids Children’s Home will talk about their journey and experiences at the Midland Cultural Centre.
The group of local Rotarians and friends of Life4Kids Canada travelled to Kenya in November. The trip was organized by the Rotary Club of Midland with arrangements made by Rotarian Terri Brophy.
The vision of Life4Kids Canada is that “no child be left homeless or abandoned” with a mission to provide a loving home for homeless and abandoned boys in the Afriacan city.
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.
The purpose of the recent 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.
Excursion members had different reasons for wanting to go.
Nancy Hargrave said that as a board member, she was excited to see the home the charity has been supporting for several years with Rotary Club president Cathy Tait adding: “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 said they did not anticipate the warm and emotional reception that they received when they arrived at the home.
“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,” explained Midland Rotary past president Jason Wilson, whose children, 13-year-old Sydney and 10-year-old Kyle, also got to share in the experience.
“It was a perfect introduction to the wonderful experiences yet to come.”
Local resident Hank DeJong described the trip as “one of the most moving and emotional experiences of my life.”
The group participated in three significant outings while visiting the Life4Kids home.
The first was a visit to the slum. An estimated 60% of Nairobi’s population live in squalor in the slum neighbourhoods, according to Life4Kids. Most of the boys now living in the Life4Kids home were found living alone, abandoned in alleys or in a garbage dump in the slum.
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. The boys were also taken to a swimming pool for what one boy described as “the best day of my life.”
Slated for 7:30 p.m. in Rotary Hall, Tuesday’s event will give area residents an opportunity to hear more stories about the trip, about Life4Kids and about Nairobi.
Admission is free, but tickets are required and may be obtained here or at the MCC box office.
