It’s been a long while since our newsletter! Here in Kenya, we continue to greet anyone that we have not yet seen since the turn of the year, so from us all to you, Happy New Year!
News from Nakuru…
The girls and little ones all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas, thanks to the success of our Christmas Gifts Appeal. They feasted Kenyan style, played games, watched movies, they danced and sang and worshipped. The girls were also so happy to have an extra Christmas gift this year in the shape of new pyjamas, thanks to the wonderful fundraisingng appeal run by our wonderful Beehive friend Diane. What a wonderful way to end a year, and enter a new year here in Nakuru.
In January all the girls enjoyed a wonderful two days of workshops with a visiting project. They led them through various topics such as self-esteem, peer pressure, health and hygiene. So much fun was had by them all and they all said that they felt they had really benefited from this time.
Just before Christmas J* gave birth to a tiny baby boy. J* is one of our girls who had undergone FGM before coming to The Beehive, and so it was considered essential that she deliver through Caesarean section. She has adjusted to motherhood really well and loves her baby boy so very much.
We said goodbye to C* in the beginning of the new year. She had aloways found it hard to settle at The Beehive having lived the past few years mainly on the street or moving from friend to friend. And when she insisted on leaving with baby E*, we were heartbroken, but of course we endeavoured to follow her wishes. An aunt was located who was willing to take them both and along with the help of children’s services, C* and E* eventually left us together to go to her aunt.
Visits to family
Whenever it is possible we try to do home visits with our girls and their little ones, for them to remain in contact with any family they may have.
In the school holidays, H* was able to do so. She went with one of our social workers and her little 5-year-old, for the third time since joining us back at the beginning of 2017. They went to visit her brothers and sister. And this time she was absolutely delighted because her mum had returned to thr family home. Her mother had abandoned the family when H* was a little girl due to the abject poverty and the stress that comes with that. H* was incredibly happy and we are hopeful of a reintegration in the coming year for her and her little one.
R* also made her first home visit ever since 2016! She comes from an unstable part of Kenya where travel is not very safe, hence the delay. In January she and her little 6-year-old boy travelled with one of our social workers and visited her mum and brother. R* has been unable to return home up until now due to a complicated host of circumstances. Therefore, being able to go was simply amazing for her. We are hopreful of reintegration for R* and her little boy within a year.
Back to school!
And then it was time for all the school girls to go back to school after their nine week holiday. They were very excited. It made for a huge amount of work for our social work team, with all the shopping and fees etc. Eventually we got there! We also had nine girls joining school for the first time since becoming mummys, plus two going up to High School.
We are so proud to report that we currently support 30 girls and boys in school. Most of whom are with us currently and some of whom have left our immediate care but still remain under our educational sponsorship scheme. However, we do still need new educational sponsors for a couple of the girls. If you would like to know more about this please do get in touch!
In other news
We recently also said cheerio to one of our girls and her little boy. They were due to leave us to be reintegrated with her sister last year but for various reasons that didnt work out. However, now J* is a mature 20 year old, she was ready for independence from the Beehive. So we have rented her and her little one a small place very near to us.
We are fully supporting them both for three months as they transition into independence. During this time hopefully J* can find employment so she can support herself. We are also continuing to support her little one in his education as he has joined a new local school where he is very happy.
Last but not least, are our four new girls who have recently joined us. A 16 year old, 15 year old and sisters who are 15 and 16. 2 of our new girls are HIV positive. This presents with a challenge during the delivery of the baby, so both will deliver through Caesarean section. They all come from such sad and difficult circumstances. Sisters L* and D* had been living alone for some time. They were raising their younger siblings, and just before being brought to us they had buried their mother, who died from AIDS. 15-year-old C* arrived with her baby boy who was covered head to toe in allergic dermatitis. Thankfully, with treatment, this is now subsiding. Sometimes we are reminded just how important our work here is!
Finally, we celebrate our 10-year anniversary this month since leaving the UK for East Africa.
10 whole years of following God and seeing many of our young girls give their lives to Jesus.
