THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO ME: THAT YOU KNOW THAT THESE PEOPLE MANAGED TO OCCUPY A VERY SPECIAL PLACE IN MY HEART; I even cried when I left there.
One of the first things I noticed was how afraid, how hopeless and desperate the look in the eyes of most children is. When I observed the adults, the women called my attention with the look of distrust and fear, the men with curiosity and contempt at the same time and both with lethargy and/or apathy.
Many people came to me to ask me to pay the school fees for their daughters. Daughters have no chance. I realised that yes, one child I can support, yet I just have no means of supporting financially any more as I have to work hard for a living. Most of what I earn goes into projects and travel costs.
I observed, listened, and felt… what(?) is it, I have come for.
My work is always about finding the cause of the matter, whether illness, problem or situation. And that was what I tried to do here too. So I waited until I saw…
Females have very little worth in Kenya. So women have it hard. They have to obey their husband, work hard and keep the household going.
The men do what they like, sometimes work, often don’t. They don’t support their families enough financially.
This means the women have to see how they manage to feed all those mouths… and get them dressed etc. They have to look for wood to cook, wash and get water etc. they are very busy every day and… they have to bear a son. Yet often when they bare a child it is a girl.
The man will make her have babies, (we would say rape her) until the son is born. Often she has many girls before the boy is born.
She has to feed them and look after them and they mean work, so she resents them and does not bring them up. Then when the boy is born she resents him too, for he is the reason she had all these kids already.
These children are not brought up with love and care. They are often beaten, a normal way to discipline them; girls often get raped. They get no education. They walk and crawl in the village, looked after by some of the other kids or the mother but without the loving arms and lips of a mother who is glad to have them.
This means that many of the children, the majority, is unwanted. An unwanted child in Kenya has nothing… because affection is the only thing there could be plenty of as it does not depend on climate, money or nature.
Yet there is not plenty of this. The children grow up without the hope of anything, as
their parents don’t really show them what is possible in this wonderful world. So they have the feeling it is not worth a lot.This causes a disinterest in life, except for if they are allowed to go to school. School means usually food and clothing, and something interesting to do. School was the only place I saw children laughing. Yet also here the wonderful discipline I so admired (in Spanish schools kids are VERY loud!!) comes about as the children get caned if they don’t behave well. This is tough. Although the state prohibits kids getting beaten at schools.
That is why I would like to start at the bottom. To teach that children need to be brought up. That education starts at the very moment of birth. A child needs love from the moment it has entered mommy’s tummy. And how we do this and why.
Therefore we need to show the women AND the men that women are valuable for the community; the society. So that their status becomes higher and they can do and decide things that are good for them, their children, and therefore of course for the whole!!!!
If me manage this in Kenya, we might be able to go on with it in other African countries and are definitely helping to create a better world for all of us!!!
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