Orphanages

Over the last two days I have gone to two orphanages. The first orphanage we went to was Jehovah Jira. We went as part of HEART's Freedom For Girls project. Through the Freedom For Girls project HEART provides feminine hygiene products to poor girls. Through its ministry HEART discovered that many girls stop attending school not because they get pregnant but because they get their period and have no way to deal with it. We went to the orphanage to deliver sanitary towels and talk to the girls about health issues. Unfortunately we were not able to deliver the hygiene products because, due to miss communication the older girls were not at the orphanage that day. The orphanage was devastating, the building looked like a run down warehouse. The children sleep on tiny bunk beds in poorly ventilated rooms. Some of the children did not even have sleeping pads, they sleep on chicken wire. I would not be at all surprised if the children didn't eat every day.
The children greeted us with a performance, it was somewhat subdued. A general malaise permeated the place. Last year a child died at that orphanage, he was playing on roof and he stuck a piece of metal scrap metal on the electrical wires. I cannot imagine the trauma of watching your playmate being electrocuted and then fall from the roof into the play yard. After the boy's death a church took over the management of the orphanage, but the center is still really struggling. The children looked haunted.
Today we went to another orphanage called the Brydges Center. This orphanage was the polar opposite of the Jehova Jirah orphanage. The children were healthy, hopeful, and very lively. I attached a video of the children performing a song for us. The singing and dancing was amazing! When we arrived the younger children greeted us with a musical performance, "Welcome Visitors". I also got to hold the youngest member of the center, David. He kept stealing my sun glasses! The children were all wearing matching t shirts with the center's logo on it as well as jeans. It was the first place that I have seen where girls wore pants. Not all the girls wore jeans, however, some of the young girls wore wat looked like old party dresses. They were poofy with ribbons. The children were increasingly well behaved (as they were at Jehova Jira orphanage as well, but the children at Brydges had spirit, hope). We hung out at Brydges for over three hours, the children performed skits, and songs for us. We even had an impromptu dance party! After the older children arrived (they had been out at classes) they announced that they needed to 'loosen up'. They then proceeded to start singing and dancing. One young man was playing a guitar/ harp like instrument (you can see him playing in the video which I attached), and everyone started dancing. The younger children quickly got up out of their chairs to join the older kids in dancing, we followed soon after that. The younger children tried to teach me how to dance, I was less than successful.
The Brydges Center is a fantastic place, the children are very well taken care of. The dormitories are comfortable and well ventilated, there is a library, and they are very well fed. We ate with them, they fed the children very generous portions of rice with vegetables, they had cookies with juice with Koolaid for dessert. We ate with them, I went for seconds, it was delicious.
The older kids also performed a skit, it was clearly based on a true story. The skit was about a young girl who was abused by her alcoholic father and thrown out of her house by her father and step mother. The girl was then taken in and brought to the Brydges Center. The story was both moving and obviously true (the older children also threw in funny bits about a witch doctor to keep the younger children amused). It struck me as an excellent way to process their situations. Several young children also recited Bible verses for us. A five year old recited Psalm 40 and another said Psalm 23. Visiting the Brydges Center was an uplifting experience, the center has had some financial difficulties lately, but it is getting back on its feet and the children are all healthy and hopeful.
I will not be posting for the next few days, I am going to Mombasa. I am really excited! I will get to see the Indian Ocean and ride a camel on the beach!
Best,
Margaret