Dear Reader,
Warm greetings from Nairobi from where we struggle ‘day and night’ and try to alleviate suffering in the best way possible. At times it’s very overpowering but we still carry on as best we can. You have often been at our side and great things have been done through your tremendous generosity, especially in Education which continues to transform lives.

Let me tell you the stories of two young people I met recently and how your support has changed their lives.
Victor is a teenager I met two weeks ago; he is/was due to sit his Kenya Certificate Secondary Education (KCSE). He has only attended school erratically, the reason being that his mother works by scavenging on the largest dump site in Nairobi. When she can make 500 Kenyan Shillings which is the equvilant of Euro 3.70. He takes it to school where he is allowed in for a week to ten days. What I find most sad is that Victor is a B+ or an A student, but I’ve ensured that at least he can sit his Form/4, by paying the balance of school fees up to the exam in November. We will follow up on him and see if we can put him on a better ‘footing’ in life.

Daniel came into our office about two weeks ago also. This young man is a ‘high thigh’ amputee. He has struggled with major injury for more than two years now. He had come off a local transport (matatu) and was hit by a high-speed motorcycle. It tossed him into the ditch, and he landed in a drain – rather dank due to the presence of open sewage and the driver sped off. He lay there for some hours in & out of consciousness. Finally, a good Samaritan took him to the national referral hospital where he lay there most of the night unattended. In this condition it was understandable that he required an amputation.

Afterwards he went back to his rural family upcountry but there was nothing in that remote area to assist him. Finally, he returned to a friend in Nairobi slums, but it was not easy, and he felt a burden to a childhood friend who lived in a subsistence way also. Struggling with his crutches someone told him that he should try going around to churches as he might stumble on some form of charity. Well, it turned out that he arrived at the office where Mutuku and I were engaged in a planning meeting for the ten Victim/Survivors who came to our office the previous evening (at 4.30pm), ‘never rains but it pours’

Happily, life has changed for him, and he believes that his prospects are good. In consultation with him we set him up with a food trolley business. He sells cooked sausages and hard-boiled eggs which are kept hot with a small charcoal grill at the bottom. We got him a chair and umbrella as he will need to sit and also have shade from the burning sun. We have put him on the list of the Association of Physically Disabled of Kenya (APDK) to be measured and supplied with a prosthesis. He has found a niche close to the CBD where he can leave his trolley secured with a strong padlock. We are very confident that he will do well and there is no reason why he cannot have a family of his own in the future.