Times News Services A MOTHER’S PASSION

A children's home in Dandora is providing solace and an education for sixty orphans.

By Tabitha Areba Stephen Otieno sat for his Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) in 2005 and scored a total of 428 marks out of 500. Due to lack of fees, he shelved his certificates and embarked on quarry work for survival.
One morning, as he struggled with his daily duties, a good Samaritan appeared. Rose Wairimu pitied the little, overworked boy. After investigations, she noticed Otieno’s potential in academics.

She took it upon herself ensure that Otieno received a good education and enrolled her at Dagoreti High School.
Rose Wairimu, commonly known as ‘Mama Tony’ has done more for the needy. Apart from helping Otieno, she has more than 50 pupils under her care at Rehoboth Community Centre in Dandora.

It all started in 2002 when she met Geofrey Gitau at a nearby slum. The 6 year old boy looked hopeless and helpless and homeless.
She used her motherly charm to win the boy's heart. Since then, she has been staying with the boy.
‘Mama Tony’ has her own children, too. In fact , she has a son called Tony who is in Form three. Her second born son, Sammy is in form one. Her husband works as a driver with a tour firm.

Mama Tony attends Gospel Revival church at Dandora. In this church, there is a door to door evangelistic team whose initiative is to care for the poor, especially those who live in nearby slums.
Most slum dwellers live below the poverty line. They spend their time in risky behavious, which makes them prone to HIV and AIDS.

The mortality rate is high, and many children here are orphaned.
It was the church's door to door strategy of visitation that exposed mama Tony to such children. Since she could not accommodate all of them in her house, she ended up founding a children’s home..

Her first batch of children came from Maili saba village, where she found four destitute children. Their mother had died and their father was jobless. They eked a meagre living off the city's streets.
In 2002, she rented two rooms where she started a feeding program for the children. Her generosity did not end there. Children form the neighbouring slums soon joined, those with single, poor parents.

The birth of Rehoboth Community Center came with the realisation that apart from food, the children also needed clothing, education and spiritual guidance.

In its attempts to offer basic education, the center has expanded its classes by renting two more rooms to cater for the increasing number of children.

Currently, it accomodates 60 children from baby class to class three. The teachers who take the children through the normal syllabus do volunteer work because the centre can only pay tem a meagre salary.
However, none of them has attended a teachers' training college. But their determination perhaps surpasses that of many trained teachers.

Moureen Muga, Linet Achieng and Ann Mwaniki are some of the teachers here. They say they have are often forced to dig into their pocket to provide for the children.
The teaching formula in the school is a strange one; the children are forced to share classrooms.

There are only three rooms and the children belong to six different levels. Those in baby class and nursery share a room. Their teacher, Linet Achieng, says she engages each class with some work when she is busy teaching the other lot, all in the same room.
The same applies to those in pre-unit and class one. Their teacher, Moureen Muga, has derived her own strategies to ensure that the children learn.

Ann Mwaniki, the senior teacher, has a tougher job. Children belonging to class two and class three share a classroom..

Yet despite the shortcomings, learning must continue, the children must compete with those in schools with better facilities.
'Imagine the struggle we go through to sharpen these brains. Our prayer is that they go up to university,’ says Mwaniki.

Rehoboth Community Centre is struggling hard to bring to an end problems facing the children. For its efforts, the centre recently received donations. One helper has been Pastor Muteti of the Gospel Revival church in Dandora, who gave out school uniforms to the girls.

The Ministry of Education also donated 75,000 shillings for stationery. Through their director Rose Wairimu, they organised a fund-raising early this month where they raised a total of shs 150,000.

They have so far purchased a piece of land at Jua Kali in Dandora estate, Nairobi where they have laid down a foundation for the classrooms.

The plot, which cost them shs 95,000 is however too small to cater for the needs of the centre. The aim is to have a complete orphanage, where the children can eat, sleep, study and participate in extra-curricula activities.