Kisumu - 6.25.08

Jane briefed us on the things that would be different in Kisumu. It’s a more conservative province than Nairobi and Nakuru. It is expected that the majority of a woman’s body should remain covered at all times, despite the heat. Women are also treated as property here. There is a policy known as “bride inheritance.” When a woman’s husband dies, her late husband’s brother or cousin will inherit her as his wife. She may become his second wife if he is already married. At that time, the arrangement is consummated and everything that the woman has to her named is transferred over to new husband. She has no rights, no property, no nothing. Rape is also a high risk in Kisumu. Female Genital Mutilation is still a supported practice. These are ways that men assert their dominance over women. At one point it was reported that 40% of adults in Kisumu had HIV/AIDS while the rest of the country reported about 11%. On the upside of the visit, Kisumu is the province that Barack Obama hails from.

When we woke up this morning, we went to breakfast and then headed over to New Life Home – Kisumu. This home houses 50 children year round. It is by far the biggest. It is run by an incredible husband and wife team, John and Prisca. Another incredible husband and wife team have just come in the last year to help with the administrative and academic focus of the home, their names are Tom and Forida.

John is the eldest of 21 children. When he got a job at a bank after leaving university his family was overjoyed. He was a rising star at the bank fielding promotion after promotion. Bank jobs in Kenya are coveted and extremely hard to come by. After 20 years he announced his intention to go into the community and care for the disadvantaged.

Prisca, John’s wife, is an RN by profession. Prior to New Life Home – Kisumu she worked in the best hospital in Kisumu in the private unit. Her job was also coveted and hard to come by. She was also paid very well.
One day an abandoned malnourished infant turned up in the hospital where she worked. She took the baby home after work to care for it and took it back to work the next day. She did this for about a week as the baby started looking better. She began this practice of bringing home babies became regular. She would bring the babies home one by one for a few days at a time. Suddenly, there were three babies in her home by night. Prisca decided to hire help. Suddenly there were five babies, so she hired more help. Eventually, and rather quickly, they became the Kisumu Rescue Mission with a maximum capacity of eight babies.

Prisca would care for these babies until they were well and strong enough to be transported to the already established New Life Home – Nairobi. All the while she was still working at the hospital and spending a few hours after work each day going around town to tell people at hospitals and police stations about New Life Homes and their mission. She did this in hopes of decreasing people’s tendency to discard and abandon babies. She encouraged them to take the children that they could no longer care for to New Life Homes.

The story of the Kisumu Rescue Mission began to spread locally. Eventually some donors bought the land and the maximum capacity expanded to twenty. More expansion and donations brought the maximum capacity to fifty children, where is stands today.

The Kisumu Rescue Mission became New Life Homes Trust – Kisumu in the year 2000. They care for fifty babies year round. They have a staff of fifty who care for the babies on a twenty-four hour rotating shift. That’s a crucial one-to-one connection for the kids most of the time. They get all the love that they need!

Originally, New Life Homes founders Clive and Mary Beckenham had the intention of making Kisumu the location for a New Life Home for special needs children. Under the incredible leadership of John and Prisca, New Life Home- Kisumu and the special needs home have merged into one. New Life Homes – Kisumu is home to five special needs children who are well-adjusted and thriving in the company of their peers. In recent years they have come into the opportunity and the funding to hire a full-time occupational therapist to work with these children. This is such a stimulating environment for them, it’s so exciting!

We also spoke with Tom and his wife Forida. They are the Montessori teachers at the Kisumu home and they eagerly expressed that the main objective of the learning program is to train the children for life and eternity. John and Prisca have trained the staff that will run the home in Kericho. In the very near future (we’re talking months) the Kisumu home will send 14 children to live at Kericho.

The Kisumu home boasts that they have never had an HIV positive baby die while being cared for there. That is because they have expended all of their resources to turn an HIV positive child into an HIV negative one. Many people don’t know that if a baby is diagnosed and treated early enough it can become negative and lead a normal life. The miracles of medicine…

After we came back and got the kids settled back in, we began to say our goodbyes. We had to prepare to catch our flight back to Nairobi. Once back in Nairobi, we went to dinner and then to bed! Long day tomorrow!