At 73 Mary Wanjiku Kapua has seen much of what life has to offer. Three years as a freedom fighter in the forest,two years as a detainee and the rest of her life in perpetual poverty to IDP status since 2007.

That freedom you talk about has no meaning for me. I do not like to talk about those days because it sounds like mockery, like someone who killed your brother but keeps telling you about it.

-She said when I asked her about her days as a freedom fighter.

She eventually opened up.Ms Kapua was in Nairobi in 1952 when the British colonizers declared a state of emergency as the Mau Mau fighters stepped up the war on the colonialists. She was living with her father who worked at Firestone Tire Factory and used his pass to travel back home to Mugoiri in Muranga.

There was a lot of harassment by the white man and the homeguards, so I pretended to go to school to fool them.

The pretense of learning was during the day but at night she and several other girls would gather near the forest, where they would prepare roast sweet potatoes for the fighters. They would throw the homeguards and chiefs off guard with their good looks and lead them into an ambush where the fighters collected the guns and killed the collaborators.

Like many of her colleagues she was captured during an unsuccessful raid, and was transported to detention camps.When she returned to her village, there was hardly any land for her father’s family; her parents had died, brothers jailed. She married a man who feared her because of her past and battered her endlessly.She had her second child with him in 1978 and eventually left his home.She rented a home near Narok and was chased away during the 2007 dispute.

We were fighting for land, but you see, even if I were to die here today,I would have nothing to my name .

Suffering and weakness must exist to fuel the able-bodied and courageous.

That’s the only rationale I can muster after my stay in Neema. I don’t see any other reason why such things would happen to such undeserving people. These atrocities must exist to afflict the comfortable – exposure to a crisis such as IDP camps in Kenya should force you from your comfort zone, even if just for a moment. I hope this story disturbs you just a bit. These people weren’t born into poverty. They haven’t been living in the slums since birth. These people were successful. They had businesses. They had homes. They had families. Dec. 27, 2007, changed that. That’s when post-election violence thrashed their simple lives. They went from having a place to being displaced. From happy to hurting. From living to dying. My initial mission was to find out what kind of help we should offer. For the first time in my ‘volunteer career”’, doing that alone won’t suffice. I hope the images, words and sounds here move you to rattle a cage. Rile some feathers … at least do something. Maybe you aren’t going to head to rural Kenya and help people in tents. That’s fine. But there’s likely someone just like Mary in your backyard. Someone who is sick. Someone who is hungry. Someone literally crying for help. I hope that my work here might persuade you to answer that call, even if for a brief moment.

At one point I walked away to find more shade and sat down under a near by tree.A cute, skinny girl followed me and sat right next to me. “I am Anne” , she said ” What is your name ?” … the beginning of a great 2 hour conversation and mutual discoveries.
Anne Wangui, 16 year old living in Amani IDP Camp.

It took me moment to realize that this 16 year old completely opened up to me in such short time, she told me :

I have problems getting to school. I am in Maai Mahiu Secondary School and have to walk alone  to my school. The other children from my camp are much younger and they leave later in the morning, after myself. I have to leave at 6 A.M. while it’s still dark outside. Walking through maize ( corn) fields is very scary because sometimes there is a man waiting and jumping out. One morning that happened to me. A man jumped out of the thick maize, I did not know him so I screamed and he left me alone.I told my mother,she also got scared for me.I have to go to school regularly because if i miss a day I get beaten. There is no one who can follow me through the maize fields, my mother is also a female so she is scared. I still have one and a half years left in secondary School, but I fear every day that walk through the maize.

Anne’s story inspired me to visit her school and meet a lot of her peers. The school is Maai Mahiu Secondary School and Anne is one of the top students that needs your support.  Later, I met with Anne’s friends and became very close with them. Just like Anne, her friends have touched my heart with their ambition to change their lives and be a good influence to others. After talking to them and spending days following them through out their every day flow, I am most certain that those ladies WILL make it , they have what it takes in every other way but financially. It is sad that $300 a year will stand between a girl and her future. Please act now and support one or more of them , e mail me at aida@directaida.com for detailed info.  Sponsor a child

My visit to Maai Mahiu secondary School

I spoke to Mr. Naftali Chege, Maai Mahiu Secondary School Principal

Sixteen pupils, out of 667 were chosen by Mr. Chege as the top scoring students with the most desire to achieve their career goals, but need financial help. Anne and her friends are amongst them.

I visited their classes and gave motivational speeches

forever friends bracelets

Anne’s touching letter to me and School’s Fee Chart

Kibera Slum, I am sure you heard about it.

There are approx 2.5 million slum dwellers in about 200 settlements in Nairobi representing 60% of the Nairobi population, occupying just 6% of the land. Kibera houses almost 1 Million of these people. Kibera is the biggest slum in Africa and one of the biggest in the world.

The average size of shack in this area is 12ft x 12ft built with mud walls, screened with concrete, a corrugated tin roof, dirt or concrete floor. The cost is about Ksh 700 per Month (£6). These shacks often house up to 8 or more, many sleeping on the floor.

Harry and Matt visited Directaida’s Project Site ~Soweto West Village~ in Kibera, and were touched by the warmth and hospitality of Raphael Otieno and his family. Raphael helps operate a Self Help Group that makes recycled bone jewelry and also Soweto West School. This school has about 50 pupils , more than half of them are orphans that live on site and the others come from the village. The school provides lunch and for most of those students that is the only meal they take for the day. They usually eat ugali ( made from maize flour) , beans and maize. The meals don’t provide the essential nutrients for growing children. After finding out the importance of this one meal, Harry and Matt decided to build a Chicken Coop.

Harry raised money from his friends and family back home in the UK for this project. He partnered up with Matt whose excellent carpeting skills came in (literally) handy.

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Chicken Coop on the way to Soweto West in Kibera.

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In the name of all the children Directaida would like to thank Harry and Matt for their love and hard work for the pupils of Soweto West School.

We have a chicken coop , but you guessed it we need chicken. H and M’s Chicken coop can host about 10 grown laying chicken which would give 10 eggs a day , enough to help children of Soweto West School grow!

To ensure top quality we would like to get chicks from a reliable source and  help them grow into healthy laying chickens rather than buying fully grown chicken of which health status we can not be sure of. The quote for buying the chicks, paying the Veterinary cost,providing food and warmth ( charcoal) for the first 3 –4 months comes to about $ 300. Please let us now if you are interested in helping us get the chicks , we can provide the full price proposal and some fundraising ideas.This project would be perfect as a school class project. We hope to find funds my the end of February 2010.

Soweto West School

Harry helping at  Soweto West School Graduation Day

Please contact Aida if you wish to help finish our Coop Project

Harry’s flyer

Riruta Shade Orphanage is located in an informal settlement called Kawangware/ Satellite, Nairobi.There are 27 children living there age 2-14.

List of names and age

Hilary (friend from Australia)  helped me deliver all the “ingredients” , we arrived there later in the Wednesday afternoon to drop off the bags in the storage room, greeted the store keeper lady and left to be home before dark. I arrived there very early Thursday morning (17th December ) and was greeted with big smiles and hugs. The children already knew that something was up.

I quickly took the bags into the class room where I did all the packing and decorating so that it can be a surprise to all the kids.

I used white plain (recycled)  paper to pack. In blue I wrote  boys names on the individual package and glued a blue cracker onto it. In red I wrote  girls name on it and glued a purple cracker onto it.The package included a exercise book, sweets,box of chock cereal,Christmas stocking and a toy ( wooden model plane for boys age 12-14, a toy car for younger boys and a pink school supplies toy package for girls)

Decorated Christmas Tree and the transformed classroom

After I finished all the gifts I placed them under the Tree, moved all the tables out of the way placed chairs there and called all the children to the class room. We talked about Kelley , all the children remember You and miss you. They all asked when you will come visit  and why you did not come this year. They asked questions to where you live , what you are doing and Samuel asked if you are married )). Peter, Samuel and Joy are the rafikis that miss you the most my dear.

I called each name and handed out the package. When all the children had their gift I spoke about the tradition of Christmas crackers and showed them how to open them . Almost all of the 27 children pulled the crackers together and the room suddenly filled with excitement. Amazing. This was the moment I was waiting for. I had to fight the sad feeling in me and remind myself that they are so very happy and I should be too. Once again Kelley you made the Christmas miracle come true, giving the children much need love.This gift lets an orphan know that they are special and that someone cares about them.

Wanjiku is the smallest member of Riruta Shade family , being only 2 years old she was not sure what to do with the cracker

This is day they will not forget only thanks to Kelley and her friends

Allyson Newman
Dinny Jensen
Rita Jones
Kathleen Brady
Linda Kraus

Teacher Vida,chairman Samuel, chairman Patricia, teacher Evelyn and ShoSho are wishing all of you very happy Holidays and a happy new year !!!!!!!!! They are all very thankful for the wonderful gifts, the tree, decorations and the 2 boxes of  biscuits and juice that is hiding in the storage room for Christmas Day

stone houses                                                       UN tents

Uncompensated Camps

Directaida with help of Izzo , Kamau and volunteers who come out to help  go out every weekend and  bring  goods we collected from well wishers or sponsors and divide them to 3 to 5 camps depending how much stuff we have. There are  camps with different needs. There are some that have been compensated by the government  and even have small stone houses, some have  good UN tents and some have not been given anything by the  government and those are the once we like to visit.

Past weekend 23rd of October I was able to buy new isolating covers  to fix about 20 tents, and make ID cards for each  family we support in our feeding programme ( 5 camps = 179 families = about 890 people) with  generous support from  the Howells family from Edinburgh, UK. We run out of time to finish it last weekend, but were able to bring more food, visit each camp and finish the fixing of the tents today 31. October. 2009

list with names of all the people from the directaida feeding programme and  brand new laminated ID cards for each family to make distributing of goods easy and fast

many of the tents are still in a unlivable condition not isolated from rain or wind

With the generous sponsorship form  Howells Family 20 families have a leak free roof !!!

Thank You to Howells Family this made our great friends

in Maai-Mahiu very very happy !

One of the many thing that amazes me about our friends living in IDP camps is their attitude .They have NOTHING but smiles and laughter.I have not smiled, giggled and laughed this whole week as much as I did today at the camps.Some of the girls prepared a poem as a appreciation for sponsors who contribute via directaida, Izzo, generous local market people and volunteers who come out to help.

The poem was beautiful I will try and write it out next time .

We left the music playing on our Van’s radio while we unloaded and distributed food and everyone young and old was dancing to the local tunes. I was happy to join but as my legs were moving my heart was skipping beats and I had a very heavy sad feeling that felt wrong at times when I looked around and saw everyone dancing. Those people are the strongest people I ever met. Depression is not an option here.

Nothing –NOTHING about their living condition is suitable for a human being, but yet they have hope and deep love for life.

Thank YOU Gareth and Kirsten Howells !!!!! your friends from  Maai-Mahiu

Riruta Shade Orphanage was the first Children’s Home I visited last year ( 2008) in September.Just like first love this place will forever be special to me. This is the place where I  shared my first hugs and high fives,laughs and tears with children left to survive on their own.

There are about 30 live-in children here age 2-14 and about 15 that come from outside to attend the baby class.Riruta Shade’s only income at the moment is the tuition money that the baby class brings in.( about 2000 Kenyan Schillings , considering they eat lunch here for free and a bag of rice is about 2500 Kenyan schilling the tuition money does not even cover food cost )

I met Kelley here in Kenya last year, and just like me she is very attached to Children from Riruta Shade. Kelley used the opportunity to send some money with me for the Children.

I put the money toward some paint and now their home looks more like it belongs to them. Kelley Your donation made the kids very happy.I asked the chairman for permission, but did not tell the children about my plans…Left the house early yesterday morning (Wednesday,October 07,2009) walked through Kawangware and asked around for the best prices for paint. Purchased 6 cans of paint , 4 brushes and  brush cleaner. Gabriela is another volunteer at Riruta Shade and she agreed to help me paint.

The middle house that will be converted into school rooms to bring additional money in for the food ( from tuitions ) BEFORE:

AFTER :

Thank You Kelley for You Love to Riruta Shade, they LOVE you very much and miss YOU!!!!

***Accusations of irregularities during the December 2007 elections in Kenya sparked widespread violence.The violence began when Kibaki’s Party of National Unity (PNU) declared victory in the elections. In response, the opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) claimed widespread irregularities
and fraud, sparking rioting across the country between supporters of the rival parties. The unrest
also enabled some groups to act on long-standing grievances over land, and forcible appropriation
has led to large-scale displacement, particularly in the Rift Valley and western Kenya.Estimates of the current number of IDPs range from 400,000 to 600,000, though patterns of displacement
are fluid and accurate data is difficult to obtain.

HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE TO THE DISPLACED PERSONS
The response to internal displacement in Africa is minimal, delayed or non-existent. The response of governments to the protection needs of IDPs is generally poor. In Kenya, it is considered in the interest of state security to deny journalists, researchers and members of the humanitarian community access to information on IDPs. In access to clash zones at the height of displacement was due to on-going insecurity, but sometimes it resulted from deliberate obstruction by the government or its agents. As with refugees, governments are quick to deny or withhold information about the suffering of their own nationals.In Kenya, the problem of refugees and forced displacement falls under the Ministry of
Home Affairs, Immigration and Police departments. The draft refugee bill does not address the problem of IDPs at all, nor does the refugee desk at the Ministry of Home Affairs. Instead, the IDP problem has been shifted to the Relief department at the Office of the President. An interview at OP revealed that no-one is specifically charged with addressing the problem of those displaced during or around election time. Relief,including food, medicine and other basic necessities, is provided for victims of cattle
rustling and natural disasters only.***

A group of volunteers and I got together and visited 2 IDP camps, home to about 170 people, near a city of Naivasha. It is important to say that this trip was not a part of any Government or  (local) Non Government Organization. Izzo is a local Kenyan gentleman who guided us to the camps. Izzo and his friends ( and several volunteers out of our group) have been helping every second Friday for 9 months now. This trip is purely supported by the money volunteers put in. Our group had 15 volunteers and we were able to purchase 4 bags of rice 90kg each,6 bags of Maize Flour also 90 kg each, 50kg of cooking fat, a big bag of lollypops. One of the volunteers also brought 4 big bags of used children clothing. We arrived in Naivasha on Thursday evening, divided the food into 170 portions, and drove to the camp the next day to hand  out the food..                                                                                  

.   

  ( We packed the food the night before)

The first camp we visited was home to 15 families who fled their homes back in 2007.Those people were not supported by the government, and did not own the land they lived on. As a matter of fact the land they live on belongs to a school that will be built there some time soon and the 15 families will have to be moved by the end of this month. No one knows where to.

( This tent is home to 6 people)

The tents they live in are built out of old cement bags, used rice bags and old worn down plastic strung onto some tree branches. They ( tents) are home to families of 4-9, despite being barley big enough for one to two people. The one I visited was a home to 8 . In the tent there was plastic on the ground and nothing else. I can not imagine sleeping there on a nice dry night, let alone think about what happens when it rains.

This area is suffering a bad drought and water is a 4 km walking distance away. They are forced to buy dirty water and store it in sulphuric acid containers as that’s all they have. 

( Izzo holding the “water” storage tank)

These people have literally nothing. They use dried donkey dung and old corn cobs to make fire for cooking.

(the toilet)                         ( home to 9 people)

The second camp we visited is compensated. Although it seems like a luxury camp compared to the first one they still have literary nothing except for slightly larger tents given to them by the UN and some of the people were able to buy the land their tents stand on.

  ( the better tent )

We unpacked the food out of the van in this (compensated) camp,but all families including the 15 from the first camp ( they are located next to each other) got handed out potions of food. We had a list of families and portions were handed out according to the family size. Although it seemed like a lot of food , we were only able to give them 2-3 meals each. Izzo and I are hoping to get many more volunteers and donators willing to spend money to feed the people living in these two IDP camps.

Thank You for taking your time to read this.

Please watch the video :

  I wish to come out every second Friday and spend your donation towards aiding the two camps.

I would like to thank the DUAN Family who generously donated the money which I put towards the food we handed out this past weekend.

To make donations towards this project please leave a comment !!

or send me an email aida@directaida.com

phone +254 714791548

I am currently accepting donations through WESTERN UNION KLICK HERE TO DONATE

Baby class has 2 classes in one, age group 2-5 and age group 5-8. To my surprise half of the children were not the orphans from Ruruta but neighborhood children whose parents pay little tuition money which helps provide food for the orphans.
The class starts around 9 , but Wida the teacher arrives there much earlier so that moms can drop of their children earlier and tend to their older children in preparing them for school , clean and cook for the family.Every morning teacher Wida and baby class pray and do some morning gymnastics.
The class is called BABY CLASS but it has TWO classes under one roof.There are 5 tables and the first table to the left is reserved for the babies…age 2-4. Wida first gives [babies] their daily assignments to keep them quiet and busy and then turns to the patiently waiting class age 4-8. Teaching and learning is very challenging in a mixed age class.
I saw the good and the bad sides of it.
Restroom break comes around 10 am and kids being kids made a game out of it. There are two restrooms outside, boys line up in front of one and the girls line up in front of the other, The game is on as soon as the first boy and girl walk in…it is a race -who will finish faster all the boys or all the girls.There is no price and no hurt feelings , just makes them all cheer smile and giggle.
Before they all return to class they much wash hands, in theory good idea but not if they are all washing in ONE bucket with no soap.

Snack time is around 11 A.M. and that was also time when I shed my first tear.The neighborhoods children come with usually a biscuit or some sweet donut like pastry and tea…unpack their goods and without taking a second to think if they should or if they could get away with not doing it . they share. they share they well loved sweets with the first orphan sitting next to them and then the older children walk around the class making sure everyone has a piece to eat. Took my breath away.
Even writing about it has left me wordless and tear eyed….
After snack fallows play time , and then lunch provided by Riruta Shade’s hard working volunteer woman. After lunch there is a bit more class and serious learning until about 3 Pm when moms come to pick their children up, and the Riruta Shade residents unite with some of the other older children returning home from school. Children older than 13 return last , around 5 pm.

Although it is a well structured schedule this class needs help.
Upon my return YOU can send me out with your money to buy well needed class supplies like: SNACKS ,soap,books , pencils , paper, color pencils, arts& craft supplies, class room decorations….even clothing or special day celebrations!
Endless possibilities. Would you like to provide snacks for those children for a day , a week, a month ?
Send me out to buy things you use to love doing !
outdoor games …
Anything really that you would do if you were here I can do in your name ! It cost almost nothing and makes you and the kids feel better.