Commemorating the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty would not have been attained in Kenya without ‘spreading love’ at a children’s home. Arigatou International – Nairobi in partnership with Centre for Sustainable Conflict Resolution (CSCR), a member of GNRC, visited the Good Samaritan Children’s Home and Rehabilitation Center in Mathare, Nairobi, Kenya on the 19th of October 2018.
Welcomed by Ms. Hellen Oduor and Mr. Eric Gichimu, both social workers to the home, the team shared about the home. “This home is just like any other home and one of the most serious things that affects us is poverty,” Ms. Oduor stated. She noted that poverty is one of the biggest problems they faced, not only in the home but also within the wider community; and as a result, they struggle to provide basic necessities to the children and youth. Of the over 355 children in the home; 152 are in primary school, 153 are in secondary school and some 50 younger ones in a nursery school within the home.
Good Samaritan home receives abandoned, vulnerable and orphaned children from all corners of Nairobi County. In his statement, Mr. Gichimu stated that the home is motivated to work for children in who mostly lack basic needs.
GNRC members got to interact with the children who were full of life and hope for a promising future. With passion and desire for education, the children drew pictorials of what they aspire to be in future. From surgeons, accountants, doctors and teachers, the children anticipated a better future free of poverty.
Arigatou International – Nairobi’s visit to the center is just one of the many efforts in ending child poverty. Children desire and can have a better future if we come together to end child poverty.
As a Faith Inspired Organization, Arigatou International believes that all children have rights and dignity that must be upheld, protected and promoted. Childhood adversity, especially violence against children and child poverty imposes an unbearable cost on the lives of children. We believe that recognizing and enabling the individual and collective voice of children is essential to helping us feel and share in this pain, to grieve and suffer with them and to prompt us to action.
