Tanya meets Jemutai in Kenya
Wellingtonian Tanya Piejus visited her sponsored child ten-year-old Jemutai in Kenya.
I started sponsoring a Kenyan girl called Jemutai in January 2008 through ChildFund. I didn't know much about her other than a few details through the ChildFund profile and letters written on her behalf by her family. I had one photo from when she first enrolled in the Morop Child and Family Project and another one from last year. None of these things told me anything about her personality. All I had was an image of a sad-eyed little thing. What I discovered when I met Jemutai was quite the opposite: she's a bright, confident, active, curious, affectionate 10-year-old with a huge gap-toothed grin, who threw her arms around me when we met and instantly became my new best friend.
My journey to meet Jemutai began on Thursday when I met my guide, adviser, translator, local liaison and all-round guru, Alfrick, at the ChildFund office. We got on the road for the 5-hour drive to Kabarnet, 340 km north of Nairobi.
We arrived mid-afternoon at the Morop Project office where I saw my name on a hand-written welcome sign by the door and was introduced to the project manager, Joseph. He told me all about the Morop Project and how it helps 1,200 children in a 30 km radius and their families. The emphasis is on capacity-building among the families which is 80 per cent of their work. The three main projects are dairy cows, dairy goats and fruit trees. The Project has demonstration areas for all of these where the families can go to learn how to farm, manage and market milk and fruit. The project workers also raise native trees that families can plant to prevent soil erosion on their hillside properties.
They provide educational programmes too on issues such as AIDS prevention and cultural issues such as early marriage, which is a huge barrier to kids attending school. Children as young as 12 are considered marriageable and usually drop out of school once they've been paired off.
The long-running drought has had obvious effects on the water supply; so much of the Project's current work is about building water tanks and supply pipes. The drought also has some less obvious side effects, one of which is kids not going to school because they don't have food to eat in the morning. Instead, they do small jobs, work on the land or beg food from others in the village. The Morop Project is consequently supplying a temporary breakfast and lunch feeding programme to the project schools. If the schools feed the kids, the kids go to school.
I was shown round the demonstration projects on the first day by Joseph, then after spending the night in Kabarnet, went to visit a family who have been given dairy goats. They'd built a compound for them, as instructed, and are doing very well. They had a pair of cute kids that they're now allowed to keep, having given the first two away to other families under the rules of the programme.
Once I'd met Jemutai, she came with us to visit a water project and we all climbed onto the top of the almost-finished tank to peer inside at what will soon supply water to 800 families on the hills below.
Jemutai's mum and grandparents joined us to travel to the school which Jemutai has just moved to 40 km away on the plains. She now lives with her mum during term time and will go back to her grandparents for holidays so she can stay in the Morop programme.
The whole school of 250 kids, plus 12 teachers, school chairman and headmaster came out to meet me. The headmaster told me about the school first and some of the challenges they face. Despite the hardships, it's a good school that often comes top in the area and Jemutai is doing well there.
Next some of the girls, including Jemutai, performed a song and dance entertainment for me. I felt like the Queen on one of her royal visits. Then I was presented with a bracelet by Jemutai on behalf of the school and had an official thank-you from the school chairman to which I had to give a reply. I hate speaking publicly when I haven't rehearsed, but burbled something which the chairman translated for the benefit of the kids.
It was hot and dry and time was getting on so we all adjourned to a hotel by Lake Bogoria for lunch. Jemutai very quickly got the hang of how to use my digital SLR camera and started what I'm sure will be a stellar photographic career by taking a very competent photo of me with a stuffed lion.
Last stop was Lake Bogoria's hot springs where we messed about by the geysers and exchanged gifts. The family gave me a traditional headdress, necklace and bracelet which they carefully put on me. I gave the family some essential food items, such as sugar, that are often too expensive to buy and I gave Jemutai a toy kiwi, paua necklace and pens, pencils, drawing paper and a T-shirt from my mum. She was very excited about her gifts and the family said some beautiful things about the gratitude they felt for my coming to visit them and supporting Jemutai. She's clearly much loved by those closest to her.
At the end of the day, I collapsed back at the hotel in Kabarnet after an overwhelming day of love, gratitude, friendship, joy and peace. It was extraordinary, and I feel very privileged to be part of Jemutai's life.
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