Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Litein Children’s Home

In between the hospital and our housing was the Litein Children’s Home. The home is funded by a group in the Netherlands and houses children of single-parent families or orphanages. Housing, meals, clothing, and education tuition is provided for children aged 5 up to 18 (unless they receive high enough marks to attend college in which case they are allowed to live another 2 years at the home).

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Each child is responsible for maintaining their own rooms, laundry, and bath houses. Older children help the younger ones and a staff member is always on grounds.

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Above is the common area where meals are served and below is the kitchen. Porridge is served in the mornings with chai tea and dinner is ugali and sukuma wiki (see primary school post).

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As a fun surprise, Andrew and I had our neighbor Dorkus make two large cakes for the children. They held a small ceremony honoring our visit which included beautiful singing and praise music. Most of the children didn’t know what cake was let alone what it tasted like. I will never forget watching their faces fill with joy when they tasted the cake! We spent the night chatting, playing music, dancing, and praying. What a wonderful group of children!

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One of the needs we found while we were at the Children's Home was mosquito nets and lighting for when power went out. Thanks to all of the wonderful financial support we received, Andrew and I were able to meet this minor need and buy mosquito nets for each child, 8 lanterns for their rooms, and a soccer ball. The children had tears of joy and were extremely grateful.

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