Hi everyone Roy here. I'm back home at freezing Hunciecroft now but i had a great three weeks in Kenya with Veronica. Of course i hadn't seen her for about six weeks which was really weird and hard going at times. Now we have a very strange Christmas coming up, with Josh away in Brasil as well. We had a short break on the coast, and for me it was a very relaxing time, and i was able to do a fair bit of drawing when Veronica was at work. But i do want to write a little bit about two places that we visited, and which have had a big effect on me.
During our holiday at Diani we took a day out to visit a clinic that we'd heard about in Mombasa town. It's in Bomu, a very poor part of the town. The clinic was founded many years ago, and is still run by an Indian lady called Mama Hayati. She's a wealthy woman, her husband was a minister in Kenyata's first government, and she lives well, but she has basically devoted her whole life to building up this clinic. It's a charity; remember there is no free health care in kenya; you get the care you can pay for. And of course they get nothing from the government. After the politicians have been paid there's not that much left to go round it seems! They are just finishing a fantastic new extension to the clinic which has taken years of fundraising. The building itself and the workmanship are top class (Mama Hayati's motto is that "just because people are poor they shouldn't have to expect less than the best") but they don't have much equipment. No beds yet, and the operating table came out of the ark (did they have an operating table on the ark?). I don't want to sound like Lenny Henry or Sting (no i don't) but they do need some equipment if you've got the odd hospital bed or operating table your not using.....
My other little excursion to Stark Reality Kenya '08, was the Arap Moi Children's Home at Nakuru. We drove there on the day before i left Kenya, and i was pleasantly surprised that they'd done the road up. I remember it as dusty and very bumpy, no joke in the back of a pick up. But we got there in no time, thanks to the magnificent benevolence of President Kibaki, apparently. We picked up a social worker called Donald and made the visit. I shadowed Veronica and took some photos. Veronica told me, and even i could see, that this was a good place and they were happy for me to take pictures. The head was proud to show what they were doing, but wanted to show also what they lacked in terms of facilities and funding. Again no internal funding; it comes from USA, Sweden, Britain etc. Again a woman at the helm who is totally dedicated and stretched in every direction. Veronica says she comes across this time and again. People who want to do things the right way, and want to learn, but who's hands are tied by lack of cash.
Arap Moi is a long established children's home, but of course they've had to take in all the internally displaced children following the post election violence. When we visited there were only four (but there have been many) which is a testament to the their committment to the stated policy of returning children to their families or extended families, or recognised foster carers. We were told that of the sixty something children's homes in the Nakuru area, only about twenty are registered with the government. It seems anyone can just set up a home over there, Some will be ok, but many will be very bad. Some are run by the churches, notoriously difficult to regulate, others by unscrupulous individuals who gain foreign funding, and use the places as a front for child trafficing and the worst you can think of. This is no exageration.
Veronica is flying of all over the country assessing schools and homes, but what has amazed me is that no one was already doing this. And if she hadn't volunteered to do it, it wouldn't be happening now. To their credit the powers that be seem to realise this and are using her knowledge and experience to the full.
She really is kicking ass at a national level!!
Roy.
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