From Tabitha Ondeche'

Guess what! I have a new name….Velma, a caregiver volunteer in Dandora, decided I needed an Africa name – so I am now Tabitha Ondeche’. I do not know what it means….

Dandora, day 2 was great. I observed part of a “peer counseling training session” today – the participants were all teachers or ministers who worked with children. They were being trained in life skills, relationship building, HIV prevention, and prevention of drug & alcohol abuse… and in turn were to take it back to teach the children & teens they work with… who in turn, could counsel their peers.

I finally met Kennedy Muriuki, the site director, today – and I finally have a concrete plan for my project (beyond all the wonderful learning & exposure activities). I’ll have 3 objectives: to find OVC’s in the community that are not yet entered into HOPE’s support program, to determine if the OVC’s currently in the program have any needs that could be met by an available program, but are not… and finally, to identify children in the community with special needs (the “hidden children” – handicapped, mentally retarded, deaf or blind, etc). I’ll focus it to just one phase of Dandora (one geographic area), since there are 5 phases and 600,000 people… it’s still probably too big a project – but I at least will get something started that HOPE can continue after I leave.

After meeting with Kennedy, I walked with Makena & Charles to the Ronald Ngara Community School… a “public school” that is the only school in Dandora that has a program for special needs children. A young woman named Elizabeth also joined us. Elizabeth is stunningly beautiful, but has a badly misshapen back and hip and walks with crutches. She was beaten by a teacher when she was 12 years old – a beating which broke her back… and the surgeon fusing her vertebrae after the injury, permanently dislocated her hip. As an adult, she has become an advocate for special needs children - and said she wants children, especially special needs children, to get proper education and health care, unlike her experience. We met the class of 13 special needs students – and all but 2 had their mother there for our visit. I thought we were just going for a quick observation, but it was a really big deal. Makena made it clear that we had no immediate funding… but that if we could document numbers and needs, she could begin the search for support monies.

There was one sweet little boy…. born in a third world country… living in a slum in that country, by the city dump…. an AIDS orphan….and mentally retarded. How can one little guy have so many strikes against him? I imagined him in heaven – happy, healthy, strong, fed, loved (I know those aren’t really heavenly attributes… I was just picturing him with all that he lacks in this life…). Both mothers & teachers seemed very devoted to these children – but there resources were so limited (Priscilla, are you there? Do you have any manipulatives, resources books, etc, you could send with Frank & Meg? Kids are 10-19).

Two final notes on the school visit:
· The teacher referred to the “hidden children” – all the special needs kids that live in Dandora but are never seen – because of shame, ignorance, no knowledge of help available. The govt would supply more teachers & the school has space if these kids could be identified and enrolled. “Hidden children” sounds like such an opportunity for abuse & neglect – especially if these children cannot speak for themselves and the family resources are so limited.
· With one exception, the children all looked normal to me (no Down’s syndrome or other syndromes that have relatively easily identifiable features)… it made me wonder if any of their retardation could have been the result of lead poisoning (the water & soil around the dumpsite already has been proven to have high lead levels). I’ll have to do more research on that…

Dave, Pam’s friend took me to Anyima & Edward’s home tonight…. It is almost surreal moving back & forth between these two worlds. They have a beautiful home… Anyima’s father was the Ghanan ambassador to the US and as a child, she visited the White House on numerous occasions and played with Amy Carter. Edward’s stories of his current life are equally remarkable (I’m just too tired to write about them all). Both have hearts that want to see their country change – both in addressing the needs of the poor and by addressing political policies and corruption that prevents the govt from being responsive and responsible to the people of Kenya. I know that tying these worlds together is part of the answer for both.

A final personal note to those who take the time to read these really long notes… & leave a message afterward … thank you so much!! I am doing fine, but each message from home is a real, real treasure to me – I read them dozens of times over!!

Also... I desperately want to share photos, but can't seem to upload even one on the blog or on Facebook. My internet has been pretty reliable, but I think its a very small band... I'll keep trying...