Dear All,
Julius and Liz have been kept very busy over recent weeks. It is difficult to imagine looking after many young people in a lock down situation for many weeks, balancing discipline and being family.. Most people here would find it difficult to occupy even two or three children week after week with no freedom to leave the premises! Liz and the rest of the staff are managing this remarkably well. Julius is being kept busy with the additional work of supervising the building of a house within the compound so that the assistant director (Liz) can live on site, as required by the Children’s Department. The official statistics for Covid 19 in Kenya at the time of writing are: Confirmed 3594, Recovered 1253, Deaths 103.
On April 28th, when food supplies were getting difficult, I wrote to Liz.
We had a thought today, wondering how the Riziki neighbourhood is managing at this time and whether there is any extra hardship from which people are suffering – in particular, with food supplies. We did wonder if there are people who are actually going hungry who could be helped from any surpluses which Riziki has at this time (giving rather than selling). We are aware that more people are likely to die of starvation if they cannot get food, than of Covid. Just an idea to consider.
I got an immediate reply
Hi Ian,
Interesting you should say this because starting next week we will be supplying one of the children’s homes in our sub county with a bi-weekly supply of kale. Just to relieve them. They rely wholly on well-wishers and we thought we could easily help with this. We can't do this every week, but we can easily do it every other week. If any other need arises in the community and we are able to help, I believe we will strive to do so.
You may remember that in the March newsletter we mentioned the house we were wanting to build. We are very grateful to the Kirkby Foundation, who visited Riziki last year, for funding this project which is now in progress.
On June 10th Julius wrote:
THE PROJECT
On Tuesday 21st April I met with Peter the builder and we agreed construction work would start on Tuesday 28th April 2020.
On Friday 24th the first delivery of building materials started but with a lot of difficulties because of the heavy rains. Since then the house project has been going on well. So far, the building is up to roof level, electrical piping and the wiring is going on.
On June 3rd Liz wrote:
It's a sunny afternoon here at Riziki, the children are in for the afternoon part of the classes and its quiet. The young ones are doing their Bible stories at the front veranda. This month has had its share of good times and bad.
Last week, Kimani, Ruth and Tabitha, lost their maternal great grandmother to high blood pressure complications. I had in the past had the privilege of interacting with her and I had tremendous respect for the way she was concerned for these three children despite everything. A brief history- Kimani, Ruth and Tabitha, fell in her laps after their mother was arrested due to neglect, caused by alcoholism. Their grandmother is also an alcoholic and could not be trusted with the children, and so she, the great grandmother, was temporarily assigned the children until a better place was found for them. Because of her health, age, and small earnings she could not take care of them long term. She cared for them as best she could and provided them with possibly the only care, they had from anyone they can call family. Even when they were committed to Riziki she followed up on them regularly. So, it's a loss we all feel, here at Riziki, even as we try to help the three through their grief. She was buried on Thursday, 22nd May. Yesterday, 25th May, was Kimani's and Ruth's birthday - they are fraternal twins as you know and they both turned 10. We were not able to do anything for them but it was good to see them in good spirits.
We continue to have good rains and our crops are doing well. We added cabbages to our plates and it has helped give us some variety to the vegetables. The beans continue to look good.
Schools reopening in Kenya continues to remain pretty uncertain, especially because most schools might not be able to meet a majority of the recommendations. This uncertainty has gotten to the children who are showing frustration in having to stay at home longer than they thought, and we now face the challenge of how to provide balance for them.
Thank you for all you do.
On 11th June, Liz wrote.
Dear Ian and Diana,
It was really good to speak and see you the other day and catch up on all things Riziki and more. Am glad you are keeping well and the family is well too. At Riziki, we continue to enjoy God's goodness in these uncertain times. We remain grateful for the food in the shamba as well as dedicated staff who are showing admirable commitment to the job. It has not been easy on any of us, having 27 children of different ages and therefore different needs emotionally and psychologically for such a long time, but I continue to see a willingness to adjust to and accept our new reality. Just this past week we agreed to have weekly meetings with the three staff in the house, so we can have time to encourage one another. It has not been easy on the children, their motivation to keep studying seems to be going down every time the government seems unclear about when schools will reopen. So, we have been dealing with that, getting back to the drawing board to figure out what the best way to help them through that uncertainty while getting them to do some study, any ideas are welcome.
Schools Re-opening
The government gave September 1st as the possible reopening date. This is going to be present a lot of challenges given that through their own admission about 350 learning institutions are being used as quarantine/ isolation centres. So, I personally feel this is a wait-and-see situation; we can only properly know in September, when we have infection rate info at that time.
The rate of infections seems to be going up, mostly because of targeted testing, according to the govt. Our problem areas are Nairobi, Mombasa, Busia - because it is a border point. Most border points are a problem, with truck drivers testing positive. There is cessation of movement in Nairobi and Mombasa, meaning people can't go in and out but goods can. This has helped. Nakuru being 3hrs away from Nairobi would have been seriously affected. We don't have any known cases in Nakuru at the moment.
However, this doesn't mean we are not affected; public transport costs have gone up - I now have to pay double what I used to pay get to work, because they only allow 8 passengers in 14 passenger matatu - they have to cover the loss somehow. Restaurants still remain closed; only those that can afford to have the staff go through the tests have started to reopen, so a lot of people have lost their jobs with no real support from the government. The government has, however, made a one-off donation of soap, maize and beans to children’s homes and the curfew has been eased.
We continue to do our part; our staff can now carry a bit of vegetables from the farm, most of them with a double income household have been reduced to one, and with children to feed it was proving difficult. We unfortunately had to stop temperature checks when the thermometer gave out a few weeks ago. We are in desperate need of another and would appreciate any help we can get on this.
We are grateful for approval of photocopier and sanitizer and masks for the kids. Although, the children don't get out much except for hospital visits, it has been very helpful to have them. Asante😁
In the spirit of looking ahead and preparing for the future, I feel, Ian, we will need to talk about some sort of medical cover for the children - basic in-patient or more, if possible. It might really be useful, in case of anything. I will probably write on a way forward for academics for the children in two weeks after a bit of consultation. I truly believe these are our priority areas going forward.
We remain deeply grateful to all that think about us, pray for us and share with us through their contributions. We feel truly valued and we can only say Asante sana and God Bless!
Baraka
Liz
Many thanks for being interested in Riziki and for reading this newsletter. Information on making donations to Riziki was included in many previous newsletters. It can also be obtained direct from us. Your support is much appreciated by us all.
Many Blessings, Ian & Diana