Dear All,
We left the U.K. on February 18th and, after a couple of nights in Nairobi, travelled up to Nakuru and Riziki to find that the Riziki children were all at home for the half term holiday. It was a delight to see such happy children playing outside and doing their chores. The end of the holiday and the logistics of getting the secondary pupils back to their respective schools over a couple of days was very time consuming for Liz and Julius. We had been given a lot of hama pegs to take (for making small mats etc) and the children really enjoyed them.
We had also taken some paper aeroplanes to build – Ian did the building. The younger children then spend several hours flying them with time being spent repairing damaged planes.
Being half term we had the rare chance to take new pictures of the young people.
After the children returned to their schools, we had a few days of relaxation at Riziki with Julius. We reviewed progress made, plans for the future and the problems we face. We then went up to Eldoret to visit John & Esther Green at Testimony Faith Homes and Joshua & Miriam Mbithi at Neema Homes. We were able to visit the oldest boy from Riziki, Collins, who is studying Catering at The Eldoret National Polytechnic. Collins is a delightful young man, working very hard at his studies. He gave us a tour of the college, then showed his simple accommodation, off the campus, where it is much cheaper!
When we got back to Riziki we found two more water tanks had arrived and were high up on a steel tower, waiting to be plumbed in for irrigation from water collected in our excellent dam. The dam was topped up one evening after a torrential downpour. The plans for our two new buildings (a dormitory for the older girls in holidays or others as needed, and a director’s house for Liz, so that she can live on site as required by the Children’s Department) were passed by the authorities, after several promised dates had passed. We then met with Peter, the builder, to visit the sites and prepare to build. Peter has done all our building work to a high standard and Njoroge does our welding. Work will begin as soon as possible.
On Saturday, March 14th, we flew to the coast for ten days at the beach. Almost immediately we got a call from Liz, telling us that all schools in Kenya were closing and therefore all the older children had to return home.
Just imagine the logistics and the implications of this instruction. Visiting homes etc is now banned and a curfew imposed. The biggest headache for Liz is keeping the staff on the compound so that they are safe, and the children are looked after. Fortunately, the farm will provide all the vegetables, milk and eggs that are needed but they are all going to have a hard time for many weeks. Kenya has reacted very strongly to the threats to health, but we are relieved to note that as of today, there are only 42 confirmed cases of covid-19 confirmed with, I believe, one death. Almost all the cases have been brought into the country.
Please remember Riziki and the other homes in prayer. Their situation may be dire, especially when you see newspaper articles and especially the one we received (Sorry, unable to show in this post). Usually children’s homes receive little mention in Kenya news and certainly no financial assistance from the government!
We have returned home on an emergency repatriation flight, but that is another saga in itself! We will send another newsletter fairly soon.
Thank you for reading this newsletter.
Ian & Diana Hogley