There is always something
happening in Maisha Mema, and we want to share some of
the things with you. The cooperation and events
concerning Mamlaka Hill Chapel has it's own page (here),
but any other event or special visit will come on the
page you are visiting now. We hope you will enjoy
seeing and reading about it!
Visit by United States International University students,
July 2010
Sunday 25th July, students from United States
International University (USIU) visited our family.
They wanted to encourage and advise the children, but
also brought sodas, biscuits and food stuff.
Thanks! And hearty welcome back! :-)
On the picture we also see one of our
housemothers, Flo, to the left. And this is also
one of the rare moments that Jonny is in the picture and
not behind the camera... :-)
Trip
to Giraffe Centre / Mamba
Village, July 2010
Saturday 24th July, we went with the small children to
Giraffe Centre and Mamba Village. This was a fun
day both for children and grown ups! :-)
In addition to the small children, also
Jaja, Florence Kibicho, Marianne and Jonny (photoes)
came along. Jaja is presently in attachment as
part of College. Florence is our social worker.
It's in fact very easy to imagine that
these creatures have survived the span of millions of
years! They lived side by side with the dinosaurs,
and they haven't changed much since then...
Bouncing castle and boat ride are also
winners :-) The day was completed with
chicken and chips at a restaurant on the way home.
Top! :-)
Visit by Nanset Tensing
in July 2010
Nanset Tensing is a choir that is rehearsing in Nanset
church in Larvik in Norway. They have for a long
time planned to go to Kenya to visit YMCA and Maisha
Mema, and came in July 2010. In addition to having
a tensing gathering at Naivasha, they also interacted
with the children of Maisha Mema. We do hope they
also come back! :-)
In Soweto, the choir of course sang, but
also danced line dance. This is very popular!
Our children also performed, of course, and it seemed
like Nanset Tensing and Maisha Mema children were
mutually impressed by each other. They had gotten
250 t-shirts printed with a Maisha Mema logo, and
Freddie, the pastor of Nanset church, handed over the
t-shirts to our social worker Florence. Thanks a
lot! Nanset also visited our family in Doonholm,
performed the line dance, sang, and interacted very well
with our children.
Nanset Tensing also performed in our
church, Mamlaka Hill Chapel. This was also very
good, as we like to present talented visitors! :-)
Visiting Mitchell's tea farm in Tigoni
is something we do with most visitors of ours. But
very few of them will line up at the veranda and sing!
:-) Fiona and Marcus, the hosts at the tea farm,
were both impressed and happy to hear the choir sing!
:-)
Impulse Promotion Ltd visit, May 2010
Saturday 29th May, Clubhouse in Soweto was blessed with
visitors from Impulse Promotions Ltd. They played two
matches against Maisha Mema children, which of course
Maisha Mema won :-) and handed over a lot of food stuff,
clothes, detergents, books and sanitary towels. We
appreciate very much both the gifts and interaction, and
welcome them back any time! :-)
Unity College visit, April 2010
Unity College from Buru Buru came visiting Clubhouse on
the 24th April. Several of our children have
attended classes there, and this time it was the
hairdressing class coming. Quite a number of the
kids in Clubhouse got the hair washed, cut, blowdried,
applied chemicals and plaited. In addition to
creating awareness to the college about what we are
doing in Soweto, it is also a fun time both for students
and children. Thanks for coming, and very much
welcome back! :-)
Blowdrying and cutting - kipara! (no
hair left...). On the picture below, Susan, whos
is educated from Unity College and a kid of ours from
Soweto, applies chemicals in Lillian's hair, another of
our kids from Soweto and now in Form 3.
Unga
Drive, April 2010
Students from Nairobi University came visiting Clubhouse
on Good Friday. They interacted with our children,
had a motivational speech and a drama, and brought over
a ton of unga (flour for making ugali - a
kind of stiff maize poridge). The flour was distributed among
the families where we support children in Soweto. Thanks for coming, and very much
welcome back! :-)
The flour was temporarily stored in
one of the
classrooms - and nearly filled it!
Students and children in a group
picture - all smiles! :-)
Camp,
December 2009
Always a winner, Maisha Mema also
arranged a camp for Maisha Mema children this year.
Below are some pictures from the departure from Doonholm
(pics by Jonny Mydland) and from the camp (pics by
Rebekka Lykke Ringgaard)!
The bus passed by Doonholm to pick up
children from our family, and then proceeded to Machakos
where the camp took place.
Learning is also part of a camp, but a
brilliant sunset also! Football and games, - and
friendship! - are also important ingrediants of a
successful camp.
Fred - our newly wed worker from the
Soweto Clubhouse, is quite fit. But the tour he
went with the children was a challenge to some of them.
Promoting physical and emotional fitnes is also part of
our work!
USIU visit, August 2009
Three students and two lecturers from
the United States International University (USIU) in
Nairobi came to our home in the beginning of August to
hand over equipment to Maisha Mema Children's Home.
A gas cooker, water tank, bed linens, blankets and
pillow cases, towels, jiko (to cook on), chapati irons
and a pressure cooker were among the things we got.
The students are having their social responsibility
practice with us, and we are happy to cooperate!
Many thanks for giving to the children!
Elisabeth handing over til gas cooker
(above), Lillian Njoroge the pressure cooker (under,
left) and Michael Nguyo bed sheets and blankets (under,
right). The pressure cooker looks like it can
produce delicious meals, doesn't it? - depending on what
is put inside, of course :-)
Askøy Videregående Skole, October 2008
Students from Askøy Videregående Skole (High School)
- Håkon, Espen, Martin and Fredrik - visited us together
with two teachers - Veronica and Stein, in second half
of October. They were coming to help us extend the
Clubhouse in Soweto, but also to learn about the Maisha
Mema in order to report back to their school. We
had a wonderful time, and bring some pictures from
various activities:
Håkon ponders his next move.
Even though these students are carpenters, they do have
to learn the basics about other disciplines too - like
masonry. This is the underground of the new toilet
block in the Soweto Clubhouse!
Espen and Fredrik make sure the
benches in Clubhouse are ok. Some of them had
gotten quite bad after much use, but what are carpenters
for? :-)
Stein
works at the perimeter wall.
Lunch the last day in Soweto -
students, teachers, workers and Mr Mbai, the building
leader (right).
A couple of the kids admires a world
map together with Veronica. The map was donated by
the Askøy group.
Pål (left), Maisha Mema's contact
person in the Bergen area in Norway (see under
Who We Are) makes a point
in Clubhouse.
Espen and Ng'endo check out some
snaps.
Satisfied? Yes!!!
Students,
teachers and the family in Doonholm all together.
Splash, October 2008
The undisputable most fun thing our children are
doing, is to go swimming. No problem spending the
whole day in the pool! When a Norwegian group
visited (see Safari
2008 for more pictures!), we all went to Splash.
After the swimming, everybody (except the Norwegians...)
went to a place in town to have chicken and chips.
Top treat for the children!
Richard, new in the family from June
2008, enjoys a pool for the first time in his life.
Tabitha is more accustomed to the joys of swimming, but
had to try out the rings also - both at a time!
The place is not called Splash
for nothing... :-)
Joy enjoys life with Gro, and Gunhild
has a perfect touch with the rings! Øyvind, behind
left, must have blown the budget for films after the
first day of the safari...
Cultural Day in the Soweto Clubhouse April 2008
During holidays, Maisha Mema has started to arrange
special days for the children in the Soweto Clubhouse.
Also the children in the Doonholm family normally come
for these days. In April we arranged a Cultural
Day in Clubhouse in order for us to be proud of being
Kenyans and to see the diversity of our heritage -
especially after the clashes in January and February.
We wanted to stress the importance of being Kenyans
rather than just coming from individual tribes.
That does not mean that we should not remember our
tribal culture. We therefore also arranged for a
display of traditional clothes, the children were
dancing traditional dances, singing traditional songs
etc. Together, all the tribes and all the people
in them make Kenya what it is. The day was a great
success!
Even though we don't have any Maasai
in the program (and that's purely accidental!), the
Maasai outfit is a popular one!
Visit
22nd December 2007
Three Kenyan families, one of them
from Mfungamano church (Nairobi Chapel), came visiting
us Saturday 22nd December. To visit children's
homes or similar institutions has been a tradition for
them the last few years. This way, also their
children see that they are privileged. They also
brought a lot of food stuff. Thanks! We
enjoyed the visit very much!
Same hairdresser?
The food stuff surely helps on a tight
budget! Thanks!
In just a couple of weeks we
experienced two group photoes with kind people.
Not bad!
And of course: Welcome back!
Christmas Camp 16th to 20th
December 2007
It has been a tradition a few years
now for children from Soweto Clubhouse and children from
our family to go for a Christmas Camp. Especially
for the Soweto kids this is an experience they don't
want to miss! In addition to seeing new places, it
is fun, fun, fun! But also some serious stuff.
Like learning life skills. Thanks to those who
contributed economically to the camp and made it
possible!
From this year's camp in Tala.
The younger children plays an indoor game.
From the December 2006 camp in
Machakos. Swimming is definitely one of the most
popular activities we can offer!
Kwame, one of our workers, was the
organiser of the camp in 2007. Here a snap from a
previous tour with some of the Soweto kids. Janeth
is from January 2008 in Form 3, and one of the very
responsible Soweto kids. We see in the background
Hilton Hotel right and Nation Media building left (taken
from top of the Kenyatta International Conference
Centre).
Kenya Pipeline Company visit 11th December 2007
Staff from Kenya Pipeline Company (http://www.kpc.co.ke/index.php)
visited us Tuesday 11th December 2007. We have
seldom seen such a dedicated flock of people from a
company before. They came with lots of love, lots
of food stuff and clothes, and they had fellowship with
us. We want to extend a very big Thank You!
to you all!
Mr Likobe makes a point to a couple of
our girls during the visit.
We are not used to such amounts of
donations, and really appreciated the kindness of the
Kenya Pipeline staff and leadership!
Kenya Pipeline staff
with some of our children. Thanks! And
welcome back!
Seminar on "The
National Children Policy",
November and December 2007
Picture above: Maisha Mema sent two
participants, Florence Kibicho (middle) and Margaret
Mdululu (right). The lady to the left comes from
the Children's Office, Embakasi Division.
Picture right: Florence (left) and
Margaret (right).
Our Social Worker, Florence Kibicho,
participated in a seminar on "The National Children
Policy" 19th November and 6th December, together with
one of our children, Margaret Ndululu. The first
gathering was to be presented for a draft made by three
consultants from Department of Sociology at Kenyatta
University, and the second gathering to respond to the
draft, which was adjusted after all Provinces gave their
feed back. Participants from all over the country
participated.
Solborg
Folkehøgskole, October 2007
Students from Solborg Folkehøgskole in Stavanger
visited Maisha Mema October 2007. We had a nice
time where the kids bonded well with the students. Amazing what the small things can do. A pair of
sunglasses for a small child, enjoying swimming and
playing in the water, a little compassion, a gentle
touch, - heart to heart!
Check this
link to see the pages the students made! (sorry, only Norwegian...).
As a media-oriented school the Solborg
students of course had their own press corps!
And yes, we admit it any time: Maisha
Mema is good in football. One more goal
against you, you said? Oh well, maybe next time,
but for now, Maisha Mema rules the football field!
Sunday, the students really made us
proud in church. These guys can sing!
