The original idea was that of renting a building for the soup kitchen in downtown Nakuru, but this idea was set to the side when the AIC offered a piece of land that could be used to construct a building on. The reason for this was not merely financial, but rather the congregation showed the desire to be closer to these children and more involved with their well-being when they came for their noontime meal.
The feeding program started even before the construction of the soup kitchen got under way. The church built a small, make-shift bungalow that could be used to prepare the meals, and two women from the church were hired to take on the responsibility of preparing the meals. Soon after the feeding started, Pastor Mutisya, along with the others that became involved there, found that many of the children that were showing up had received some kind of education in their life, and this prompted the next step that was to be added to the program.
Another make-shift structure was erected and divided into three units that would serve as classrooms. One teacher and two assistants were hired and a preliminary education process was put into place. If a child has been on the street from the age of five years old and we get him off the street at the age of nine, he cannot be placed into kindergarten at a local Kenyan school, nor can he enter as a fifth grader with the other Kenyan children his age.
The teacher, along with the assistants, gives the child the education the child needs to bring him up to the appropriate grade level, a uniform is purchased for the student, and he is placed back into the Kenyan schooling system. This took care of the educational needs of the child, but it naturally wasn’t good for a child to go back to the streets after class, so another temporary shack was built that they could call home.
The construction plans for the soup kitchen
were once again changed so that it was now to be a large, three-story
building. The first level has a large, well-planned kitchen and a sizable
eating/multi-purpose area. The second level is divided up into classrooms,
and the third level is divided into several rooms that provide the sleeping
quarters for a total of 88 children.
The temporary living quarters that had been built until the construction
was completed only allowed for us to house and work with twenty-three
boys the first year although all the street children that showed up were
fed. Of the twenty-three boys that were now a permanent part of the program,
eleven of them were brought up to speed so that they could be placed back
into the Kenyan schooling system.
The unfortunate thing was that, because of the perceived hopelessness
of these street kids, no Kenyan school would admit them. Finally one did
but with much hesitation and reservation. After the eleven boys had finished
their first year of schooling, they all passed their respective classes
with at least average grades except for seven of them that excelled. One
of our fifth graders placed first out of 256 students, one of our first
graders placed first out of 124, and one of our third graders placed first
out of 178, with four of our other boys taking second, third, fourth,
and fifth place. Now literally every school in the city of Nakuru is requesting
that we consider placing our boys in their school.
