Children's Corner
We have a swimming pool in the slum!!
We were lucky in the month of July to have a donation of a small swimming pool! Swimming costumes is a vocabulary that is not known in the slum so during the swimming days the children carry with them a spare panty and shorts for the boys. All they do is undress and jump into the swimming pool with their inner wares! The first day was full of confusion, water in the slum is a rare commodity. A twenty liter Jeri can cost ksh.3! In their entire life the children had never had a chance to get immersed in water. Some were afraid of drowning. To the daring ones it was a God sent chance to, for once, play with water without having someone scold them!
After some time they got used to the idea and at least no one one is afraid of drowning now. Though the young ones still can’t understand what exactly a swimming pool is. They refer to it as the ‘lake’ or ‘river’. But they really enjoy being in water.
Thanks to Sonia, our dear donor and dedicated volunteer, for this fabulous addition to our home! This was the most exciting present we could have received!
|
|
|
We have a scouts troop…it’s official!
The HHF scouts troop is a newly formed group of children from the program, led by myself, Petre, who have been training very hard over the past few months to join the prestigious scout rank in Nairobi. It is a lengthy and disciplined process, which starts with the introductory phase. The completion of each phase comes with a test and all those scouts who pass go on to graduate to the next stage via a ceremony called the Investiture. This is where all those who passed are now welcomed into the world fraternity of scouting and are allowed to wear the scout uniform, the world badge, and be invited to all the scouting activities. Above all, each scout receives a beautiful certificate!
We held the investiture ceremony in September & I can now proudly confirm that 19 of our kids passed with flying colours and are now officially scouts! They were each presented with a beautiful certificate, an official scouts scarf and the coveted world badge. I am also proud to announce that the ceremony was graced by none other than the Nairobi scouts commissioner who was very impressed with the troop. He extended an invite for us to appear at the Scouts Fete, a prestigious trade fair celebration which is held every year on the Presidential grounds in Nairobi. The children were so excited, they could not believe it!
The Scouts Fete, was held on the 29th of September and we were requested to be at camp for three days. We were in the parade of 1000 scouts and were proudly inspected by the President himself when he officially opened the trade fair. More recently, we have received an invitation to perform during the World AIDS Day on December 1st. We train together during week days on the HHF premises and the troop raise our new beautiful scouts flag three times a week without fail or supervision.
Thank you to our kind donors who have made these special events and uniforms possible for us. We will keep you posted on any new events and happenings! Asante sana!