Chebukuyi village becomes home for four months

The CHASE Expedition proved yet again that when you get the right group of people all wanting to make a difference, a lot can be accomplished. It is too difficult to find just one single stand out highlight from the entire trip – each week there was always another great story, another great memory. If you want to see what we got up to in detail check out our Facebook page – and there’s lots of great photos there too! As I wrote below, our work with the Maasai girls really made a big impact on me – but there were just so many more experiences which I’m sure I’ll write more about later!

When the 8 weeks were up, the UK volunteers all returned home – but I hopped on a bus – well 3 buses and 1 motorbike – and made the long journey back to Chebukuyi village. 30 hours later I found myself back in a very familiar setting – but at the same time very different to the last time I was here with the CHASE team. We visit this village with the CHASE team – and have worked with this community since the start of CHASE. For one main reason – this is Leonard’s (director of CHASE Africa) home village. His mother, Esther Nasike, was an amazing lady – and started a CBO (Community Based organisation) years ago, focusing upon improving public health in this remote village, by going round people’s homes and educating them on how to prevent the spread of common diseases. Therefore her children grew up with this and many have since spent their life working in community development, following in her footsteps.

Working alongside NACODE teaching community health

The reason Nasike felt so impelled to teach others was the sheer speed at which disease spread in such a community. Only ten years ago or so, HIV spread fast and wiped out a large proportion of the young adult population. The community is still troubled with some of the highest rates of typhoid in Kenya – and common diseases such as malaria and diarrhoea still kill many children every year. Even something as simple as hand washing can save lives here.

Therefore when I returned this time – I was on my own – and with only a couple of English speakers, I was definitely thrown in at the deep end! But I was ready to take on the challenge – how many people really get the opportunity to work and live in a truly remote village, totally immersed in the local way of life for months on end?!

These photos give you an idea of what the village looks like

Some of my neighbours

Isaac - at his grandmother's home and also my closest neighbour

Lwakhaha town- the closest shops 1km from Star of Hope

There was lots of work to be done – so I didn’t really have much time to sit around and get bored! As a consequence of Nasike’s work in Chebukuyi village, there is a newly opened school and orphanage for local children affected by the impacts of the spread of these common diseases. This would be my task for the next 4 months – to manage the Star of Hope Centre school and orphanage on a daily basis, making sure everything ran smoothly and the kids were all healthy and happy. 

Star of Hope was started in early 2010 as a small hut where Teacher Humphrey voluntarily taught some local village kids, whose parents could not afford to send them to school. It soon started growing, as more and more children were found to be in need of education, with such high numbers never had the chance to go to school. With the support of Leonard (my colleague at CHASE Africa) Humphrey took on the challenge of teaching more and more children, with the help of a couple of volunteers from the village.  In just two years, the centre has grown from a handful of kids learning in basically a small mud hut – to teaching over 75 children in a three roomed school building and having 20 of those kids as full time boarders! 

All this has come about with very little and limited funding – but a lot of passion and motivation to succeed. When I arrived at Star of Hope at the end of August 2011, the boarders had just moved in full time – and so alongside managing the school side of things – we now had 20 kids to look after – feeding, clothing and caring for them 24 hours a day is a big task. And with such a small budget – of literally around just £1 each day to feed and care for all 75 of these kids – the challenge became a whole lot bigger!