Clothes bring happiness

sh. Today a busy day with a lot of work. The Swiss TV team currently filming in and around the hospital was again active and interviewed Mama Matata, Director of the hospital. Stephan Holderegger gave clothes to the children and they as well as their mothers thanked with gratitude and happiness.

The many faces of children in Nakuru

PHOTOS BY STEPHAN HOLDEREGGER

Children's vaccination day

Weight control for babies

rs. Today it was chilly an cloudy, around 17°C. In the morning I wrote a few letters and then I went to the hospital. Today is vaccination day so we had many mothers with their babies here. Some of them came early because they know that in the afternoon it starts raining and then it will be complicated to go home - a 4 or 5 hour walk is no exception. At 1 pm the big rush was over and also our medical staff could pause for a lunch break. I took the chance to speak with doctor Wanjara about the organisation in the camp. We have to make it clear that they don't have a permanent home here; they have to start making plans for the future. Also the hygienic standard, especially of the women, is not very high. So it is not easy to make them understand how we act in the civilization; many origin from the bushes and are difficult to teach. We make our best to bring some order and purity in the camp life.

Making the children happy

Yesterday we met quite a lot of children collecting wood for their cooking fires back home at the camps. To some of them we offered T-Shirts and caps and also a Frutapura package. With little things you can make them happy! We also went to Nairobi to welcome Gaby Schädler from the Swiss TV (Rundschau) and Swiss dulcimer musician Nicolas Senn together with his mother. Today we have a full program - more news tonight.

Sadness in the streets of Molo

hh. Today Ruth Schäfer, Stephan Holderegger and their Dutch friend Hennie travelled to Molo (100 k north-west of Nakuru), over incredible bad, bumpy dirt roads. Molo was mostly inhabited by Kalanjin and Luo, with a minority of Kikuyu, who lived all peacefully together. The place made headlines when 19-year old runner Bernhard Koech from the Kalenjin was killed outside of Molo about six weeks ago. A former water station head, who has lost his job and doesn’t know where his family now is, showed Stephan and Hennie the place where the athlete was killed. The revenge of Kalanjin must have been terrible. Hennie was shocked to see how people who lived for years in peace now burned a whole village of about 20,000 down to ashes. Burned churches, burned schools... Stephan: “It looked like after a bomb attack. Everything is black, we found burned school-uniforms, burned school-books. Molo has become a ghost city. When you look into the children’s eyes there is no reaction, they are full of sadness."