HAPC (Kenya) report – First ever aid programme
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6th January 2007
Eunice Njuguna’s challenge to set up HAPC Kenya’s aid programme, proved to be more difficult that originally imagined.
Eunice together with Ann Mwangi and Nancy Karoki arranged with a local orphanage to go there and distribute some clothes, food and gifts to the children. Unfortunately, on arrival at the orphanage, donning HAPC T-shirts, carrying a big HAPC Banner and accompanied by a photographer, the group were promptly told to ‘move on’ or face arrest. In short, the officials at the orphanage wanted the clothes, etc but not the publicity.
Another goal achieved, thanks to the determination and courage of the HAPC Kenya team
Eunice and the team were, however, determined to keep going and between her team, they located a charitable learning institution near a high densely populated slum, where they found desperate cases of children, a majority of whom are orphaned by the AIDS. These children are left under the custody of old grandparents and poor families, who are shipwrecked by unemployment and are too poor to meet their daily committments. Eunice and her team scheduled a visit to the slum, which was a major challenge due to poor conditions of the road and lack of security in the area. As a result they elected to park the car 1km away and walk to the slum area.
Christmas Day came early for these children and their families
On arrival the HAPC team were overwhelmed by desperate faces of children who do not have any hope and who depend on begging for a living. The team immediately took the children to the centre of their interest and distributed, with great joy, the clothes, food and gifts. Children and their families crowded out the venue as they tried the clothes – for them Christmas Day had arrived 5 days early! They wished for this to continue forever.
The HAPC team need to be saluted for their ‘never say give up’ attitude and courage to help the poorest of the poor in difficult conditions. Eunice was philosophical about her team’s effort saying “We were determined to do what we set out to do. As soon as we had our HAPC T-shirts printed and the Banner made, we wanted to go and help those poor children. We all took a day off work to ensure that the project was launched and we are today so very happy, having achieved our goals. Looking back, we can understand the authorities attitude towards us when we visited the orphanage as there is a lot of child exploitation in Kenya. We, however, are also aware of HAPC’s genuine work for the poor and, encouraged by this, we went on to continue with our programme”
Eunice Njuguna (back centre) with her proud team of helpers
HAPC chairperson, Melani Miyanji was delighted with the efforts of Eunice, Ann and Nancy and is now looking to get HAPC registered in Kenya so that they can organise “trouble free” aid programmes.