The vision started with a group of Seventh-day Adventist women from the New Life Women Ministry in Nairobi. They took the initiative to rescue some of the street children in Nairobi and Masai girls, who have no access to education and are forced into earl
The vision started with a group of Seventh-day Adventist women from the New Life Women’s Ministry in Nairobi. They took the initiative to rescue some of the street children and Masai girls in Nairobi who have no access to education and who are forced into early marriages.
“We opened the center on March 7, 2000, with a group of 14 Masai girls ranging in age from six to 12 years,” explains Sarah Serem, chairwoman of the Kajiado Rehabilitation and Education Center.
“The girls were picked from diverse backgrounds, but the common factor was extreme poverty and forced marriages,” she says. “The home now has 15 girls and more than 50 on the waiting list.”
For Jan Paulsen, president of the Adventist Church worldwide, meeting with 12 Masai girls from the Kajiado project on Friday, April 27, was a highlight of his four-day visit to Kenya.
Comparing the center to the Biblical “city of refuge,” and responding to the challenge to enlarge the project to rescue 100 girls by the year 2003, Paulsen offered a gift of $10,000 in U.S. currency to establish an endowment fund for this humanitarian venture.
“We see these girls becoming beacons of change within their society,” Serem explains. “Our objective is to rehabilitate these children by providing them with a home in which their basic needs are catered for, as well as availing them with education.”
Serem also says that, “Educating the girl-child has not been a priority for many nomadic tribes of Kenya. This center, situated directly within Masai land, will therefore be a great boost to these children’s aspirations.”
The initial funding came from individual contributions, church allocations, and from a Christian non-governmental organization, World Servants International. The center now has six classrooms, a dormitory, a water tank, and wash rooms.
The center is a response to the country’s program to change the custom of forcing children to enter marriages at an early age. The Kajiado Center organizers believe the establishment of this project will not only have an impact on its immediate beneficiaries, but that it is also an example of fulfilling the Adventist Church’s mission among the most vulnerable, abused children. [Photos: Ray Dabrowski/ANN]
