Watoto Wetu Program
When we started Fadhili in 2001, we were responding to the need for home based care training for caregivers with terminally ill patients some of whom would finally pass on. Some of the deceased patients had relatives who were responsible enough to take over the welfare of the children but there were others who totally ignored the plight of the orphaned children. Every time we saw these freshly orphaned children, we felt helpless and we would often support them with food only. We kept telling ourselves that our focus was with the patients not the orphans; we were hesitant to get involved especially because we did not have enough resources to reach out to them. We prayed for God to help them while being the bystanders, watching what God would do. (Sometimes God is just waiting for us to say, “Yes Lord, send me here I am”).
Such a time came in 2003, one morning when the Executive Director was walking in the Kware slums of Ongata Rongai and met a little 5-year-old boy who had recently become an orphan after the passing on of his mother. He had been sent away from kindergarten for school fees of USD 15. The little boy wondered why we had also stopped visiting their home. It was very difficult to tell the little boy the truth; that we were about home based care for the terminally ill and not the orphans. The Director felt convicted then that something had to be done about it and decided there and then to find funds to get the little boy back to school.
Thus started our education support project; quite spontaneously, without even writing a proposal, the Watoto Wetu project was born. Thereafter, one of Fadhili Trust board members raised funds for Watoto Wetu from the Kenya Electricity Generating company (KENGEN) which lasted for 9 years and in 2012, we met a well-wisher from Canada who has continued to provide funds for the children through DevExchange. To date 150 students have benefitted from this program and many of them have become successful in different fields.