At Faraja Adventist Children Centre in Ngong’, I meet one Martha Moraa. It is a visit that should have come earlier as Moraa is desperate to find a shelter solution for the Centre’s 107 children as they have the notice to vacate their current home by December 2019 and each ticking second reminds them that the date is nearing.
Faraja Adventist Children Centre is home to 107 children, with 45 of those being below 18 years of age and 3 children below 5 years of age.
These 45 children risk being kicked to the streets if a home is not availed to them by December as the owner of the property they have been living in, for the last one decade, seeks to now develop the area. Faraja has been in operation since 2015 and was founded by Martha Moraa once her husband passed away.
We sit down with Moraa narrates to me how the children center came to be.
The Mourning Wife and Mother Set to be Inherited as a Wife to Husband’s Brother
“I lost my husband in 2003 to a short illness and being tradition, my in-laws began pressuring to get inherited as a wife to one of my husband’s brother. Scared and with no husband to protect me, I ran away to Nairobi,” Moraa narrates.
“I arrived in Nairobi with my three children and went to the place where I believed was cheapest, Kibra constituency,” Moraa tells us adding that she got herself a shanty there but could not afford it and was, hence, kicked out to the streets once more.
“I stayed in the corridors of Mimosa, Nairobi’s Eastland’s, for four months begging before I got wind of a team of ladies that used to wash clothes for well-off families, I joined them and could at least afford a meal for my children,” says Moraa.
An ECDE Certificate holder, Moraa was still a grieving woman and confused on where to start on life but had to be strong for her three children. She continued living at the neglected Ford-P offices at Mimosa.
“The money from cleaning people’s clothes was not enough for rent and basic needs for my children and me, housing was especially a major problem as at times and the jobs were not forthcoming,” Moraa explains.
“I decided to go around schools seeking an opportunity to be a Kindergarten teacher given that I had a certificate in ECD, it is then that I came across Olympic Primary where I was surprised to come across my Aunt teaching there,” Moraa says.
Our interview is interrupted as Moraa picks calls to ensure things at Faraja run smoothly by giving directions. I look at her and wonder how she and the Center’s children are managing each day with the thought of going back to the streets frequenting their minds, the things we take for granted though.
Moraa gets a job at Olympic Primary School in Kibra
At Olympic Primary, Moraa’s Aunt was shocked at the state of her niece who came to the school seeking a job with a baby strapped on her back and a dirty envelope on her hands as Moraa tells us amid tears.
“She left me in a room when she asked that I wait as she went to teach for two lessons, I knew she was disturbed but I could not have thanked God enough for taking me to her,” Moraa says.
Moraa’s Aunt spoke to the school administration and managed to convince them to secure her a place as a Teacher paid by the Parents Teacher Association (PTA). Moraa, however, lost the job after a year as the government sent a teacher to fill the slot.
Moraa had realized that she felt fulfilled around children and had a passion for teaching so she proceeded to talk to parents and encourage them to give their children to her for remedial teaching which enabled her to make a living.
The Birth of Faraja Adventist Children Centre
Moraa, in her passion to teach in her small shanty in Kibra, had two clients that were to change her life. The two visitors, a 2-year-old girl and a boy in class four at the time.
“I spent the day teaching them and when evening came, I planned to go visit their parents and probably come to an agreement of how they could enroll them into my classes but come evening, it was not possible,” Moraa says adding that the children told her their parents had both previously died.
With two orphaned children, where the first one even opened up saying he was reactive (HIV Positive), Moraa was reminded of her silent pain and wondered whether that would be the fate of her own children if anything happened to her.
“The two children opened doors to many more children neglected in the streets and I did not have the strength to send them away so before I knew it, we grew to over 50,” Moraa narrates.
A Rough Route to Ensure They Stuck Together
Moraa has faced it all, from living in the streets to moving with over 50 children from Kibra to Nairobi Showground’s, where she could not afford to pay rent at Kibra, to Ongata Rongai to Ngong, to Lodriak and again to Ngong.
Faraja Adventist Children Centre Faces Eviction
Proper housing has always been a challenge for Moraa who decided to register the children as Faraja Adventist Children Centre with the hope of getting help from the Government.
The Faraja Centre children are currently housed in a six roomed house where they stand to be evicted in December 2019.
The Faraja children have been a source of security to the owner of the property they have been living in as thieves no longer visited to steal the house’s amenities.
The owner of the Ngong House that is home to the 107 children plans to develop the property in the year 2020 and, has been more than patient with the Faraja Centre family.
The vacate notice weighs heavily on Faraja Centre which has now grown to have a Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, advisory board members and the founder who is the Director, Martha Moraa.
Faraja Centre, through Moraa, reveals that the centre has one asset in its name donated by United Kingdom volunteers, Orliagh and Niave at Marurui in Nairobi County where the centre hopes to construct and develop a home for the children by December when they expect to be evicted from Ngong.
To help construct Faraja Adventist Children’s home and save the young ones from being kicked out into the streets, kindly channel your contributions through the following contacts:
Faraja’s official Paybill number- 529875
Barclays Bank Account Ngong Branch – 2021721649
For any clarification kindly contact Moraa on- +254 727 821 285 or email the author at mwangivirginia1@gmail.com