Home of Love - Kenya
Source:
Radio Sai
E-Magazine, May 1, 2004
http://www.radiosai.org/Journals/Vol_02/09May01/08_Window_To_SaiSeva/sai_seva.htm
HOME OF LOVE
KENYA
SAI
SPIRIT OF LOVE CHILDREN’S HOME TRUST is a project which started
from Sathya Sai Baba Centre of Dwaraka Maayi, Nairobi – Kenya
affiliated to Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisation in Prasanthi
Nilayam, India since 3rd July 1999.
Several devotees
founded the Trust on 10th March 1997 with the aim of helping
children in need in Kenya. The Trust has currently five trustees
representing the three main ethnic races of Kenya (African, Asian
and European).
The main project
supported by the Trust is a home for destitute children in Uthiru,
on the outskirts of Nairobi,
called Sathya Sai Home. Started in 1995 by a Kenyan teacher who
was moved to give food and shelter to a few children who had
nowhere else to go and were in desperate circumstances,the home
now gives shelter, food, clothing and education both spiritual and
academic to fifty resident children.
Rehabilitation
of these children was mainly achieved by singing Sai Bhajans and
Sathya Sai Education in Human Values.The fifty six resident
children who benefit from this project range in age from 7 years
to 18 years and are all now receiving formal education. Eighteen
are attending the local Government Primary School; three are
studying under scholarship at a Nairobi Secondary School.
In addition, there are two boys who have graduated from the home
and live outside but attend Secondary School under scholarship.
A Sathya Sai primary
school was started in January 1998 to cater for the younger ones.
Since then a class has been added every year and the school now
offers education up to
standard VI.
Of the children who
have already outgrown the home, one is now married with a child
and another four are working, one of them in a shop belonging to a
devotee. Twenty children have already left the Home and are now
integrated into society.
Education is
relatively expensive in Kenya, given the high level of poverty. As
well as catering for the education of the resident children,
Sathya Sai School offers day school facilities to poor children
from the neighborhood who would otherwise have
no
schooling at all. Currently about 150 such children are given this
opportunity. This helps to create a bond between the home and the
community.
The Sathya Sai
School follows the official Kenya curriculum but Sathya Sai
Education in Human Values is interwoven into all academic subjects
and is a vital part of all activities.
There are two doctors, who are giving free service to anyone
involved with the project. A child with Leukemia and another with
Tuberculosis were given the best hospital care available by one of
these doctors, who is in charge of one of the wings at the main
Government hospital in Nairobi. During this time other devotees
visited and attended to the children regularly.
Devotees visit the home/school at least once a week and render
various services. Among these services the
following are given: Sai bhajan teaching, Sathya Sai Education in
Human Values teaching, Balvikas and Youth activities. A child from
the Sathya Sai Home who is in secondary school is currently giving
extra tution in Maths and English on a voluntary basis to the
other children.
The headmaster of
the Sathya Sai School is a Kenyan University Graduate who was
sponsored by the Trust to the African Institute of Sathya Sai
Education in Ndola, Zambia for the three month Diploma Course in
Education in Human Values. The Trust also sponsored him
to
receive his diploma from Swami’s hands in Puttaparthi in 2001.
The children at the
Sathya Sai Home sing Sai bhajans every Saturday. They are asked
quite often to sing Sai bhajans in different functions in
Nairobi.They also act as Seva Dals whenever there is a seminar,
workshop or other Sai activity.The children also take part in many
plays organised by the Sathya Sai Baba Centre of Dwaraka Maayi.
The
home and the school give the chance to many devotees to give their
Love in the form of voluntary service to this project.
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