Ronald, 16, squeezes through a wooden fence to get closer to Kandogo, a cow under his care at the Naivasha Children’s Shelter in Naivasha, Kenya. He carries a white plastic bucket, which he will fill with milk for use in the day’s “chai,” a kind of tea.
This is one of Ronald’s jobs — caring for the two cows Baptist Global Response (BGR) and Global Hunger Relief donated to the shelter that offers homeless boys love, education and skills training. Caring for cows teaches Ronald responsibility and animal husbandry while also providing much-needed milk for the shelter’s students and staff.
Ronald appreciates the milk, too. He said the daily tea helps him focus on his main discipline: carpentry.
“Drinking chai helps me if I am feeling tired from doing carpentry in the morning,” Ronald said. “After I drink the chai, I feel strong again and can do my work very well.”
Ronald’s life didn’t always include cows and carpentry. His mother died three years ago, when he was just 13, and he moved in with his older sister in Nairobi. However, his sister had to care for him, his siblings and her own child, and she didn’t make enough money to provide for all of them. Eventually Ronald wound up living on the streets in a Nairobi slum, begging for money and then using it to buy drugs.
After a year on the streets a friend who lived in another children’s home decided Ronald needed help and took the teen addict back to the facility where the friend stayed. There Ronald received treatment for his addictions and then he moved into the Naivasha Children’s Shelter. This organization’s goal is to help the boys in its care heal from their emotional wounds and then reintegrate into their families.
Now Ronald has a home, a discipline and a cow for which to care. The latter two teach him skills he needs to become self-reliant when he leaves the shelter.
“This work can help me in my future,” he said of his milking chore.
That simple, mundane work is important to Ronald and the sweet chai is important to all the shelter’s boys.
Various aid groups report an estimated 250,000 to 300,000 Kenyan children are homeless, and more than 60,000 of them live in Nairobi. Many of these children turn to drugs as a way to cope with constant pain, violence and hunger.
Naivasha Children’s Shelter rehabilitates 30 street boys per year ranging in age from 7 to 14, and it reunites them with their families. The facility reaches out to boys while they are still on the streets, building relationships with them through feeding programs, counseling and sports. BGR contributes to this effort by providing for certain needs, like cows and a fishpond. The cows and fish give the shelter food and income while also offering the boys opportunities to learn about agriculture. (BGR)
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