Sarah (Sally) Powell '09 presented her observations and findings about the lives and treatment of marginalized Kenyan children during the faculty and student "Social Justice" conference on September 8. With help from the Diversity and Social Justice Project as well as the Kirkland Endowment, Powell spent her summer working and living in the Sons of Manaseh Children's Home for abused, neglected, orphaned and abandoned children outside of Nairobi. Her lecture combined her personal experience with and contribution to the children's home and observations she made about Kenyan children while working in the home and traveling though Nairobi and rural Kenya.
Powell intended to spend her summer as a mentor, playmate and teacher to the children, acting as an extra hand to help a pastor and his wife provide for 25 of them. However, she found the home had far more administrative needs. The home had no sanitized water or restroom facilities, no standardized records of the children's personal or medical history and had to rely on outside funding and donations, as it had no source of independent income. Working with the pastor, but largely through her own initiative, Powell contacted numerous organizations, such as the Red Cross, UNICEF and the Abandoned Baby Center, to procure funding to improve the housing conditions. The 25-page funding proposal she presented to UNICEF resulted in money for sanitation and water facilities for the home.
Powell also made headway in organizing an administrative structure on the home. The lack of information they received about incoming children as well as the lack of paper records in the home made it difficult to track the children's needs and progress. Powell and the pastor created an organized system to track the children's social and medical history, both before and once they arrived at the home. This work required that they spoke with local caseworkers to ensure that when children arrived, they had as much information about the children as possible to provide the best possible care. She carried her administrative duties one step further and contacted VIKDA, the international program that placed her in the home, to secure a regular volunteer for the home to fill her position after she left.
Powell also shared her observations about Kenyan society and children during the lecture. She described five major factors that contributed to the harsh living conditions of many Kenyan children: healthcare and sanitation, education, the impact of HIV and AIDS, malnourishment, and lack of international or government involvement in the lives of children. Sanitation and healthcare contributed greatly, as many children lacked clean and/or running water. Powell found that most women and children were not taught basic hygienic practices. Severe overcrowding in public schools made good public education inaccessible to many children. She observed that mandatory expenses for school, such as uniforms and examination fees, prevented many children from beginning or continuing their education. Powell also saw the effect of HIV and AIDS on the community, as more than 13 million children under the age of 15 are orphaned due to AIDS, and this number is expected to double by 2010. Malnourishment compounded the problems for many children, as overpopulation, large family size and absent family members -- especially parents due to AIDS -- all contribute to their insufficient diets. She found government aid and policy did little to solve the daily struggle of most children. The most recent bill, the Children's Bill of 2001, took steps toward helping abused children, but it was clear to Powell that their initiative was not enough.
All these factors contributed to between 50,000 and 60,000 street children in the growing slums of Nairobi. These street children, especially the boys, tended to have problems with drug abuse. One 13-year-old child who came to live in the Children's Home was addicted to street drugs when he arrived, though Powell was impressed by the rehabilitation steps the home took once he moved in. In surrounding, more rural settings of Kenya, she encountered a little girl with a severely swollen face from lack of sanitation in her cow-dung hut. She provided other examples of abused, neglected and raped children throughout the talk to emphasize that many street children have encountered one or all of these traumatic events in their lives.
Though Powell illustrated a grim picture of life in Kenya for many children, especially street children, throughout her lecture she maintained an optimistic outlook for their future. The amount of work that she accomplished to improve the conditions and care in the Sons of Manaseh Children's Home proved that a person with initiative can make real progress. She encouraged other students to take similar initiatives if given the chance and offered to assist them in looking for similar opportunities. Powell maintains close ties to the Children's Home and on the day of the lecture, was waiting to hear about the progress of the installation of a water tank.
-- by Ryan Seewald '10
Powell intended to spend her summer as a mentor, playmate and teacher to the children, acting as an extra hand to help a pastor and his wife provide for 25 of them. However, she found the home had far more administrative needs. The home had no sanitized water or restroom facilities, no standardized records of the children's personal or medical history and had to rely on outside funding and donations, as it had no source of independent income. Working with the pastor, but largely through her own initiative, Powell contacted numerous organizations, such as the Red Cross, UNICEF and the Abandoned Baby Center, to procure funding to improve the housing conditions. The 25-page funding proposal she presented to UNICEF resulted in money for sanitation and water facilities for the home.
Powell also made headway in organizing an administrative structure on the home. The lack of information they received about incoming children as well as the lack of paper records in the home made it difficult to track the children's needs and progress. Powell and the pastor created an organized system to track the children's social and medical history, both before and once they arrived at the home. This work required that they spoke with local caseworkers to ensure that when children arrived, they had as much information about the children as possible to provide the best possible care. She carried her administrative duties one step further and contacted VIKDA, the international program that placed her in the home, to secure a regular volunteer for the home to fill her position after she left.
Powell also shared her observations about Kenyan society and children during the lecture. She described five major factors that contributed to the harsh living conditions of many Kenyan children: healthcare and sanitation, education, the impact of HIV and AIDS, malnourishment, and lack of international or government involvement in the lives of children. Sanitation and healthcare contributed greatly, as many children lacked clean and/or running water. Powell found that most women and children were not taught basic hygienic practices. Severe overcrowding in public schools made good public education inaccessible to many children. She observed that mandatory expenses for school, such as uniforms and examination fees, prevented many children from beginning or continuing their education. Powell also saw the effect of HIV and AIDS on the community, as more than 13 million children under the age of 15 are orphaned due to AIDS, and this number is expected to double by 2010. Malnourishment compounded the problems for many children, as overpopulation, large family size and absent family members -- especially parents due to AIDS -- all contribute to their insufficient diets. She found government aid and policy did little to solve the daily struggle of most children. The most recent bill, the Children's Bill of 2001, took steps toward helping abused children, but it was clear to Powell that their initiative was not enough.
All these factors contributed to between 50,000 and 60,000 street children in the growing slums of Nairobi. These street children, especially the boys, tended to have problems with drug abuse. One 13-year-old child who came to live in the Children's Home was addicted to street drugs when he arrived, though Powell was impressed by the rehabilitation steps the home took once he moved in. In surrounding, more rural settings of Kenya, she encountered a little girl with a severely swollen face from lack of sanitation in her cow-dung hut. She provided other examples of abused, neglected and raped children throughout the talk to emphasize that many street children have encountered one or all of these traumatic events in their lives.
Though Powell illustrated a grim picture of life in Kenya for many children, especially street children, throughout her lecture she maintained an optimistic outlook for their future. The amount of work that she accomplished to improve the conditions and care in the Sons of Manaseh Children's Home proved that a person with initiative can make real progress. She encouraged other students to take similar initiatives if given the chance and offered to assist them in looking for similar opportunities. Powell maintains close ties to the Children's Home and on the day of the lecture, was waiting to hear about the progress of the installation of a water tank.
-- by Ryan Seewald '10
