In the following write-up Stephen Nzyoki SJ shares his Experience in a School for HIV/AIDS Affected Orphan Children in Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya.
It is the Little Things That We Do…..!
The opening of schools around Kenya for yet another year reminds me vividly of the 8 weeks I spent last year teaching in a school in the Kibera slums. As part of our theology curriculum at Hekima College in Nairobi, each theology student is required to spend between 6 and 8 weeks in a Church institution doing practical fieldwork. The aim of this fieldwork is to assess the self-actualization of the Church wherever it is. The idea is to assess how the Church affects the lives of the people it deals with, and how it endeavours to bring about the kingdom of God here on earth.
My choice of institution for this practical field work was St. Aloysius Gonzaga Secondary School situated within Kibera Slums in Nairobi. It is a co-educational school owned and run by C.L.C Kenya. It was started in the year 2002 in order to deal with the educational needs of HIV/AIDS orphans from within Kibera slums and beyond, based on a felt-need of starting something new for these young boys and girls who were segregated and stigmatized in the schools they were attending, and thus could not learn in peace. The School has grown over the years. As of last year, it had 265 students.
My time in the school was truly inspiring and at the same time very challenging. What I found most astounding was the fact that these students have numerous needs. Needs which from the outside appear small, and sometimes even trivial, and yet for them they are grave needs. Their needs range from physical/tangible needs like the need for clothing, for food, for shelter, to psychological needs like protection and security, acceptance and affirmation and simply even friendship.
Assessing these needs and cravings, I realized that that their needs arise from what they lack, whether or not we are able to perceive it. Many of these young people have grown up in the slums, amid abject poverty and insecurity. Many of them have never known the luxury we take for granted like living in a clean spacious room in a clean area where the air is fresh and where there are flowers or even grass outside the house. Again, many of them have never had the pleasure of playing with friends in a safe environment. Now, with the death of their parents or guardians, their already difficulty situations become impossible to cope with. And so, when we bring them to St. Aloysius Gonzaga Secondary School, they are looking for more than just academics, they need a schooling and education far beyond the actual classroom teaching.
They need acceptance and affirmation, they need friendship and love, and they need encouragement and inspiration. They are seeking a comforting yet encouraging voice, a voice that assures them that ‘they can’, that they can succeed in life, that they can make something of themselves in life, that life need not necessarily be the way it has been for them so far!
It is thus in my daily interaction with them that it dawned on me that it is not so much the big, great things that we can do that can help them strive to achieve these things, but rather it is the simple things we do to and with them. It is the encouraging word, the motivating word, the moment we take to listen to them to really hear what they say, to help them dream that matters. The very gesture of wanting to spend some time with them instead of shunning or shunting them as HIV/AIDS orphans would be a great experience of healing for them. The small little things, the apparently insignificant gestures of love and concern that make all the difference to them!
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Photos: www.sagnairobi.org/
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vmalpan@gmail.com
In the following write-up Stephen Nzyoki SJ shares his Experience in a School for HIV/AIDS Affected Orphan Children in Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya.
It is the Little Things That We Do…..!
The opening of schools around Kenya for yet another year reminds me vividly of the 8 weeks I spent last year teaching in a school in the Kibera slums. As part of our theology curriculum at Hekima College in Nairobi, each theology student is required to spend between 6 and 8 weeks in a Church institution doing practical fieldwork. The aim of this fieldwork is to assess the self-actualization of the Church wherever it is. The idea is to assess how the Church affects the lives of the people it deals with, and how it endeavours to bring about the kingdom of God here on earth.
My choice of institution for this practical field work was St. Aloysius Gonzaga Secondary School situated within Kibera Slums in Nairobi. It is a co-educational school owned and run by C.L.C Kenya. It was started in the year 2002 in order to deal with the educational needs of HIV/AIDS orphans from within Kibera slums and beyond, based on a felt-need of starting something new for these young boys and girls who were segregated and stigmatized in the schools they were attending, and thus could not learn in peace. The School has grown over the years. As of last year, it had 265 students.
My time in the school was truly inspiring and at the same time very challenging. What I found most astounding was the fact that these students have numerous needs. Needs which from the outside appear small, and sometimes even trivial, and yet for them they are grave needs. Their needs range from physical/tangible needs like the need for clothing, for food, for shelter, to psychological needs like protection and security, acceptance and affirmation and simply even friendship.
Assessing these needs and cravings, I realized that that their needs arise from what they lack, whether or not we are able to perceive it. Many of these young people have grown up in the slums, amid abject poverty and insecurity. Many of them have never known the luxury we take for granted like living in a clean spacious room in a clean area where the air is fresh and where there are flowers or even grass outside the house. Again, many of them have never had the pleasure of playing with friends in a safe environment. Now, with the death of their parents or guardians, their already difficulty situations become impossible to cope with. And so, when we bring them to St. Aloysius Gonzaga Secondary School, they are looking for more than just academics, they need a schooling and education far beyond the actual classroom teaching.
They need acceptance and affirmation, they need friendship and love, and they need encouragement and inspiration. They are seeking a comforting yet encouraging voice, a voice that assures them that ‘they can’, that they can succeed in life, that they can make something of themselves in life, that life need not necessarily be the way it has been for them so far!
It is thus in my daily interaction with them that it dawned on me that it is not so much the big, great things that we can do that can help them strive to achieve these things, but rather it is the simple things we do to and with them. It is the encouraging word, the motivating word, the moment we take to listen to them to really hear what they say, to help them dream that matters. The very gesture of wanting to spend some time with them instead of shunning or shunting them as HIV/AIDS orphans would be a great experience of healing for them. The small little things, the apparently insignificant gestures of love and concern that make all the difference to them!
=======
Photos: www.sagnairobi.org/
=======
vmalpan@gmail.com
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