Salima Children Center:

This is the only school in Kibera slums that does not charge the children any amount of money to stay in school. This is because; most parents cannot afford any money to take their children to school due to the high poverty rates locking out so many children from attaining basic primary education. Families here can go for more than three days without having seen a meal thus education is not their priority. Salima Children Center is also the only school that does not have a uniform as insisting on a uniform will lock out all the children whom they are assisting. The school depends on the founder’s small salary to run. The teachers are not paid anything and it is just by Gods grace they have never walked out on Esther the founder as they depend on what remains of her salary at the end of the month to get something for their upkeep which is very small to a point of them borrowing their neighbors food and clothes even sanitary pads because though they work they never get paid. Basically Salima provides completely free education, meals and medical attention to all the more than 50 children who are currently at the school.

Though the food is not much, for almost all of these children this is the only meal they ever get to eat in a day. The exact portion of lunch they eat can be measured by a 300ml cup. That is all they have for lunch as that is what they can afford.

They eat the same meal every day a mixture of maize and beans, six days a week all the days of the year when they are in school. There is not enough money to give them a balanced diet or a variety of food. When they are lucky they have porridge for breakfast. Thought the children do not sleep in school, they come to school daily to learn and as incentive to keep them in school the lunch. They are provided with reading materials, exercise books, pens, pencils, crayons, and rubbers, everything that is used as a learning aid. Most of these children come to school bare footed, with torn clothes and when it rains, you will have pity on these children as they do not have sweaters let alone jackets. They come to school completely cold and wet and it is really hard to teach them in this situation as once they are hurdled warmly together and have had a hot cup of porridge, they doze off.

Life for all these children is a hard one, one that a child does not deserve but due to the situation they got born in, they have little they can do other that get an education and encouragement that their situation will not be permanent if they work hard in school since thereafter they will be able to get jobs and thus get money to have a good life and give their families a good life too. Most of these children come from abusive families, homes where the parents do not care at all for them, and are complete orphans who struggle to take care of themselves. They bathe only once in a week on Fridays with water which is provided at school otherwise left alone, they can go for months end without bathing as water is an expense their parents or guardians cannot afford. Imagine a 10 year old being the mother and father of some younger 4 children.  

Below is an individual child story: 

Lizzie,

She is the oldest girl in school and though she is 14years old, she is just in class 1 which is in complete contrast to her fellow age mates who are 7 years ahead of her academically. It is at school that she and her siblings have found a safe place. Lizzie started coming to Salima school due to the free food given and would eat just a handful of the food she was given and hide the rest in a bid to take home. One of the teachers noticed this behavior one day and asked her the reason for her not finishing her food. That is when Lizzie told the teachers that she carries the remaining food home for her three sisters and one brother. Imagine a 300ml cup of a mixture of beans and maize being shared among five children. Her mother died while she was still a child. Her father remarried and also the step mother died leaving them all young and helpless. After the death of their step mother, their father took to heavy drinking not feeding the children or showing them any care at all. His is masonry work and could go for weeks without the children ever seeing him.

All this while, they could go to the streets and beg for food and water. Due to the rent not being paid because of their dad’s absence, they were kicked out into the cold. It took the goodwill of neighbors to get an empty space near the river bed where they built for them a small room made of mud, cardboard and nylon for them to stay. They would then take rounds to give the children something to eat. After some while, their dad came back to find the house locked. He was shown where the children had been moved to. On entering the house, he raped his first born daughter i.e. Lizzie, and told her that that they would not have been thrown out of the house had she got herself into prostitution to get money. That was the beginning of Lizzie and her sibling’s life of terror. Their dad was now at home full time doing nothing but beating them crazy and raping Lizzie every day telling her that he is training her for what is ahead-to get into prostitution to fend for the family. Luckily, the grand mother died and their dad had to leave for the village.

It was while their father was not around that Lizzie decided to get out of the house and look for a job as a house help and when she lands one, run away from home and leave her siblings behind. It was then that she met Esther the founder. She asked her if she could wash for her clothes and then just give her at least food and somewhere too sleep even if she will not pay her. Since Esther herself is struggling, and seeing Lizzie was young to be overburdened with housework, she could do nothing much than to direct her to Salima. She told Lizzie to meet the following day at the school. When Lizzie came to school she was reluctant to learn as she was bigger than all the other children and her size was embarrassing for her to stick around the other children. But with the promise of food, she would come. But in the beginning it was hard since she would come to school just in time for lunch, read for the next one hour then disappear. Her behavior of carrying food is what got the teachers attention. Though Lizzie never opened up the whole story of her background, at least the teachers got to know she had siblings.

Esther requested that she brings her siblings every time she comes to school. She was shocked to see the state in which the children were in as they were in really a pathetic state. Lizzie had been the mother and father of the children for all this time and all they ate is the small amount of food she took from school. After one month Lizzie and her siblings all stopped coming to school. The teachers and Esther through all means finally located them. Lizzie’s dad had come back, he did not want to hear them going to school as he said it made girls rebellious and more so, Lizzie was meant to be selling her body to get them food (at the tender age of 13).

It is then that after much prodding that Lizzie opened up and told the teachers all of her life history. Esther was shocked beyond words and immediately went to the chief’s place where after really begging the chief, they got to finally arrest Lizzie’s father where he is in jail right now. It is actually a miracle that Lizzie never fell pregnant because a toddler and four other children to take care of would have killed her. Though they still live in the shanty on their own, they receive support from Esther and the teachers and are safe from harm. Now Lizzie and her siblings like all the other children who go to Salima every day, get an education and food and when Esther is able, clothing and medical attention. As for Lizzie, she is under ARV’s which are expensive.

All the children have lives that are far from what a normal child should have. Lives of struggles and shame. It is with the passion of ending the cycle of poverty that brings all these social evils that Salima was started. Though they still struggle, Esther has tried her level best to give the children a descent life but due to financial struggles, cannot keep them all together but just wait for them to come everyday, to teach them, give them food and clothes and continue to pray that God will have mercy upon them and send them sponsors who will support the school fully. She has great dreams for anyone caring to listen and with such determination, who said extreme poverty cannot be a thing of the past? All Esther needs is support and continued support. She is always welcome to new ideas and is very accountable to the last cent. Salima would appreciate support to be the great school Esther hopes it will be.