Meet Rhodah Mwikali Kituku she is 4 years old. She is the last of seven children. Rhodah has six siblings. Their mother abandoned them when Rhodah was one year old and they were cared for by their Dad. Unfortunately, their Dad passed on in July 2013; six months before Youthful Faces (YF) first met the family. When YF first met Rhodah she lived with her aunty, who had four children of her own. Rhodah lived with her aunty for six months until her aunty realized she could not take care of a fifth child any more so she took Rhodah back home. Rhodah’s siblings who were still at the home were not attending school even though they are of school age. They woke up every day to search for work in the neighbor’s farms or homes so that they can get food to eat for the day. There was no thinking about tomorrow or other aspects of life like school; the focus was on daily survival and getting a meal for the day.
When Rhodah returned to their home she found there was a lot of commotion in the homestead with her relatives. Her uncles were eyeing the piece of land left behind by her father. One Sunday when they had gone to church, someone came and torched their grass thatched hut; they lost all their food and belongings. They were left with nothing to call theirs. To make matters worse, their relatives collectively decided to move them from the only place they called home to a small piece of land in the middle of nowhere.
When YF was contacted about Rhodah’s situation, YF volunteers moved quickly to help them settle. YF reached out to their grandfather who is elderly and loosing his eye sight. He can hardly take care of himself let alone seven other children. He agreed to house them until a more viable solution was found. YF met with a neighbor and established a relationship which got them involved; thereafter YF requested the neighbor to be keeping an eye on the children as a more long term solution is sought. Today! Youthful Faces is trying to help them rebuild their house. Most important is that these children now have hope that while things look very bleak now; there is possibility of change for better.
Youthful Faces works hard to make sure the children we support live happy and joyous lives like normal child do – we strive to give them hope and courage. We believe where others see a hungry child, we see a future farmer. Where they see an uneducated child, we see a future teacher, and where others see a homeless child, we see a future leader.
