Working at Kabete

The past three days I have been doing an APT program at Kabete Children's Remand Home, which is located just outside of Nairobi. The home works with children who fall into two main categories: care/protection and court trials. The first category, care and protection, is for children who are orphans or have no one who is able to care for them. They often have rough pasts and really sad stories. The other category, court trials, is for children who have committed crimes and are awaiting trial in a juvenile court. The kids live in dorms at the home, and they have a garden where they grow all their own food. They have a literacy class, but don't attend a regular school. Their time is spent in rehabilitation programs, such as APT, and also in counseling and guidance. The kids stay at the home anywhere from two weeks to four years. 

On Tuesday we did case studies, where we interview and document each child's history. I talked to Stanley, who is 15 years old and is awaiting trial for assaulting a peer. Since the Kenyan justice system is terribly slow, he has been at the home for two years. We talked about football, Mr. Obama, and rap music. He sang me some Neo and Akon songs, as well as some songs he had written on his own! I also interviewed a girl named Angela, who is 17 years old. She is also awaiting trial as an accomplice to manslaughter and has been at the home for four years. She and a group of friends were walking home one day when they were harrassed by a group of older boys. Her friend threw a rock at one of the boys and it hit him in the head. There was internal bleeding and he later died. She was very tough and guarded, but we talked about how she likes reading novels and knitting. She is the oldest here at the home, so she is  a leader and acts like a big sister to the other smaller children. I also talked to another girl, who was at the home for care and protection. Both her parents died when she was 8 years old, and so she went to live with an Aunt, who also passed away. She and her siblings went to live on the street until they were taken in by a man who put them in school. But then the man took the girl, who was 11 at the time, to be his bride and raped her. Her kept her at home and out of school for  2 years, until she and her siblings were able to run away to the street. They were then arrested by the police and brought to the home. It was so awful to sit there and listen to her tell this story, but she was also so strong and determined to have her story be heard. It was one of the most powerful and yet depressing experiences of my life. I just wanted to take her home and give her all the things she deserves in life. It was hard not to cry as I listened to her, and it's hard not to cry now as I type this. I just hope the programs at the home will help her to heal, and she can become a regular girl again. 

Anyways, on Wednesday and Thursday we presented programs on anger and anger management. We talked about the meaning of anger, what makes us angry, and how we should handle it. We also did skits and story telling to practice these ideas. We also played many games and sang songs. I taught them two games, one which was very successful and one which was a complete disaster because it was too complicated and lost in translation, haha. Oh well! They also played a game where they face off, and take turns making fun of each other. The kids really enjoyed this game and we were all laughing to the point of tears. Not only did this game teach the importance of being able to laugh at yourself, but it also was just absolutely hilarious!