Christian Mission Aid

Daylove Children's Project

For 7 years, the Daylove ministry has been caring for the poor and neglected children in the Dagoretti area. The school started with a handful of children who were fed and taught the word of God once a week. Due to neglect at home, the children always came to school very dirty, so they were also taught how to bathe and wash their clothes in the afternoon. With the help of Compassion Canada, the Daylove ministry takes in 100 little children below 7 years, and provides them with food and an education every year.  

Hungry to learn 

There are quite a number of children whose parents have never been able to enroll them in any kind of school, because they don’t have the money to pay school fees. These are the children who grow up not knowing how to read and write or do arithmetic. It is a joy when at least 100 children below the age of 7 years are able to join the Daylove School, and two classes were built just for these children. In 1 – 2 years, the children will advance and join some of the government schools in the area. There are some children who will not be able to advance because they are a bit slow in school. These children are usually absorbed into the carpentry and tailoring classes to get skills training. 

Teacher Rachael, checks the children’s class books during one of the English lessons. Most of the young children speak the Kikuyu language, but the bright children learn things quickly and by the time they leave Daylove, they will have learned a lot of English.

It is quite a challenge for the Daylove teachers to try and understand each child. Many of the children are neglected at home, and this interferes with the child’s capacity to learn quickly. This leaves the teachers with the responsibility to act as parents who can teach, love, discipline and nurture the children. Because of the loving dedication their teachers show, many of the children enjoy attending the Daylove School where they enjoy many positive experiences.

Nutritious meals 
The Daylove cooks start preparing the days meals well in advance, and at all times the meals are balanced to ensure the children get the nutrients they need. For starters there is a pot full of nutritious porridge awaiting the children in the morning. Most of the children do not have breakfast at home, and they usually look forward to their cup of uji (porridge) first thing in the morning. Once the morning meal is done it is time to prepare the afternoon meal. These two meals are probably all the food some children will get in a day. There are a few children from poor homes who are given some food to take and share with their families.

The food is always plenty, and on this day the children were enjoying a meal of ugali and bean soup. Because spoons tend to get lost all the time, the children eat their lunch with their hands.  

The meals are cooked with the use of firewood for fuel. The heat and smoke in the kitchen can be overwhelming, but the cooks do their work diligently.  Sometimes cooking for over 100 children can be a challenge.  Many wooden spoons have been broken while stirring the huge pot of ugali (stiff cornmeal). The cooks often have to ask for help from some of the young boys working in the carpentry class.

Working With Wood 

In carpentry, it is important to learn the theory and then follow it up with practical classes. The sounds of hammering and sawing can usually be heard coming from the carpentry class. With all the activity that goes on here, it is not hard to spot the products of the students’ labors. There are new chairs, tables, beds and cabinets that will catch your eye as you look around. These items will either be sold, or they will be used in the Daylove classes. All these items are made to perfection under the watchful eye of their teacher. Two of the older boys who graduated, have been retained to help teach and guide the current students

Paper clothes? 

Ever wondered what it would be like to wear clothes made of paper? Well if you visit Daylove, you will find the tailoring students working real hard measuring, cutting, ironing and stitching up paper.  The privilege of working on paper is for the beginners; the older students in the class have to be satisfied with working on cloth. The beginners use paper so as to develop their tailoring skills before they can move on to working with cloth. It is usually much more reasonable to obtain packaging paper, than it is to buy manufactured cloth. This saves a lot on the cost and it reduces the amount of material that actually gets wasted in the class. 

As part of their project, the older students make clothes that will finally be given out to needy people. The class often makes school uniforms for the Daylove children, and they also design formal clothes that can be worn to any occasion. The lucky recipients of the finished garments are usually chosen from within the Daylove community.

Bibles 

We took our visitor, Jody Navratil from the US, to see the good ministry going on at the Daylove children’s center. Jody got a surprise, because she had been secretly nominated to hand out some of the special Bibles CMA received last year. A couple of those Bibles even came from the Hope Lutheran Church - which she attends. 

The committee received the Bibles happily, and they said that the teachers would use the Bibles properly. In Daylove the older children get Bibles, which they can take home, and the small children have the Bible verses read to them by their teachers. 

We partner with Compassion Canada on this project. 

Want to help? Contact us at: Africa@CMAid.org

  You can help financially with this Ministry by visiting our Online Donations page