Earlier this year, a precious little girl joined our Rafiki Mwema family. Our girls and aunties gathered to give her a warm, loving welcome and help her feel at home.
While we adore her and are so happy she is here with us, the truth is that we wish we didn’t need to welcome this little one – or any child – into our family. The tragic, heartbreaking stories behind each child who lives with us on Doyle Farm are the reasons they are here.
We will never stop speaking up for our children, fighting for justice, and working to change hearts and minds. But the reality is that there will always be children who need Rafiki Mwema.
Her world has totally changed
When children arrive, it’s not unusual for them to feel terrified. They don’t know who might hurt them next. They haven’t yet learned that we can be trusted. Sometimes they may speak another language, adding to their fear.**
Some children require medical treatment, which is often a new, scary experience. They must attend court and describe to total strangers what happened to them. The stress is unbelievable for our new family members.
It takes time for these traumatised little ones to begin to trust us. Our beautiful transition home, Malkia Mtoto, is where our new family member lives until she feels comfortable enough to move in with our other girls.
Two aunties care for her at the house as she learns to make sense of a world which has totally changed, often in ways she finds hard to comprehend. And a key worker supports her throughout the day, gently laying the foundation for a connection that will allow her to experience one safe person in her world of fear.
Trust is hers to give when she is ready
Our staff are trained to use an Attachment Play Program which helps traumatised children build an attachment with their key worker. The trust we ask our little girl to give us is not ours to take. It’s hers to give – however long that may take.
We run weekly training sessions for our staff to help them better understand trauma so that they can parent in a playful, accepting, curious and empathic way. This helps our children heal from the inside out. Our little girl will one day find a tiny spark of love inside and we work hard to ignite that fire until she feels ready to be loved and to love.
We work hard to change hearts and minds
Out in the community, our outreach team champions our little girl’s innocence. We make it clear that this precious child is innocent – not a monster or demon who is deserving of abuse. Our outreach team supports the grieving family members and helps them through their horror and shock. Each family member is systematically assessed to determine whether they can provide a safe, loving, permanent home some day in the future.
Our sponsors transform a child’s world
An incredible amount of work goes on behind the scenes at Rafiki Mwema to care for, protect and gain justice for our children. We give children the chance to live as children should. Without your support, we could not do all we do to make our children’s world a better place. If you’d like to contribute to genuine transformation, please consider becoming a sponsor. Sponsorship is the perfect way to contribute to a brighter futures for our children.
Sponsorship powers Rafiki Mwema to do more
It’s just AUD$50 a month to sponsor a child through Rafiki Mwema. The funds go towards the daily running costs of Doyle Farm and so much more. Take this list, for example, which is just the tip of the iceberg of all that Rafiki Mwema does:
- Medical treatment and medication
- School shoes (and uniforms, school fees, books, school bags … the list goes on)
- Meals for around 100 people (and remember, some of these are teenage boys) three times a day. That comes to …. 2,100 individual meals a week!
- Travel, so much travel. We attend court cases, take children to see their family, send children to boarding school and visit our children regularly once they’ve moved back into the community.
- Wages for our Maasai security team and our gifted, green-thumbed farmers, who have created the most abundant and lush farm you’ll ever see.
- Ongoing training and support for our key workers.
Share our story with others
If this story resonates with you, would you please consider sharing it with others you know? We are so thankful for every person who shares about Rafiki Mwema with others and who so generously supports us through donations and sponsorship.
** While Swahili and English are commonly spoken languages in Kenya, there are many regional languages spoken throughout the country.
