The children from Cheren’gani (9)

While visiting one of his churches in the Cheren’gani area, the Pastor was introduced to a family in which the grandparents, themselves very poor, were seeking to provide for 15 children, 10 of them their grandchildren, all of whose parents had died. Five of the children were in need of medical help, some with TB. The grandparents were relieved and delighted when the Pastor offered to take these five children to board at the school in Eldoret, and to obtain the necessary medical help to restore them to health.

There are, quite rightly, complex systems in place to ensure that children moved from their homes and home areas in this way are always traceable and to ensure that the arrangements made for their care are adequate. It is easy to see how, in a continent where poverty makes families desperate, children can be entrusted to, sometimes even sold to, strangers promising them a better life, only to end up trapped in appalling situations from which they have no means of escape. The Pastor has therefore to comply with many legal requirements on the way to providing a good home and education for these children

All the paperwork is now complete and the children have joined the school. They are seen here with two friends from the school and with an adult carer.