Faraja Children's Home: The Orphanage on the Hill

I have been volunteering at Faraja (which means “comfort” in Swahili) Children’s Home for more than a week now.

The story of the orphanage began in 2006 in a one-room shack in Kibera, the largest slum in East Africa today. One day, Moraa’s youngest son, Emmanuel, brought home two playmates, siblings Mwadime and Mogoi, who eventually grew so attached to the family that they would follow Emmanuel home in the evening and refuse to leave.

Later, Moraa found out they were orphans – HIV-positive - whose parents had succumbed to AIDS. They were living with relatives who abused them. Touched by the plight of these two children, Moraa – herself a struggling 46-year old single mother of three children – decided to take them in.

As word got around in the slum that a mother was taking in unwanted children, people started dropping off their children at Moraa’s shack – permanently. Several children, whose parents were killed during the 2007 post-election violence in Kibera, also came to Moraa for help. In spite of her limited resources, she did not have the heart to turn them away.

Today, the Faraja Children’s Home, registered as a Community-Based Organization just the beginning of this year, provides a safe haven for 34 orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs), ranging from 2 – 13 years of age. 7 of them are HIV-positive.

The children’s stories are nothing short of tragic. One day, Moraa noticed one of the girls urinating blood. She told Moraa how years ago, a man would “touch” her every time she went to fetch water. Today, at a tender age of 10, this little girl not only suffers from vaginal injuries but also is HIV-positive.

Others were orphaned by HIV/AIDS, some abandoned by their parents/relatives, or rescued from abusive homes. One child’s parents – who made a living as thieves in the Kibera slum – were hacked to death by an angry mob.

Moraa, a humble, soft-spoken woman, has three children of her own. The eldest, 23 year-old Omari, is a final year civil engineering student at a local university who helps out around the orphanage during summer vacation. A budding social entrepreneur, Omari recently built a chicken farm behind the orphanage in order to generate income for the orphanage (more details later). Moraa’s younger children, Emmanuel (11?) and Esther (9?), treat the orphans as their own siblings. “Ma,” meaning “mother,” is what all the children at the orphanage call Moraa.

“This is when I feel happiest – when I see my children eating,” she beamed proudly a few days ago. Amazing what a difference one woman’s grace and compassion can make in the lives of these children.