Play safe, stay safe

Play safe, stay safe.

A Kenyan coastal town of Ukunda is blessed with children, the streets are full of them.

The streets , that’s where the Ukunda kids have to spend most and quite often all of their childhood . Some of them enter that world as early as at the age of 4-6. There, in the streets children get a lot of vitamin D, grow streetwise and often perish both physically and mentally. There is also a huge functioning quarry almost in the centre of the residential area of Maweni (Ukunda district). The quarry is posing an immediate and deadly threat to the community and has claimed several lives.That’s the reality and it’s going to be like that in the foreseeable future.

But there might be a solution to that problem within the area where I live.

You see, I am a single mother with a 4,5 years old son and as I can’t afford an everyday babysitter on my wagesI realized that quite soon I would have to face this “street life” problem for my baby. But one day, about a month ago I met Stacey. She is a widow with two kids. After her husband’s death Stacey came into possession of a compound her late husband left her (in the video). Being very concerned about the well being of the neighborhood of Maweni (Ukunda district) she came up with an idea of establishing a place on her land for the local kids where they would be safe and happy. The place where the children could develop NORMAL social skills and exercise their learning abilities. What do we have in mind? We would like to build a free playground for the kids from 3 to 12 years old.There should be a sandbox, a playhouse with slides and climbers, a seesaw, a tether ball, a swingset, a jungle gym and maybe even a trampoline. There is enough room in the compound for a small football field and a basketball court..The small pool Stacey has in her compound can be used for teaching the smallest kids to swim. The pump should be fixed first though. The greater part of the equipment can be built by the locals.The important part of the place will be a soup kitchen – the local kids are always hungry.To keep the sub kitchen running we plan to set up a sewing shop for 3-4 sewing machines. In there the children’s mothers could mend their own kids’ clothes and make new ones for sale. Also we can turn the guest houses into a shelter for children from the abusive families. The facility could be used by the children from sunrise to sunset and that is almost 12 hours and it will accommodate up to 20-25 kids, we hope. The abused kids could stay in the shelter overnight. Without your help this project won’t take off the ground.

Our greatest dream is to start a theater where children could learn right from wrong as spectators and as actors. Free admission for all the donors)

Emily.