Being needy yet helping the needy

Though not trained as a teacher, Rael Otanga, 45 has chosen to keep children busy in her small room at Kingstone slums by teaching them simple life skills. In spite of life being difficult, Rael, a widow whose husband died several years ago says people should not always dwell on negative vibes.

“Children here are idle and hungry most of the time so I took up the challenge of engaging them despite of me having little to give them. I teach them a few things since I used to work in a church school before I lost my job two months ago,” she says.

Rael says that since the Covid 19 was announced in Kenya and the government took steps to contain it by locking down the city of Nairobi, everything has moved from bad to worse. “The environment in our slum has completely changed since people have no jobs. We are poor and we don’t have anyone to turn to for help,” she laments.

 

She says she has exhausted her little savings which she had been micro-managing for the last two months when the government decreed a curfew. Her small firewood business has not done better either since most people have no purchasing power. Therefore, feeding her three children has become an uphill task.

So when Jamii Bora Trust sent her money with which to buy some food, she was lost for words. “It was raining heavily when I received the money. It was a miracle I didn’t expect so I said Amen and a thank you.”

 

On receiving the money she shared some with her mother in the countryside then bought some maize flour. She took some little of it to some other needy neighbours.

She also made some porridge for a number of children who had missed meals for many days. Rael hopes some more people could come to the rescue of the poor especially those living in the slums.

She is also grateful that no one in the slum has yet contracted the disease. “God has been good to us” she says.