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| Dowe Music & Arts Team with the children |
With all the fuss on social media about the men’s
conference on Valentines Day, we at Dowe Music visited beautiful souls in one of the slum areas
in Nakuru. Located off town just near the Lake Nakuru Game park is a home with
a courageous woman. Elizabeth (a.k.a Mama Ng’endo) is a lady full of compassion
and love for the less fortunate. She houses sixteen abandoned children by
either irresponsible beings of a human or because of the cruel hand of death.
Soon after our expedition at the coast last week, we
embarked on a fund drive to facilitate the visit. Well, before I delve much
into this, I must mention that this visit became more relevant because of the
Human Centered Design approach we applied. By Thursday, earlier week, we had
not yet found a suitable orphanage to visit. Bu suitable I mean a place where
we would get all the children at the same time. Most of them had some children
in boarding school.
I was privileged to participate in the MWF 2019 interview.
It happened that the panelist came late. Instead of each of us minding our own
business and rehearsing what to say as it always happens in most job
interviews, I told the group of five sharp looking ladies and one Gentleman to
turn the chairs around. We did our introduction and that’s how I knew Susan.
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| Susan |
Susan is a soft spoken lady graced with empathy for the
underprivileged. Despite having growing up in a middle class family and
currently having a good job (Things I came to learn later after the visit), one
can only wonder why and how she has a heart to take occasional visits to Mama
Ng’endo and do shopping for the children. It was after everyone had shared
their stories that I told Susan about my interest in her visits to the home.
For the past one year, I have come to appreciate the power
of story-telling and connecting with people. Little was it known to me that the
lateness of our panelists (We all know that it is not in an American to be
late) was a divine chance for me to make contacts with great change makers.
Thankfully, I have contacts of all of them: Orpah, a volunteer with G-Unite,
Sakuda a founder of a High School, Birir a fellow Yali Nakuru Alumni and the
founder of Go Green and Linda.
Back to the top story. We did chat with Susan and on asking
how we might help the home, she had every detail on her fingertips. Normally,
we always think of bringing clothes and sadly (or is it fate), those that are
torn and want someone to take them instead of turning them into dusters. Susan
gave me a list of things that the home was in dire need. On top of the list was
that there’s a need for well- wishers and sponsors to help Elizabeth educate
the children. Well, this would be beyond our scope as our company has barely
broken even and it’s still taking off. However, what if by you reading this
story you can give it a shot. You can get our contacts at the Dowe Music &Arts website.
Reaching out to the current class of students, they suggested
a budget so we can do a one-month shopping. I was so excited for a bout ten
seconds then a thought came. Who was going to foot that? These young people?
Long story short, we set a target which was surpassed by about $20 (Ksh.2000).
We are grateful to everyone including friends of Dowe Music &Arts (Those
who are neither alumni or current students) for the support you gave.
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| Elizabeth "Mama Ng'endo at her home, Sewage Area, Nakuru |
We arrived safely on Thursday evening, 14 of February. Mama Ng’endo gave a story that made all of us
appreciate life. Her husband was brutally murdedered in 2007during the Post-
Election Violence. They found his lifeless body lying in a trench. Well, I have
been preaching peace and singing about it for long but for once I felt a deeper
unction to do this more and more.
She picked up herself and thought about life
and what lessons God had for her in the new status of widowhood. A thought of taking
care of orphaned children came in. Being a Christian, she thought so little
about her meagre resources and how she would cater for the children. Elizabeth
narrated how sometimes she wakes up to a toddler as young as a month old
abandoned at her doorstep. This was so heart breaking especially as I
remembered Susan telling me a testimony of how a child was almost dying of malnutrition
and now she was a bundle of joy, months later, in the hands of Mama Ng’endo!
After introduction and short speeches from both the visitors
and the host, we had an awesome moment of acoustic guitar music. Our repertoire
was graced with Paul Clement’s Amani, Angel Benard’s Siteketei and Kuliko Jana by
Sauti Sol. This was the first for one of our students. As we went back to
office, Ms. Waigi had a comment to make.
I didn’t know it’s this nice to help someone less fortunate…thank you so much for organizing this.
Touch a Soul will be here again in a year’s time. Remember,
at any point in life, there is always someone less privileged than you. Dare to
touch a soul!
The writer of this
post is the founder of
Dowe Music & Arts and the
frontier of Art4Leadership.
He is a Yali Alumni based in Nakuru.
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