The Secret Shrink

The Community Champions-1

African Child organization (ACO) had just received a new employee who would lead the new urban agribusiness project. Jenny who was a community development assistant had been hired after she presented a proposal to improve food security in Nairobi slums. Her main goal was to ensure that the children who grew up in these slums had proper nutrition to ensure complete developmental growth just like any other privileged child in the city. She was well equipped for the job and was assigned three handlers who would help her reach out to the parents, the young girls as well as the young boys in the area.
Mr. and Mrs. Jackton Obachi and Stella Mueni were ministers of the community church. They both met while they were working at the Kenya Planters Cooperative Union in Dandora. They got married and after it closed down, they were left without a stable income. They had raised their family in the slums doing casual jobs. Mrs. Mueni engaged in cleaning houses in the nearby Indian community residence Pangani. Mr. Obachi carried traders' goods with his homemade mkokoteni. They were strong believers and taught good morals to their children.
There were very few churches in the slums back then so the few that believed just met in their houses for a few hours on Sunday and back to their jobs. One of the founders of ACO met Mrs. Mueni when visiting a friend and they became interested in working in the slums. He was impressed with how she sang and taught his colleagues' children songs of praise and that's how the community church was built, and Mr. and Mrs. Obachi appointed as shepherds. Over time they became very close to this community and became champions who assisted ACO to gain the trust and courage of the community to implement various projects to uplift the African child. Mr. Obachi had attended Bible College while his wife attended therapy and counseling center courses after they successfully but strenuously educated their two children. They were Jenny's parental champion.
Sharon Amanikor was on a bus from Voi returning to Nairobi after a 9-month field posting. She was received by ACO after she completed her diploma in Social work one and a half months back. She could not help but think of how her life had turned around after her mother hid her and sneaked her to a rescue center when she was 11 years old. Her father wanted to marry her off to the village elder who was 67 years old so that his social status in the community would rise. Her mother who had a secret friend from the International Rescue Committeee (IRC) sneaked her at night and they ran the whole night. She felt tired and wanted to stop but her mother dragged her on. They ran until their feet felt one with the ground and her body felt as light as the paws of a lioness. By daybreak, they were far enough, and they stopped at a stream for a break and some water then walked the whole day to where they met her mother's friend who would take her daughter to safety in Tangulbei Primary School in Baringo. Her mother took her into her arms squeezed her tight and Amanikor breathed slowly her body melting into her mother's and tears drenched her mother's shoulders. She knew this may be the last time she ever saw her mother. She watched her take to her heels to run back home. Napur, Amanikor's mother could feel her tears fall down her cheeks like drops of water as she ran home. She did not know what to tell her husband, but she was glad to save her only daughter from being turned into a child bride just for the family's survival through the drought. The food her friend had brought would buy her and her sons some time of survival before she found another way out. She stopped, looked back at her daughter one last time bidding her goodbye with her eyes and her heart, then she turned and ran as fast as her legs could take her. #
Amanikor studied in her new home not knowing what her father did to her mother when he found out what she had done. She was invited to a good secondary school after which she was selected by a local bank to participate in their young achievers' program. She worked as a customer assistant by day and funded her diploma education by night. When she finally graduated, she secured an attachment at ACO with the help of one of her Tangulbei Primary teachers help and they were pleased with her work. She worked with girl support groups to encourage them and assist them to participate in community projects and gain hands on skills such as beading. Her background always encouraged the girls to be resilient and hardworking. Her field posting to Voi was a secret to most of her friends and she intended to keep it that way when she got back. She was Jenny's champion in involving community girls in the urban agribusiness project.
Harry Kinyua was an electrical engineering graduate at the University of Nairobi. He was born and raised in one of the most prestigious estates in the city. However, he was not a practicing engineer and only took private jobs during his free time. He was employed as a community worker by ACO. He was the organization's lead counselor for boys in the community who were recovering from alcoholism.
He runs various projects reaching out to teenagers who were addicted to drugs and support groups for those who had just completed their rehabilitation from addiction. He was a beneficiary of the ACO rehabilitation program which he joined after he almost killed his friend at the college on graduation night after an all-night drinking spree. His father had gotten the judge to sentence him to community service and 9 months admission to a rehabilitation center as he had become an alcoholic and unemployable.
He stayed at the organization to help young boys through the process and he trained them electrician skills that could earn them an income. His job paid much less than what an electrical engineer would earn, but he was happy with the satisfaction his job gave him. The urban agribusiness project would widen the skills of the boys at the rehabilitation center and his status in the community would help Jenny a lot in implementation of the new projects. He had helped Jenny during proposal preparation and was now one of her champions. #
Jenny was impressed by her community champions and she was hopeful that the projects would be successful.