Perth woman’s Kenyan orphanage visit

Sep 2 2011 by Gordon Bannerman, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

A BIG-HEARTED Perth office administrator is pledging never to forget the children she met while volunteering at a children’s home in Kenya.

Suzy McArthur (36) swapped her day job at housebuilders A and J Stephen for a life-changing, self-funded trip to Nairobi where, by the age of 16, two thirds of girls have exchanged sex for food, six out of 10 suffer from HIV/AIDS and around 20 per cent of children die before they reach the age of five.

Arriving just hours after a massive thunderstorm, Suzy compared the roads to rivers as she began her near four-week spell at the Kenya Children’s Home (KCH) created by the Perth-based Balcraig Foundation, headed by local businesswoman Ann Gloag.

The facility is home to 175 abandoned, orphaned or destitute children, from newborns to 18-year-olds.

House mums live with the children and are on duty round-the-clock to reinforce the family environment, supported by house aunties.

The children attend the adjacent Jonathan Gloag Academy, which is also administered by Balcraig.

Suzy is encouraging others to follow suit and sign-up as volunteers with the project..

The bulk of her time was spent working in the nursery, getting the babies up, washed, dressed and preparing them for the day ahead, along with several hours a week spent in the main kitchen.

Suzy said: “I was eager to do something out of my comfort zone and I certainly did that! When I first arrived, I was upset and shocked to see babies in the nursery lying on mattresses.

“But I soon realised, after walking around the area, that these children were the lucky ones. They were being fed, clothed and cared for in a well-structured family-style unit.”

The traveller from Perth was delighted to leave arts and crafts goods donated by Perth stationers Danscot, as well as a bundle of teddy bears, which have been tucked into the home’s “birthday cupboard”.

In comparison, Suzy admitted to being “heart-broken” during a visit to a local orphanage.

Based in a slum just yards from the more fortunate children under the care of Ann Gloag’s project, the youngsters had been either orphaned or abandoned by parents who couldn’t afford to feed them.

Along with her fellow volunteers, Suzy chipped in to do a “bread run” for the orphanage, where a staggering 68 children were packed into one stiflingly hot corrugated iron hut, with six to a bed.

There were other rooms with over 40 children sleeping in them. Blighted by skin conditions and disease, the starving youngsters were tucking away the bread for later.

Suzy admitted: “The whole experience, but particularly that day, will have a lasting impact on my life and how I view things.”

She is now planning to sponsor a child at the Kenya Children’s Home and is urging others to consider doing the same.

For more on the Balcraig Foundation, visit http://www.kenyachildrenshome.org.uk/projects.html or donate via www.justgiving.com/Charity/Donate