This week at Ilula Children's Home

~ by Caroline Kiptoo
Ilula Children's Home Administrative Assistant

It’s a pleasure once again to share some of the activities that have been going on in Ilula this week. The Lord has continued to be good to us and has protected our children from sickness especially being a rainy season. No children were taken to the hospital this week.

Dedication & Opening of New Gazebos
The two new gazebos were dedicated to God and officially opened on Monday 28th July. Ribbons were cut by the director, assistant director, parents and children representatives to officially open them. The children were very excited to finally use their own gazebos. They moved in the same evening and served their food from there. The children’s home director Mr. Laban Rono encouraged the parents and children to take good care of the gazebos. He told them to maintain cleanliness as usual and to ensure that the tables and benches were taken good care of. He went further to encourage those families that remained in the older gazebos to appreciate and continue praying to God for funds to be found so that theirs could also be renovated and be put iron sheets like the new gazebos and to be painted too. He thanked the families for the good work they have been doing and living together in harmony and encouraged them to continue with the same spirit of togetherness. He reminded the children that as much as every family will be using their own gazebo, we are still one family in Jesus Christ.

The children are very happy to share family time together in their gazebo. Mrs. Mary Chepsat (one of the parents) said, “It is now very easy to serve food to my children, to monitor them as they feed, to help them do their homework as they will be in one place and to take good care of my family as a whole.”

At the Kosgey family, Priscah shared that her children are rejoicing and thanking God for being in their own gazebo. She reported that her children have already come up with a duty roster on who is responsible for cleaning the gazebo, cleaning the tables and those helping to serve food. Priscah said that they are training them to do some of the activities by themselves as they will be going for their annual leave soon. They want them to be responsible children.

One of the Kosgey children that were excited the most about every family using their own gazebo is Apollo Gitahi. Apollo (9 years old) requested his parents to be the leader of their gazebo and promised to work hard to ensure that everything is in place. Apollo is now the leader in charge of cleanliness at Kosgey’s family. Apollo’s mother Priscah was amazed at Apollo’s determination to be a leader despite the fact that he is still young and there are other older children at her family.

Games Kits
All the children now have new games kits given to them at Samro School. They came home yesterday rejoicing and praising God for the games kits. They said they will be wearing them during inter-house, inter-wing and inter-home competitions. They are now putting more efforts in the various sports games and can’t wait to meet their siblings in Kipkaren River Children’s Home for their next match. The younger children at Ilula are trying to emulate the actions of the older children. For example one of the boys Edison, was trying to jump very high in high jump so as to beat his older brothers. Every time the bar was lifted he wanted to try and jump over it like his brothers did.

The Needy
Ilula children have a big heart for the needy and sick people. As the Kosgey family’s children were watching news on TV recently, they saw a young child with a heart problem who needed a lot of money to undergo heart surgery. One of the children, Hellen, challenged her parents about what they would do about it. Her parents replied they would pray for him and at that moment they all believed and prayed to God to heal the young boy. After the prayer, Hellen seemed not to be satisfied and requested her parents whether they can contribute some money to help the child. We thank God because our children are concerned and care about other needy people and the less fortunate.

Duties and Responsibilities
Day by day, Ilula children improve in their duties and responsibilities. One area they have really improved in is the area of marking their clothes so that they don’t get lost. One boy Vincent had found it very hard to knit his name on his clothes. It was not until he received his new games kit that he ran to his mother’s house to ask for a needle and thread to mark his kit. His parents were very proud of him as he did the job perfectly though it was his first time. All the parents have observed a great improvement in time keeping from the children. They have noted that the children have learnt to be where they are needed at the required time. They have also improved greatly in the side of personal hygiene and general cleanliness. One parent reported that children ensure that they are clean before going to the gazebo.

Food
The children enjoy the delicious meals prepared daily for them by the kitchen staff. One of their favorite foods is githeri (mixture of cooked maize and beans). As I was visiting with them one lunch time, I noticed most of them enjoyed eating githeri. Some went to an extent of picking the maize in their plates first then finishing with beans. They normally have githeri 3 times a week. On Tuesday, they were very happy to eat green beans and maize. Mr. and Mrs. Chepsat had harvested their beans and blessed the children with some. The green maize was purchased from town.

Baptist & Hillside
It was so sad to lose one of the cows Baptist early last week after suffering from pancreas injury. The children were very sad to lose one of the cows that gave them milk. Just one day after Baptist died, Hillside calved. The children were all smiles when they heard the good news. One child said, “Thank God that Hillside has calved! Now we can get enough milk.”

Thank you for caring about our children at Ilula. Please let us know if you have questions, or if you would like to sponsor one of our children.