Baby Clothes needed in Nairobi

This is a republished version of an email I received from my friend Lynn in Nairobi.

Hi,

I trust that you are all well. The reason for this email is that my firm, which is a forensic consultancy, does a lot of pro bono work in Naivasha with rape survivors and especially young girls. Most of these girls do not report the abuse as soon as it happens and will only tell someone when they realise that they are pregnant. As a firm we do the criminal paternity tests to ensure that these paedophiles are put away for the crime that they have committed.

We currently have about 10 girls aged between 14 and 17 who have been defiled by people known to them and as a result have either recently had a baby or are about to. All these girls come from poor backgrounds and may be orphans under the care of an elderly grandparent. If they are lucky the family will support them but sometimes this is not the case.

We are currently working on a particularly harrowing case of a 14 year old girl who was defiled by her biological father and now has a 4 month old baby. She has been rejected by her mother, who also has a 4 month old baby, and her grandmother and is literally living on the streets. Her father has 'disappeared' but calls her mother every so often looking for money. She is selling cabbages for someone and gets about 30 KShs every 4 days or so. Her and the baby have both suffered pneumonia recently, thankfully the baby's medical treatment is free but not for the girl so she has not been able to finish her course of treatment. We are trying to get this girl into a home that can take both her and her baby and also ensure that the home will not only be able to provide medical care but also enable the girl to go back to school, she would have been doing her KCPE this year.

I am not asking for money for these girls, what I am asking for is clothes for the babies and also for the girls, so if you know anyone with baby clothes, regardless of the age, coz these babies will grow after all, please let me know and I will come and pick them up and donate them to these girls, I know anything will be appreciated. Also clothes for the girls, like I said they are aged between the ages of 14 and 17.

On behalf of my business partner .... and myself I would like to thank you in advance and also ask you to forward this to anyone you think maybe able to help. We have a problem in our society and I like many of you lived a carefree youth, where you worried about homework just wanted to be outside playing shake, kati, tapo and all those other kid things, but these young girls don't have that choice, through no fault of their own they have been thrust into motherhood in the worst possible way.


Many Thanks

If you want to donate baby clothes, please send Mama Wangari a comment with a contact method for you, either email or telephone. I will respond as soon as I get it to arrange what's possible re delivery to Nairobi but not publish. If you want a comment published please do not include contact details in it. ie send 2 if you want one to be published.