What would you do if you and your family lost your home and all your belongings in a few hours due to a fire? Sadly, that is a situation that one of our Nairobi Seed of Hope students recently had to face.
Patience has just completed her first year at Seed of Hope. She lives with her sister, brother in law and their three children in Dagoretti. One evening, a child from a neighbouring house was sent inside to fetch something. As he left, he didn’t notice that the curtain had caught fire due to the flame from a nearby lamp. He went back outside and shortly afterwards his family’s home and several others, including the one occupied by Patience’s family, were razed to the ground.
Patience and her family were forced to spend the night sleeping outside and had to wait until morning before they could start to assess the damage. In the morning, they called the headteacher at Seed of Hope to let her know that Patience would be absent as they tried to figure out what they could do to replace their lost items and find a new home.
Seed of Hope helped out initially with some donations of clothes that had been stored at the centre. The staff then tried to think of other ways in which they could assist Patience and her family. Earlier in the year, a couple of small groups from Nairobi Chapel had visited Seed of Hope and also visited Patience at home as part of their efforts to learn about Seed of Hope and the circumstances from which girls were enrolled at the centre. It was decided that an appeal would be made to these groups to see if any assistance could be offered.
Within a very short period of time, the supporters from Nairobi Chapel had collected enough cash to pay for a couple of months rent on a new house as well as donations of clothes, kitchen utensils, mattresses and bedding. This was a lifeline for the family and helped them get back on their feet again. Patience told us “It would have been very hard to get any of these items if Nairobi Chapel hadn’t helped. I want to say Thank You. I don’t have words to express how grateful we are but God will bless you.”
Nairobi Chapel is located close to Seed of Hope and has been of tremendous support to the girls over the past few years. On behalf of Vision Africa, we would like to appreciate that support and in particular we would like to thank those members of the congregation who came to the rescue of Patience and her family.