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Country Profiles |
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Nuru ya Jamii Children Sleep Easier Thanks to “Sleeping Kit” Donations |
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 JULY 2008 — Five-hundred children from FHI's Nuru ya Jamii project and local schools in Nakuru, Kenya, received "sleeping kits" last month from Sleeping Children Around the World (SCAW) and Rotary International.
SCAW, a Canadian NGO, teamed with the Nairobi Rotary Club and Nuru ya Jamii to distribute the kits at the AIC Church in Nakuru. Each kit contained a sleeping mattress, mosquito net, blanket, towel, school bag, and pajamas that double as playsuits. It marked the third year that Rotary and SCAW collaborated on the project. "Kids love the pajamas' bright colors," says John McWilliam, Africa Regional Office director for FHI, which initiated the Nuru ya Jamii program to prevent orphaning. "The sleeping kits are important to the children and their families. While these may seem like small gifts from our US perspective, they are important and very unexpected gifts to a 6–12 year-old child living in the poor areas where Nuru ya Jamii works. For one day, these children are the guests at a celebration and receive a gift they will never forget." Since children may be stigmatized because they are orphans or have parents with HIV, the sleeping kits were distributed without regard to HIV status. Equal numbers of vulnerable children served by Nuru ya Jamii and poor children attending three Nakuru schools received the kits. Nuru ya Jamii staff and parents managed the distribution event in Nakuru, with more than 100 members of the Rotary Club, Girl Guides of Kenya, and local teachers and parents volunteering. In other places around the country, kits were distributed by other NGOs, schools, and Rotary groups. The Nairobi Rotary Club was responsible for overall organization of the program. Working with the Nairobi Rotary Club, SCAW has distributed 6,000 sleeping kits at eight Nairobi sites this year. Since its founding in 1970, SCAW has provided kits for more than 900,000 children in 32 countries. Countries procure the materials locally and package them using funds raised by SCAW in Canada from churches, businesses, and schools. McWilliam, who is also a member of Rotary International, plans to collaborate with Rotary and SCAW again next year. He hopes that distribution will expand to other areas around Nairobi and Nakuru. PHOTO: Children play in clothing provided in their sleeping kits. (Darsi Lotay/Rotary International) Nuru ya Jamii ("Light of the Family" in Swahili) provides vulnerable children and their HIV-positive parents and caretakers with wide-ranging prevention, treatment, and care and support services. It seeks to help adults live longer, thereby preventing their children from becoming orphans.
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