Port of Call LAST UPDATE February 27, 2009
site design imagesparkle.com
February 5, 2009 Mombasa, Kenya – Participants Play and Learn with the Street Children of Mtwapa
image
Participant Mariko plants a tree to commemorate Peace Boat’s visit to Likoni Rehabilitation School
After spending the journey from Asia to Africa learning about Kenyan culture from guest educators like Hayakawa Chiaki, Judy Mwangi and the Sengenya Stars, Peace Boat participants finally got to experience it firsthand when the boat docked in humid Mombasa. After being greeted by the friendly African merchants and well-wishers onshore, participants split into groups to explore Kenya. One group set off for a study tour focusing on the plight of Mombasa's street children. By traveling to different youth centers in Kenya’s Coast Province, participants hoped to better understand the issues facing today’s youth in Mombasa.
site design imagesparkle.com
image
The boys of Furaha Home talk with a young Peace Boat participant
The group’s first stop was the Likoni Rehabilitation School, where 80 boys live due to behavioral problems stemming from inadequate home care. “The boys do not cause problems,” the headmaster, Mwasiwa Juma Boga, emphasized. “Problems are caused to them.” Because of inconsistent parenting as a result of the effects of poverty and substance abuse, the boys are found guilty of petty crimes like truancy and are sent to the rehabilitation school by the court system.

The group also visited Furaha Home, which was started in 1997 when James Musyoka began bringing home children as young as three who were living alone in the streets of Mombasa. He provided them with basic rights: “love, spiritual nourishment, family, and food.” There are now 30 boys living at Furaha, many of whom have been there since the center’s founding and who consider each other brothers. To raise money for food and school fees, the boys raise chickens and sell the eggs in the local market. They also have two cows on the property from which they get milk. Although it is a constant struggle for the center to survive financially, the difference that it has made in the boys’ lives was apparent as they exchanged email addresses with Peace Boat participants and played games of soccer and tug-of-war.
image
From a rooftop, a child of Agape tells a participant about the Mtwapa slums
Although the boys of Likoni and Furaha face difficult lives, their stories are near-miracles when compared to many of the children in the slums of Mtwapa, a village in Mombasa where participants spent the night and learned about the Agape Center for Children. Participants spent the second morning of their Mombasa stay walking around Mtwapa, where endless trash litters the ground and young men push wooden carts up and down the dusty paths, selling water to some of the world’s poorest and thirstiest people. Because the village is on the coast of Kenya, most of its economy is dependent on tourists from European countries like Italy and France. Unfortunately, along with tourists’ money comes problems: many Mtwapa girls drop out of school in order to become prostitutes catering to foreign appetites, and as a result they become pregnant at a very young age or become infected with HIV. In fact, John Opindoh, the founder of the Agape Center for Children, estimates that half of the adults of Mtwapa are infected with HIV. Because of the stigma of being HIV-positive, most of these people cannot find jobs and thus cannot afford to take care of themselves, let alone their children.
image
A Maasai woman of Mtwapa welcomes participants into her home
Symptomatic of the dire poverty in Mtwapa, education is not a priority for most children. Many end up living on the street because their parents cannot physically or financially take care of them. But John Opindoh and his wife Isabella have made education a possibility for the 200 children they support financially in the village. By providing food for lunches and tuition fees, Agape has seen many children in Mtwapa off the streets and into classrooms. They also provide the children with basic human needs like love and a sense of self-esteem. Ann, a girl of 15 who has been living with John and Isabella since she was 3, told the story of how her distant relatives tried to force her to undergo female genital cutting, a rite of passage for some Kenya tribes where a young girl’s clitoris is cut off without anesthesia or sterilized tools. “Because of what John and Mama Bella taught me, I knew I could say no,” she said. “I ran away.”
image
Peace Boat participant Reina makes origami with an Agape Center child
The Agape Center’s community spirit was clear as participants helped local women prepare a huge supper. After enjoying the delicious, traditional Kenyan food together, children performed songs, dances, and skits for the participants and Agape adults. The following day, participants spent hours playing ball games and teaching the children how to make origami, the Japanese art of folding paper into decorative shapes and figures. As Peace Boat members ended their time in Mtwapa and prepared to return to the ship, it was obvious the scenes they had witnessed over the last two days had left a profound impression. “When I first saw the slum, it was really scary,” said one young man named Ichiro. “A lot of people are suffering from poverty here, but they are so nice. It makes me wonder what kind of life I’m living in Japan.” Another participant, 27-year-old Reina, echoed the sentiment: “We knew about the poverty situation from textbooks but still, seeing it firsthand was shocking. Of course I enjoyed the food, but obviously the kids don’t eat such a big meal everyday. I feel that I must do something now.” While there is so much more to be done to help the lives of impoverished children, John Opindoh, the founder of Agape, thanked participants for having taken the first step: “It’s so nice to know that someone loves you, and just by coming here and playing with the children today and seeing their lives, you have shown them that.”