Such a moving experience in Kenya

Juliane: 10 years ago, I visited my friend Lisa while she was volunteering at a children’s home in Kenya. It was actually supposed to be an extended holiday, but it changed my life. Today, Lisa says she immediately saw in my eyes that the drive to help people would never leave me either. We started fundraising, founded a non-profit organisation and visited the country frequently. On one of these trips, I came across the Global Hope children’s home. The story of the home’s director Joseph Njoroge deeply moved me. He became a street child himself when he could no longer cope with living with his alcoholic mother, who sometimes severely abused him. After years on the streets, he was taken into a children’s home.

Today, Joseph runs Global Hope together with his wife Dorcas, and they offer 140 young people of all ages a home and a future. It’s a fantastic success story, and I hope to see it replicated by helping the boys from Global Hope to find their vocation as Joseph himself did. In Kenya, it is difficult and expensive to access vocational training. There are no part-time jobs that people can do to finance their studies, and apprentices have to pay for their training themselves. That gave me the idea to help with a vocational mentoring scheme. This met with a great response from my colleagues in various different departments at Miles & More. After a few preparatory meetings, twelve of us set off in June to meet 14 young Kenyans and work with them to develop their career prospects.

The first pairings were made straight away. The mood was relaxed, and any uncertainty on either side evaporated. Then we had a guided tour of the home, during which the boys told us about their lives at Global Hope. The facilities are basic. The children sleep in huts with corrugated iron roofs, always at least two or three of them to a bed. The kitchen is a big pot over an open fire, and water comes from rainwater storage tanks. Life mainly takes place outdoors.

The big open space in front of the centre is a great place for kicking a ball, running around and burning off energy. Almost all of the boys enjoy ball games. This was also where we were introduced to one another and where the mentors and mentees interacted for the first time by playing “Mingle, Mingle”. All of the sports enthusiasts enjoyed playing volleyball on the second day.

Luca Einloft, Florian Kafka, Angelica Dzedulionis and Mihaela Culic led the group through Ngong. The cheerful mood at the start soon gave way to real shock. Between the corrugated iron huts in Ngong’s slum, there is rubbish everywhere. There is no running water, sewage disposal or waste removal.

But we also talked about practical topics such as project management or dealing with setbacks. The young people were very interested and kept asking questions. By the end of our time there, all 14 young mentees had identified both their ideal career and concrete steps towards achieving it.

Christian Steubing and some of the other colleagues from Miles & More had prepared teaching modules. These were delivered in the common room which also serves as a church, cinema and classroom. They covered strategies for dealing with setbacks along with the basics of project management, which were brought to life using a tower-building game.

Bishop would like to be a DJ and has even already performed in several clubs. Meanwhile, the tourism industry appeals to Michael and Peter. As it is easier to get a job in this sector and others if you have a driving licence, we thought it would be a good idea for the whole group to learn to drive. They have embraced this idea enthusiastically. Larry would like to join the military, but the drugs he took on the streets as a child have discoloured his teeth. This means that the military won’t take him because it marks him out as having had drug problems in the past. His mentor Vicky Tatsiopoulou arranged for him to have his teeth professionally cleaned. He is currently receiving this treatment and is expected to be able to start in the military in September. Samuel Njunge decided during his conversations with his mentor Pia von Berlepsch that he would like to train as a car mechanic. Juma absolutely loves cooking and often helps to prepare food at the children’s home, so it didn’t take long to work out that he would like to be a chef.

While they prepared the chapati together, Emmanuel showed Angelica Dzedulionis, Marcel Mattern, Florian Kafka and their colleagues how to knead and shape the dough for the traditional flatbread. By the time the group could finally start eating, it was late. Nonetheless, spirits remained high, and everyone enjoyed the delicious homemade meal.