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Elizabeth Njeri (right) and her grandmother (left) at the Mathare Early Childhood Development Center on May 18,2012. Elizabeth who was orphaned at childbirth is among the few lucky orphans who benefited from the former Mathare Day Care Center now Mathare Early Childhood Development Center |
It is an open secret that HIV and AIDS is one of the lead causes of the increase in the number of Orphaned and Vulnerable Children. In Kenya much has been done to fund existing child care centers and homes offering OVC services, but a gaping disconnect is still felt in low resource segments like slums dealing with the OVC problem. Most of the OVCs living in the slums find safe haven in these facilities which are met with a host of challenges -- from lack of space and facility to untrained personnel responsible for day to day operations.
Elizabeth Njeri, who was orphaned at child birth and is now a healthy ten year old girl, is a beneficiary of such centers. She was found by neighbors in a vulnerable and sickly state back in their Naivasha home where her mother used to live and work in the Naivasha flower plantations. Given her sickly condition Elizabeth had to be admitted at the Kenyatta National Referral Hospital where doctors advised that the hospital should take custody as she had lost her primary care giver and required urgent treatment.