Contrast the peace of the United States presidential election with the tragedy of the 2008 post-election violence in Kenya. As seen through the eyes of John, a 14 year old from Eldoret, SOS Children's Villages was a rare sanctuary in a country torn-apart by violence.
Violence rocked Kenya in early January 2008, particularly Eldoret, where ethnic-violence left hundreds dead, thousand injured and many more displaced. Eventually schools restarted and there was an uneasy truce, broken by sporadic attacks.
In the second week of 2008, John left his home in Eldoret, as he did every weekday, to go to school. When John got home, at about five o'clock, he found that the door to his house had been knocked down, and many items were missing. Worst of all, his mother, John's only known relative, was not there. John ran to his neighbor's home to find out what had happened and discovered that the man had been attacked by people with machetes and that his leg was badly injured. Of his mother, he was simply told, "She ran for her life".
John left the neighbor and began to walk in the direction of the Eldoret Showground which was being used as a displacement camp - a place of relative safety - where he might find his mother. But when he saw a gang of young men ahead, armed with machetes and bows and arrows, he became scared. He knew he was in danger and he flagged down a passing truck full of people asking if they would help him.
He didn't know where they were going and asked to be taken to Nakuru, the nearest large town in the Rift Valley. But the truck never went there. Instead, it sped on to to Nairobi, 300 km away, where John was left to fend for himself.
John hears about a displacement camp
For four days and nights John wandered the streets getting food from concerned groups and NGOs who were helping displaced people. Then he heard about the Jamhuri Showground, also being used as a displacement camp, and made his way there. It was at the showground that he came across the Red Cross officials who took him and 29 other children to the SOS Children's Village Nairobi, where he stayed while the Red Cross worked to trace his mother.
Children from different backgrounds
The SOS Children's Village Nairobi took care of dozens of displaced children while the Red Cross worked to trace parents and guardians. For those without relatives, arrangements were made for the children - including admitting them into the Children’s Village and integrating them into an SOS family. Some were assisted through family strengthening programs that helped them to find shelter and keep them at school.
The children range in age from three year old Tony, who can only say his name, to 17 year old Alex from the Kibera slum, who left as the violence started and, like John, has also lost his single mother. Fifteen year old David, also from Kibera, saw his house flattened, and furniture stolen. He was told to leave if he wanted to save his life.
The story is the same with all the children - when the fighting started they had to leave - losing mothers, aunts, cousins and guardians as they fled. Some, like John and Alex, had relatively stable home lives (even though they had single parents), attended school and had ambitions to get good jobs. Others have more tangled backgrounds - possibly orphans from west Kenya sent to live with extended family in Kibera, attending informal schools and assisting in the house.
What they all have in common is that they are innocent victims of an ethnic-based violence that has shocked Kenya. And they all, without fail, want it to end. "I don't want to know what they are doing", says David, referring to the politicians, "I just want to get back to school."
Care, Love, Security - and Books
When asked how they like the village, despite their sadness every child smiles. There is no doubt that the children's village offers them far more comfort than they are used to. One 8 year old girl sitting in a family house expressed her surprise and joy when she said with wide eyes and a big grin "Hapa kuna vitabu. Nyingi tena. Hiziz zote ni za hawa watoto, si wengine. Mimi pia, sijui kama nitaweza kuwa nazangu nyingi hivi." (There are books here. Soooo many. All these books belong to these children, not anyone else. I wonder if I will be so lucky as to own as many books.)
The task facing SOS Children's Villages in Kenya is no different than the task that we have taken on in all 132 countries where SOS has a presence - to give children care, love and security so that they can restart their lives with hope, and renew their confidence in a grown-up world that has let them down.
