WHAT MATTERS NAKURU

What Matters Ministries and Missions has built a center right in the heart of Nakuru in the middle of a slum called Kaptembwa. Our team provides a nutritious midday meal for many of these children, as well as a safe enclosed area for them to play. We also run a medical clinic that provides necessary basic care. During the normal school break, a teacher donated her vacation time to teaching these children basic reading and writing. From the moment our facility is open until it closes in the evening, children are served and their needs are met—everything from baths and washing clothes to teaching songs and playing games.

We also visit the homes of these children and improve them in any way we can. We buy them beds, mattresses, pots, clothes, blankets, and other things. Every week we hold a women’s meeting at the center in order to help train them in child care and to encourage them. We also supply a warm, nutritious meal for them following each meeting. These women and children are the most grateful of any we have ever met.

Nakuru, Kenya is known for its diversity. It draws thousands of displaced tribe members from all around Kenya and beyond. Unfortunately, the workforce far exceeds the jobs available, and more people arrive every day because of the unrest and tribal conflicts in the neighboring countries. Poverty is felt everywhere, but nowhere more than in the slum of Kaptembwa. Sewage runs in the streets, the houses are no more than one-room shanties made from mud, and thousands roam aimlessly without work, hope, or a dream. Hundreds of children are left abandoned to fend for themselves. Their parents have left to try to find work or have died from AIDS, alcoholism, drug use, or because of tribal conflicts. These children are uneducated, starving, and without any medical care.