My new life experience – Lynn Mungai

Babies, babies, babies….. I love children, so you can only imagine my excitement when I found out that a team of JWS staff – myself included – would be heading to New Life Home Trust to spend the afternoon caring for the children there and helping their care givers. It was a Friday afternoon and, in my view, the perfect way to end the week.

We arrived at 2pm and were welcomed by Kyeni ,who then gave us a brief history of New Life Home Trust; It was started by Rev. Clive & Mary Beckenham with the intention to care for HIV positive infants, and has been in operation now for 25 years, which is an incredible milestone. They have homes based in Nairobi, Nakuru, Nyeri and Kisumu and to date they have rescued over 2000 children.

The home survives on donations made by well-wishers and they love having volunteers over who can spare their time to go and care for the children or help with the daily chores in order keep the home running seamlessly.

After the brief introduction, and tour of the home, we were divided into 2 groups: The 1^st group, myself included, fed and spent time with infants who were between 3 months-7months. The 2^nd group were tasked with playtime with the toddlers, something they thoroughly enjoyed. They took off to the playground and never looked back!

The afternoon went by with all of us absorbed in showering the babies with love and affection and making them happy to spend time with us. Even senior members of the team could be seen pushing swings and cars! At around 4.15pm playtime was up for the children because they needed to shower and prepare for mealtime. We weren´t quite ready to leave, so we decided to stay a bit longer and help in feeding the infants with the aid of their care givers.  What an experience this was! Especially for some of the gentlemen who were part of our team. Watching them learn how to properly hold an infant and feed them was a nervous sight to behold. But they succeeded and got to bond with these incredible tiny humans. Leaving that evening at 5pm, was a very difficult thing to do.

The team at new life is an incredible one. I commend them for taking care of the babies and children the way they do. One thing that resonated with me was that 90% of the children they have rescued have been placed in loving homes. After spending an afternoon with those angels, I might be back there in the near future ready to adopt my own!