Text von Zoé Paris
10 years of Child Destiny Foundation. We have reached double digits! We are continuously growing and evolving to respond to current and future needs, like opening a Mental Health Center in Kibera. .
This growth has taken much coordination efforts, having two teams on different continents, different time zones, and with inevitable connection issues that hinder communication.
Also, Kibera and the Child Destiny Foundation were not excluded from the recent economic and political hardships. From the pandemic to inflation, daily life has become harsher for the parents and children of Child Destiny, and for members of the foundation. The exponential increase in cost of life, of medical needs and emergencies have flipped lives of members and families of CDF upside down.
We have also lost children of Child Destiny along the way. Beautiful faces of Child Destiny left us much too early.
Today, we continue to grow for them, because they are our mission.
Today, we continue to grow for them, because they are our mission. It is the heart of Child Destiny that has made us strong for so long. To prove it, here are 10 values that qualify Child Destiny each year, and that have reflected in its meaningful achievements of different scales.
1 DEVOTION
In a year, different cultures and backgrounds came together toward one common goal: founding a therapy center for children with disabilities in Kibera.
2 FORSEEING
In order to go after our mission only two years into the process of raising funds, finding volunteers and staff, and long administrative procedures, CDF had to have long term vision and trust in the process.
3 EXPANSION
As the number of people welcomed in the center grows, so does the center. We moved to a bigger space to fulfill children’s therapeutic needs.
4 EMPOWERMENT
Volunteering is not a one-way street. CDF shared know-how and enabled the cultivation of passions through workshops giving mothers the opportunity to learn new skills such as jewelry-making.
5 TRANSFORMATION
To improve communication between CDF and the community, making our platforms, website, flyers, logo more attractive and restructuring our volunteer responsibilities was essential.
6 ACCEPTANCE
Accepting volunteers is the gift of team Kenya. “Welcome to Kenya” Florence says always. In 2019, Julia, an occupational therapist and member of CDF, was the first volunteer to come to Kibera. She was welcomed in the household of the two co-founders, who immediately considered her as family, she says.
7 REACTIVITY
CDF stays reactive of local current events and crises to direct its funds towards urgent help and necessary change. 2020 was a year of natural and health crises, between floods, fires, and Covid-19. We organized more personal donations to help the households most affected.
8 INTENTION
CDF’s actions are intentional and encourage long term change through first hand education. In May 2021, ten parents agreed to take time to talk with one of Child Destiny’s volunteers in one on one sessions, unveiling the daily hardships lived by them and their child and what their needs were.
9 INCLUSIVENESS
We try providing help to as many children in Kibera as possible. In 2022, a quarter of the children welcomed in our care center were children without disabilities.
10 PRIORITIZATION
Despite local to worldwide taboos on mental health, the members of Child Destiny acknowledged the priority of mental health therapy for parents, mothers, adults and women in Kibera. CDF now has a mental health center and has started to plan how the sessions will run in order to make everyone feel comfortable.
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