'Home for Christmas' for Maintain Hope

On Thursday Dec 18 at 8pm, friends and supporters of Maintain Hope will present an evening of seasonal music and readings in The Town Hall Kilcullen, writes Gerry O'Donoghue. We chose the title 'Home for Christmas' to reflect our hope that the 30 children of Maintain Hope Children's Home will be have a permanent home for Christmas 2015. The proceeds of the evening will go towards the building fund.

Life for these children is hard. They sleep ten to a room and are at constant risk of cross-infection. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, the children are now well fed and we are working towards a plan to make sure sure that they receive medical attention when they need it.

Unfortunately we were unable to save Paul. He was seven years old. His Death Certificate cites pneumonia as the cause of his death. But poverty killed him. Abandoned near the Municipal Dump in Ngong Township, Paul was so malnourished and weak, that he was unable to fight off infection. We didn't know him for long, but we loved him well. Everybody did what they could do, but it was not enough. Everybody is shocked and saddened by his death and the other children are disturbed and distressed. He was laid to rest in Meru, from where we believe his family originated.

The little girl in the picture is Sandra. We think she is eight years old. We are not sure, because she was abandoned as a toddler, again at the dump, without documents. She is very ill but is an extraordinarily cheerful character. She reads avidly and loves practicing her English at which she excels. She has favourite phrases which she tries out on visitors. She uses her latest phrase when she is leaving your company. "Do not concern yourself, I shall return." She's eight!

By the way, abandoning children at a dump is not as cruel as you might imagine. A constant stream of people visit dumps to harvest paper, plastic and bottle tops for resale. Invariably the abandoned child is presented to the authorities and is then placed in care. Thankfully the practice is not so common now.

Further information on Maintain Hope from 087 2642887; www.maintainhope.org; info@maintainhope.org.