Talk delivered by HOREC founder, Christine Wambui on the 29/07/2012 at the KAG Church, Buruburu

Christine Wambui at the KAG Church, Buruburu.

 

 

 

First and foremost I would like, on behalf of Hope for Orphans and Rescue Centre (or HOREC in short), to extend our most sincere gratitude for the invitation to your church to share the journey that led to the birth of HOREC. My names are Christine Wambui Munyi, the founder of HOREC.

As a young girl I harbored dreams of becoming a nun or a nurse. I was actively involved in our Church as most of you are. It is always a joy when I see how most of the young people from this Church are passionate about the less 

 fortunate in the society and it reminds me when I was young.

 After I completed college my life took an unexpected turn. I met a young man who pursued me with so much vigor that we ended up marrying. My dreams of becoming a nun remained just that-dreams. It’s during that period that I ventured into business. I started a successful saloon business in the CBD. I concentrated on the saloon business until my sister, who was very dear to fell sick. I did all I could to ensure that she got well in vain. Later on she was diagnosed with AIDS. Then AIDS was associated with all kinds of evils. The stigma was so much that we were practically left on our own devices. Information on HIV and AIDS was scanty. The little information that filtered was that it was a death sentence.

My sister health became worse by the day…..It’s during that period that I had the privilege of meeting Asunta Wagura, the founder of KENWA who had declared her HIV status as positive. To me she looked healthy-I explained to her about my sister condition. She was helpful but before any assistance could be extended to my sister she died. It was too late and it totally crushed me. That is the day I vowed to work with people living with HIV and AIDS.

I closed shop and joined an organization for women with HIV and AIDS as a coordinator. It wasn’t easy as we were not paid and the working conditions were deplorable. I coordinated all the activities in Kiambiu and I saw first-hand the miserable state the slum dwellers lived. So many people died-I would see an ailing person like today only to be informed that he had died that same night. We did all we could and I saw God healing people through the provision of food and ARVs we provided them. Sometime it was very disheartening to learn that a person who was healing was in a changaa den enjoying his tipple instead to adhering to the drugs we had given them. 

Anthony Gumbo and Carol Kakuve of HOREC wow the congregation with a song.

 What we did not do as an organization was taking care of the children who had been orphaned as a result HIV and AIDS. These children became targets of sex pests, some who had been accommodated by their relatives were turned into househelps. The state of affairs bothered me a great deal. I would report about the sad state of affairs to the area chief. The villain would be arrested only to be released the very same day. I started receiving death threats. I put my life in danger on many occasion-I remember once I was almost thrown in a river after I had reported a case of sexual abuse on a minor.

These incidents prompted me to start taking some of these children into my house. All my children were in boarding school and my husband was working in Mombasa then. When my husband came back from Mombasa and found that I had children in our house he wasn’t impressed at all. He had little knowledge, like most of the people back then, of HIV and AIDS. He gave me an ultimatum of getting those children out of the house or he would kick all of us out.

With no money and support, I headed to Ruai-I was living in Komarock then-to look for a place where I could keep the children. It wasn’t easy as most people were not comfortable with my narration of how I got the children. I almost got a place in Ruai only for the wife of the landlord to be uncomfortable with the arrangement….I was shattered. Let me not delve on the lows-the history is long but because of time allow me to bring you back to the present day HOREC.

Currently we have a total of 35 childre-26 girls and 9 boys. My first born is in college studying social work, 4 are in secondary school and the rest in a primary school. The children under HOREC care are either infected or affected with HIV and AIDS. The youths from this church have been amazing; the love they show the children cannot be overemphasized. I came to learn of KAG Buruburu through Charles who came with youths from this church while HOREC was still located in Ruai. The relationship with HOREC continues to date and the love shown by the yours and by extension your parents who support you is the true calling of what Christianity embodies. I would also like to see your parents visit us to see your brothers and sisters in HOREC. Our children are your children.

Thank you.