New Horizons
Mary Thuo / Kenya Foundation Director
After celebrating an amazing year for Ubuntu Life programs, full of joyous moments and tons of progress for our kids, we were able to bring 6 children off of the waiting list and into the Ubuntu Special Needs Centre this month. I would like to formally introduce our followers and supporters around the world to these sweet new students:
David Mburu, 2 years
Collins Njenga, 4 years
Hanna Wanjiru, 7 years
Tabitha Basweti, 6 years
Gloria Wanjiru, 2 years
James Kariuki, 4 years
Expectations and hopes were visible in the eyes of the parents as they brought their children to our amazing center for the first time. They have high hopes that their children will make great strides in their development and will and greatly improve their quality of life.
We are of course aware that some of their expectations may never be realized, as it was never meant to be. The stigmatization and the theories from all corners of the region surround our parents, but teachings by our doctors and therapists will help them understand the conditions of their beloved children, and the rightful goals that we should have for each. We are working hard to make this center the best in the country and meet the basic needs of each of our special little angels.
The ultimate goal is that some of these children will graduate from our school someday after achieving all of the developmental milestones that held them back, and will be empowered to enroll in a 'regular' mainstream school with their peers to continue to pursue their full potential. We continue to train and prepare our wonderful team of staff to faithfully execute their duties with diligence and consistency to get these kids where they need to be.
We are also excited to announce the addition of the dynamic duo to the wonderful team; Jane Wanja and myself, Mary Thuo.
Jane is an experienced Occupational Therapist who is well versed with all the conditions of our children. She is joining us from another center in Nairobi. I recently came to learn that she had interviewed with us three years ago. Despite not joining our team at that time because she did not have the needed experience, her faith in our work never died and she applied again after gaining a wealth of experience. Such a faith in our work keeps us going with knowledge that must be doing something right!
I am Mary Thuo - some of you already know me as I am the wife of Jeremiah - the co-founder and country director of Ubuntu Life. Because of my husband, I have been with Ubuntu from the word go - supporting from the background and behind the scenes for a long time.
I am a teacher by profession, working in a mainstream school until recently. With my education background and love for Ubuntu I have high hopes that I will be able to take Ubuntu programs to the next level for our kids. I have known some of these parents for a long time and some of the students are my former students which has helped in creating trust and respect both ways. This also puts me in a very good position to create a platform for me to educate them, comfort them and hold them responsible to own up the program.
We are going full throttle in incorporating new ideas and building the needed energy and momentum to grow and develop our school. We have a lot of activities going on, so be sure to check us out quite often for the updates on the joys growth and not forgetting the challenges as well.
#liveubuntu
The Next Big Thing
Ubuntu is embarking on our biggest impact project to date - a pediatric wellness centre that would be a hub for education, therapy, and health across all of our programs. With twice as many classrooms and a state of the art medical clinic, this will take our impact to unimaginable new heights.