House of Peace 10/40

On Friday 10th of March, the team had a walk around OT, around K*i and its surroundings. They passed through a route that they hadn’t walked for a while which is close to the shoreline and came across an elderly man who had converted the balcony of a sewage pumping station to his home with a few tattered beddings placed on the hard floor. The balcony is a few inches from a steep cliff about 30 feet deep soaked with sewage that is illegally channelled into the ocean and serves as an illegal dumpsite. The choking odour was unbearable to the team and it was hard to believe how he had survived in such an environment.

He couldn't walk or sitting up. He had fallen of the same steep cliff while drunk and was rescued 2 days later by a family in the neighbourhood. They took him to the hospital and was admitted. He was later brought back and dumped in the same balcony though he could not walk nor sit up. The same family continued to take care of him by providing food and water. They had sought help and tried tracing his family for three years to no avail.

"for 36 years, they have been unaware of his whereabouts. They thought he died."

After seeing the conditions the DS team sought help for him. They went to “Nyumba ya Wazee”, one sponsored by the government and another by catholic nuns. The nuns came to Old Town 2 days later to assess and verify his condition. They took him to their facility the same day. Currently, he is being hosted and treated by the nuns at “Nyumba ya Wazee” . He also suffers from epilepsy. The search for his family which lives in Kiambu county has been successful with the help of some of our team members. They came to see him. He left his family in 1987 and for the past 36 years now, they were unaware of his whereabouts. They thought he was dead.

Journey to Rehab

One of our friends, Moh'd*, has been champion for our community center to many visitors of OT. He has done that in many ways including bringing customers to our Coffee Shop for he works as a tour guide once in a while. He has however been an addict, abusing drugs and substances for twenty years. He is a brilliant man but his history with drug abuse has killed every dream he had and so many relationships in his life. He is a picture of the path that some of the children here may take because drug abuse is rampant and they are exposed to such a lifestyle at an early age.

He reached out to us and explained that he wanted to go to rehab. We encouraged him and started walking with him in his journey. We didn't know how murky or deep the waters of our relationship would be. He got distracted mid way through the application and he went through a period of loss. That led us to pause his application last year December.

He came back this year ,mid February, and he has shown focus and is pushing to go for rehab. We have picked up where we left and he completed his medical tests two weeks ago.

He went to rehab and he was resilient for two months.

We are also planning a support group for him from the group of men who have gone through our mentorship program, Mwanamume Halisi. They are planning to take him to the rehab center in Likoni and also have a schedule of visiting him so that we can be able to support him as he tries to overcome drug abuse.