Woman’s calling to rescue ostracized disabled children

Founder of En-Gedi Children's home Margret Njuguna, with one of the children from her home.

She selflessly devoted her retirement benefits to establish a home for children with severe disability where they could find love and escape the misery of being ostracised.

And she aptly named it En-Gedi Children’s Home, after the En-Gedi caves in Israel, alluding to the place in the bible where David sought refuge in the caves from Saul who wanted him dead.

The pristine and calm environment of En-Gedi Children’s Home shows the place has lived up to what it was intended to be; a safe haven.

Based in Kitengela, En-Gedi targets children living with disabilities.

The founder of the home, Margret Njuguna (right), channelled her retirement benefits into the home after being drawn to mission work.

There is an old African superstition that disability is a curse or caused by witchcraft, and it has been held for generations.

Njuguna explains that some of the parents had attempted to kill their babies or subjected them to inhumane treatment.

“Some of these children were chained up and hidden in the house and others were left in the wilderness to die,” says Njuguna.

Determined, Njuguna sought to change the perspective of the parents and train them on how to value life.

She says that she was inspired to start a children’s home after working for 30 years at World Renew, a relief and development arm of the Christian Reformed Church in North America.

The organisation enabled her to travel as she ministered to people facing different needs. She, however, felt drawn to helping needy children and took it upon herself to rescue those who had been abandoned.

When she retired, she decided to make her dream a reality. In 2014, she registered the home as a non-governmental organisation and started off with six children in a three-bedroom house in Kitengela.

The mother of one explains that she initially wanted to register the centre under the children’s ministry but was advised otherwise.

“Somebody told me they would pick up all the kids and dump them at my home without offering resources,” said Njuguna.

Registering as an NGO allowed her to set the rules and criteria for the children to be picked by the home.

She says that despite being a referral centre, she only takes children after counselling the parents.

 

The children’s home requires that parents visit their children every month and demonstrate that they are ready to love, accept and support them.

Seeing the need for expansion, Njuguna bought land in Kitengela and constructed a home that has the capacity to house 30 children.

En-Gedi, she explains, takes in children who cannot fit in “normal schools for the disabled”.

Njuguna says that she refers children who can be admitted to such schools to Machakos School for the Handicapped or the Kajiado Integrated School AIC

“En-Gedi is not an adoption home and it is my hope that the parents will reform and come to love their children as they are,” says Njuguna.

Currently, the home has 16 children, most of them suffering from severe disability as a result of cerebral palsy.

The children were born between 2006 and 2013 and out of the 16, only two can talk.

Unfortunately, the home lost one child to HIV/Aids while two others were taken away by their parents after they were misled that they would be used to make money.

Njuguna believes that the home can rehabilitate children who suffer emotional trauma.

She says the children have made improvements and some have got over their traumatic experiences and now live happily.

“We had children who could not walk but we can see a remarkable improvement as they have learnt to crawl,” says Njuguna.

As per the contract, parents visit their children and engage with them monthly.

“We can see some progress... one family has taken their child twice during school holidays and we are really proud of that,” said Njuguna.