Heroine offering solace to destitute children

For more than 14 years, she has devoted her resources, given up her house and land to accommodate more than 300 orphans and destitute children in the North Rift region.

  Ms Mary Sang, 60, is an unsung heroine in Baringo County, having started the first children’s home in the region — Sunrise Home — located on the outskirts of Kabarnet town.

  “What I do is God’s work and my prayer is to bring a ray of hope and [a] smile on the faces of orphans and destitute children,” said Ms Sang, who is also the director of the home.

However, it was not a smooth ride for Ms Sang’s when she embarked on the journey to help the children.

“According to locals, this was transgression of the highest order and they were asking how in my right mind I could bring destitute children to their village,” she added.

  She established the home for the abandoned destitute children in 2003 after she was approached by her pastors at the Kabarnet Adventist Church (SDA).

  “I remember then my husband Peter Sang was still alive...I didn’t know why the pastor chose us but all the same we accepted to be parents to the vulnerable children in the area,” she said.

She was working at the neighbouring Eldama-Ravine under the Ministry of Livestock and her family was in Kabarnet, Baringo Central.

Six children

  “We established the home in December 2003 and in 2004 we admitted the first six children. My husband was the director. Later in 2007,  it was officially registered by the Children’s Department as a charitable institution,” said Ms Sang.

  Since the inception, the home has admitted more than 300 needy, abandoned, orphaned, abused and vulnerable children as young as a week-old to17 years.

  “The home is also a rescue centre for children subjected to abuse and those who run away from traditional practices such as forced or early marriages and female genital cutting.

The home also rescued children who were orphaned by the 2007/2008 post-election violence,” she added.

  Ms Sang told the Nation that, she donated her house and a rental building in the two-and-a-half-acre plot to the children.

A dormitory

“I took back the rental houses from tenants and also converted my main house into a dormitory for the children.  I share the rooms with them and we have been living together as a family,” said the director.

She noted that most of the children came to the home when they were infants, but some are all grown up now and they take care of themselves.

  “I want to give these children their lost home and provide them with emotional as well as physical security. Whenever I see an abandoned child, I say to myself: God has sent this child to me and it’s my responsibility to take care of him/her,” said Ms Sang.

When the Nation visited the home last week, it was celebrating 14 years of achievements, with those who had completed Form Four being taken by their guardians.

  “God has been faithful to us since the inception of the home 14 years ago. We are celebrating our achievements and handing over some of our children, the pioneers who are now above 18 years, to their guardians,” she added.

40 dairy goats

  She gave each of the 14 children who were leaving the home a goat.

  “I want the children who are exiting the home to have something they can start their lives with. We have been rearing more than 40 dairy goats,” said Ms Sang.

  “Most of these children came here when they were babies. They know me as their mother and I am proud to be the reason they are smiling,” she added.

  She observed that she was dealt a big blow in 2012 when she lost her husband. Mr Sang was the founder and director of the home, and Ms Sang had to take over after his death.

  “My husband had been managing the home because I was working in Kabarnet. His demise in 2012 prompted me to take over the home although it has not been that easy,” she said.