The manager Veronica Mumbi holding three-year-old Peter Ndirangu while Mishek Mwangi, 7, is standing next to her

Throughout her life, Veronica Mumbi Muhuri has had a soft spot for the suffering, especially children. Since her childhood, Veronica has been touched by rising number of orphans in Kenya, due to violence, neglect and even abandonment on the streets.

The forty-four-year-old woman left a well paying job at a big company in Nairobi three years ago to do charity work and has since taken to offering support to orphans. She has no regrets for choosing to serve the less fortunate in society.

“I felt uncomfortable with my job and said my vision must now be followed after I noted the increasing number of abused children in the society.” says Mumbi, who is from Nyeri Municipality.

One of the most recent cases she is trying to rehabilitate is that of Veronica Hope, a child who was last year found abandoned at the Nyeri Provincial General Hospital.

“My desire has always been to be of service to the less fortunate and I am doing this through running a children’s home. I kept to my desire and believed I would start one. At first, I thought it would bring in money but later realized that I had to use what I had. I have come to believe that it is possible to do it without getting profits.” She explains.

She has since started a rescue home which is named as Belwop Children Rescue Centre which is situated at Asian Quarters within Nyeri town. The home was started in March 2005 and registered as a community based organization in June the same year.

This centre was born out of the call and desire to serve the less privileged children. The name Belwop came after a group of seven women started for a ‘Better Life for Women Project (Belwop).” Their main aim was to go round in the hospitals, homes especially slums to visit needy children.

However, the group of women that started with her later left after they learnt of the many challenges ahead since they thought it was money making project only to realize later that the project had started eating into their own money and time. She was left alone and has since soldiered on.

Despite the many challenges due to lack of funds, her mission has been only one, to give hope to the violated, neglected, abused and orphaned children. She has always advocated having a society where every child has a safe home and enjoys equal rights.

“I have always wanted to reach out to the silent suffering majority children who are out there abused. I want to enlighten the children on their rights, encourage and assist them to speak out on the injustices inflicted upon them. I’m on a rescue and on a rehabilitation mission which will help them to provide equal opportunities and equal chances of the less privileged in the society.” She says.

The project is hosted in a seven-roomed stoned house which is being rented Kshs 10,000 monthly for the kids.

The trigger to start the project was a case three years ago in which a father brutally murdered his wife who was a mother of a two- months-old child at Kiawaithanji area within Nyeri municipality.

The man was later lynched by a mob and the child was left an orphan and traumatized. Today, the child happily plays with others at the home, perhaps completely unaware of what brought her to the centre.

The 25 needy children, mostly girls are aged between two and 18 years and are mainly orphans from the HIV/Aids.

To the children, Veronica is their mother. A number of children at the centre are rape victims who are mostly abused by their own fathers. The main causes of child vulnerability have also been identified as alcoholism, poverty and the HIV/AIDS scourge.

The children have also been able to go to school where 21 of them are in primary school, three are in nursery schools and one is yet to join school. Last year, two of the girls sat for the K.C.P.E. Another girl sat for the K.C.S.E. and is to join college this year.

They have been provided with support and care including medical care, provision of basic needs such as food, clothing, education and shelter and even spiritual nourishment. Counseling services have also been offered free of charge.

One could hardly recognize the difficulties the children have undergone by the way they welcome the visitors.

Veronica, a mother of three and also a grandmother, says that they have always relied on well wishers, schools heads, the community, children offices, churches, local corporate bodies and through local administration.

She says she operates with the faith of God when resources run out or when the rent, electricity, water bills are unsettled accumulating huge bills and sometimes goes to an extent of organizing activities aimed at bringing more money.

The facility is now overstretched yet more children still come. She however hopes to put up a bigger home to accommodate more children.

Lack of funding and lack of enough and experienced personnel are some of the major setbacks in the home.

The home is being run by six board members among them a cleric at the Tetu Catholic Parish Fr. Martin Ndegwa who is the chairman.

She is grateful to a local youth organization, Friends of Youth (FOY) and a catholic men association, Don Bosco Upper Hill in Nairobi for donating beds, mattresses, beddings, cash and assorted foodstuffs.