Editor’s Note: Our Fellowship Recipient Emily Lohmeyer has another installment to this weeks update from SURE 24, a children’s orphanage in Kenya.  Emily has been been at Sure 24 since late December, and has been talking to the women and girls of Sure 24 who are interested in sharing their stories, below is Mama Shiro’s story.

Mama Shiro

I am thirty-six years old, the first born of three children. I come from a very mixed background. My father is a Muslim and my mother is a Christian.  We had a very free family. If you wanted to go to church you could go to church, if you wanted to go to Mosque, you could go to Mosque. I chose to follow the Christian faith. I am a mother of three, my children are 17, 10, and 6 years old. I was able to complete secondary school and I’m still hoping to go to university. As an educated mother, my aspiration is to have my children go farther than me – I’ll do anything possible to help them achieve their goals.

What I want most is happiness for disabled people. I would like them
to get equal treatment. People tend to look down on them but if we can give
them an equal platform we will be able to give them happiness. I see this as
a way of magnifying the love of God. It is very important that they are not
abandoned. If we empower them through education, they will be able to do
some things for themselves. I believe education if key, especially for
girls. If you educate girls, you will educate the whole world.

Mama Shiro

I visited a home for disabled children in Uganda and what I saw
changed my life. Some of the children had mental disabilities and others had
physical disabilities. Seeing their love for one another and how they helped
each other made me appreciate life more. It made me think, if every organ in
my body is working, why can’t I help them?
It made me grateful for what I have and seeing their love brought me closer
to my Maker.

My dream is to create a safe place for disabled children to live
with a person they can rely on for motherly love. Often their parents are
ashamed because of how society looks at them. It will be a place where they
can do whatever they are capable of – if they can wash themselves let them
wash themselves, if they can read let them read. This will even benefit
their parents and siblings because often the mother must stay and care for
one child and then struggles to feed the others. If I can create a place for
them to be cared for, the whole family will be better off because the mother
will be able to seek work.

My biggest obstacle is funds and having all the skills. I have the
heart for this work but I am not yet trained. I have already identified four
children who are interested in this opportunity, so I’m eager to get it
started. I’m planning to go to university in April to study education so
that I will be able to teach the children at their own pace. This will help
me to pursue my passion for reaching out to others in my own community.

Tags: Emily Lohmeyer, Empowering Girls, Fellowship Recipient, Kenya, Sure 24, Volunteerism