Life Bloom’s CEO Catherine Wanjohi’s Gratitude Tour to the US provided such a gift “of presence” (as she describes it) as friends in Washington, California and Colorado had the opportunity to hear firsthand the progress Life Bloom has made over the past 20 years of serving in Naivasha, Kenya.
In Celebration of 20 Years of Service, Catherine is announcing a new Counseling Program for Children caught in the middle of their unhealthy family circumstances. She explained to gatherings of women on this tour, that many times, women who stay in abusive situations or leave their husbands or families and turn to prostitution to survive and feed their children, are often carrying guilt, childhood abuse and negativity into their adulthood. Catherine and the Life Bloom Staff have created a Peer Mentoring Program in partnership with the Naivasha Education System to meet this challenge of changing the future for young people.
The Child Peer Mentoring Program will teach Child Peer Mentors to recognize when a friend at school is struggling with a negative situation at home – maybe sexual abuse, female genital mutilation – a common practice in the area – early marriage (sometimes as young as 12), or mothers leaving them alone at night to earn money through prostitution to feed their families, etc. The mentor program will encourage the Peer Mentor to engage their friend in conversation and then report their concerns to an adult at school who, in turn, will contact Life Bloom to make contact with the family. Hopefully, they will be invited to provide counseling for the family. Interventions with counseling at an early age is the goal to end the cycle of abuse.
YOU CAN BE PART OF THE SOLUTION by donating funds to get this effort started! The goal is to reach 1,000 children in the year 2024/25. The cost of the counseling program is ONLY $9 per child.
Please read the rest of the newsletter via the following link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nYn9AcsG0PYB_qlTbxdEx-rOucgh2nqu/view?usp=sharing
