The mother, children and her in-laws
On a green plain is a hut of dried mud covered by a thatched roof. It is in this hut that Moses lives. Moses was born in 2008 in the small village of Musaka near Webuye, in Western Kenya, the eldest of the three sons of Mark and Jane, his parents. As he grew, Moses loved to play and enjoyed going to the local church where he met up with his friends. His brain, stomach and future are fed by his school, but his heart is one half empty, the other full of questions.
He was just 6 years old when his father, Mark, unexpectedly passed away. His tragic death has had terrible repercussions for both his immediate and extended family and led to a breakdown in relationship between his mother Jane and her parent’s in-law who blamed her for her husband’s death. It became so bad that Jane was no longer welcomed in their home, even though they all lived close by in the same small community of Musaka. Jane, herself a young woman, was left by herself to provide for her three very young children’s upkeep. Jobless and fighting for the survival of her family, it was during this dark time and in despair that she came to the attention of her local church Jesus To All Nation (JTAN) who are partners with ACT in Kenya. ACT supported her family and made it possible for her eldest child Moses, then 8 years old, to have a UK sponsor.
All seemed well at the surface, but it really wasn’t. Even as her life began to come back together with the support she received from ACT, the hostile atmosphere with her in-laws got worse. It became so bad that she felt she could no longer live in the same village with them. In the paternal community in which they lived, tradition and culture meant that she could not take her children away from the village with her should she leave. In the end she moved out of the village and returned to her family, leaving behind Moses and his brothers with their aged grandparents.
Moses and his brothers no longer have contact with their mother and have not seen her since she left, but heir aged grandparents are caring for them and ACT has continued to support them. On learning about their predicament, Moses’ UK sponsor sent sufficient funds to upgrade the small hut where they lived into a house, to accommodate the children and their grandparents to make life better for them. Moses and his brothers are now all enrolled in the local primary school.
The life of a young widow with children is tragic enough, but conflict with her extended family can turn what is a tragedy into a nightmare if she is living in rural society. Often uneducated and unemployed while still looking after very young children, it can lead to her being disinherited and thrown out of their in-law’s family home, with or without her children. Sadly, children caught up in such situation, suffer psychologically and can be traumatised, thereby affecting their lives negatively well into adulthood. This is the reason that ACT exists and why our work of supporting disadvantaged children and widows is so important.
In Jane’s case, her in-laws blamed her for their son’s death believing she had a hand in his death by poisoning, after she accused him of being unfaithful. As a neutral party in such dispute part of our work is helping to bring about reconciliation. We are working with our partner, JTAN to locate Jane with the aim to link her up with her children and for reconciliation with her in-laws
ACT is for the people otherwise forgotten
Every day, countless women in need in Africa wake up with a knot of worry in their stomach concerned about the future of their children. Many disadvantaged children and orphans living in poverty wake up and realise that their dreams are just fantasy. Neither of these need to be so. You can support the widow through the sponsorship of one or more of their children. For £15 a month you can feed and educate a child and transform their life for the better.