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The Papalo family: case study
THE PAPALO FAMILY TODAY
Aged 4 Samuel Papalo (left) lost both his parents to HIV/AIDS. He is now 10 and receives support from his Grandmother (centre) and his sister (right), who is illiterate and bakes small amounts of bread for a subsistence income.
Samuel’s family share a single roomed hut in Maisha Bora with 9 other people. The hut is made of wood and corrugated iron, its dark and smokey inside and surrounded by shrub land too dry to farm from.
The shrub land is dry and difficult to cultivate.
The 12 people who live in the Papalo's hut have almost no physical possessions between them. Apart from a few straw mattresses, tin pots and metal cooker the inside of the hut is just a barren, dusty floor.
Samuel is currently in school but as his ‘free’ primary education comes to an end his opportunities may also dry up.
Without further support his family can not sustain him through the fees and other costs of secondary education.
WHAT SUPPORT BRINGS
Support enables staff to work alongside extremely poor children and families like the Papalo's - to bring restoration and new opportunities to all areas of their lives, by sharing skills and truths.
Through education, health and employment skills, local staff will love and serve the people of Maisha Bora to the point they can meet their own basic needs.
The focus will primarily be on orphaned children like Samuel - ensuring they get a full education with the costs of uniform, equipment and schooling fees covered. This will be true for primary and secondary aged children and extend to a total of 350 children when this programme is at full support capacity.
HEALTH
Families like the Papalos will benefit from health training and equipment to avoid prevalent and preventable diseases like malaria and dysentery. This includes the provision of mosquito nets and basic medication.
Generally the focus of our health work will be on teaching techniques and sharing hygienne information to provide preventative rather than curative measures towards disease. This is because, often, health problems are linked not just to a physical absence of medicine but misinformation on health issues.
EMPLOYMENT
The poorest adults, like Samuel's sister, will be enrolled on our adult literacy courses where they can learn to read and write and also gain practical income generation skills.
goat herding - just one of the programmes to helping locals generate an income.
These groups also serve as an arena for representing community interests and become expandable with time as the first set of adults to become literate then teach the following generation.
COMING TO PEOPLE'S HOMES
Our work will also come to the Papalo family, and others, at their point of need through home visits. During these visits, staff can install a sense of confidence, self-worth, value and dignity in lives of the many vulnerable people in Maisha Bora by actively demonstrating God's love for them.
