In late 2009, Megan Wright, a British woman living in Kenya, visited a project working in Mathare Valley, Nairobi. That visit had a life changing impact on Megan and prompted her, with the support of family and friends, to establish Tushinde Children’s Trust in March 2010.
The conditions people living in were bad. Shanty towns of thousands of one roomed shacks squashed between poorly built high-rise flats. As many as ten people would live in these huts made of wood, mud and corrugated iron. No sanitation or legal electricity and limited access to running water. Babies and children would play in the dirt beside open sewers.
While visiting the project a young girl walks in with one of the older girls, Megan takes up the story.
‘She was a new admission brought in by the children’s services department. Her mother had died and she had been ‘adopted’ by an uncle. He got a job in Dubai and left the girl in the care of a neighbour. The girl has obviously been severely abused. She had a scar on the back of her neck from a human bite and a ring shaped welted sore around one thigh where I imagine someone has applied a tourniquet. She has many other scars, but the poor little girl seemed so frightened, that I didn’t want to add to her trauma by seeing them. It turns out that children were often abandoned at home whilst their parents or carers went to look for work, money and food.’
Our ultimate aim is to help families stay together; to keep children out of harmful institutions and to build strong families that are independent of outside support.
Meet the
Tushinde family
Anne Njine
Chair of Board
Beth Muna
Social Work Manager
George Audi
Board Member
Caroline Jordan
Secretary
Simon Pennington
Trustee
Megan Wright
Founder and Director
Ben Boxer
Treasurer
Wanjiru Kariuki
Operations Director
Mary Gitau
Secretary
Emma Wilcox
Board Member
Ian Stanlake
Chair of Trustees
Anita Etheridge
Trustee
Florence Koenderink
Trustee
Neelum Vora
Board Member
Adrian Wilcox
Board Member
James Caddy
Treasurer
Rosa Murigi
Finance Manager
Dr Alice Kibue
Country Director
Olivia Williams
Trustee
Maxine Campbell
Trustee
Clarine Asigo
Board Member
J.Nyambura Shani
Board Member
Megan realised that the challenges keeping some children from school in the informal settlements in Nairobi were the same challenges that some children faced in the UK — a family in crisis after a bereavement or a carer with mental health problems leading to a child being neglected. Yet, here in Mathare there wasn’t the safety net of social care and interventions that there was back home.
Megan was driven to start a family support programme that looked at the whole family to help find lasting solutions. With help from family and friends, Tushinde, meaning we are succeeding in the local Kswahili language, was formed.
From the outset the aim has been to provide family support to help children thrive, either directly or through community-based projects.
Initially working in the Mathare Valley, our work has since expanded into the Kiambiu informal settlement. As we have become more established we have identified the need to expand and evolve our programme, from working with local schools to eradicate corporal punishment or providing daycare facilities so babies are cared for while their caregivers seek work. We have built links with schools, clinics and community groups in both areas.
We pride ourselves on our holistic approach to supporting children and families who would otherwise fall through the safety net of care available.
