Why Alison Sponsors Rhoda…
April 2020
I was first introduced to the Nasio Trust, and the great work it does, back in 2005 through a friend who had just travelled to Kenya with a group of young people from Berinsfield in Oxfordshire. The group of youngsters had worked together through Exit 7, a youth project run by the Nasio Trust, and they travelled to Mumias to help with the building of the Noah’s Ark day care centre.
During their visit they met the first children that were originally cared for in the roadside kiosk and amongst them was Rhoda. John came back and told me about Rhoda and that’s where my journey with Nasio and my relationship with Rhoda began. I started monthly sponsorship donations and began receiving updates of her progress, copies of her school reports, and pictures of her and, as she became older, letters she had written me. I also began attending and helping with fund raising activities for the Nasio Trust.
In 2010 I was lucky enough to travel to Kenya to visit the projects and finally meet Rhoda.
In 2010 I was lucky enough to travel to Kenya to visit the projects and finally meet Rhoda. She was understandingly very shy and apprehensive and possibly had little understanding of who I was, but I was able to spend a little time with her and pass on gifts I had taken her – school books, pens and a few treats!
Since that first trip I have now visited the Nasio Trust projects four times, the latest being in November 2019. Each visit I have been able to see Rhoda, the time before last involved a long car journey to her boarding school, she wasn’t expecting to see me and her face when she saw me was filled with joy and happiness. I was able to take her to the school uniform shop and buy her some items of school uniform; she then disappeared for a while and came back with letter she had written me, which reduced me to tears. My visit concluded with her taking me to her classroom so that she could introduce me to her class mates.
The time spent with Rhoda during my earlier trips had always been restricted because of the location of her schools but when I visited last November she had finished her school education and was spending her year volunteering for Nasio and working on the reception of the medical centre in Musanda. She was living at the guesthouse where I was staying and it meant that we got to spend so much quality time together. She came along with us on our home visits to families supported by the charity and on our visit to St Mary’s hospital, where we distributed bread, milk and donated knitted items for the babies in the maternity wards. In our downtime we were able to talk and simply enjoy each other’s company, leaving her at the end of my visit was very hard.
She has made me so very proud, she has worked really hard at school and is now waiting to start college, this has been delayed because of the Covid 19 pandemic. She is bright, speaks and writes perfect English, is kind, caring and is a credit to the fantastic work of the Nasio Trust.
I feel so privileged to have been even a small part of Rhoda’s life so far. She has grown into a beautiful young lady who is determined to make the most of the advantages she has been given in life by the Nasio Trust. I know that she will be part of my life for many years to come and sponsoring her has been one of the most fulfilling things I have done in my life. I would encourage anyone reading to take the journey that I have taken, you won’t regret it.
Alison Brucker
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This story is listed in: Child Stories, Volunteer Stories
