As ever, we hope this finds you well in the world, and that life is being kind. All is well at school, the terms are ticking by, children and teachers are thriving, and we are, simply, schooling.
This time we're sharing a story with you that's a little heartbreaking, but hopeful; it offers a little insight into what makes Little Lions more than just a school.
Earlier this year, a young girl was brought to us, held up by her guardian, struggling to walk and even to sit. Her name is Eliana, and she is 7 years old.
Her guardian told us that Eliana had an undiagnosed condition that made movement painful. She couldn't bend easily or walk with straight legs; her skin was sore to the touch, especially around her joints. She lived with constant pain, and every movement made it worse.
She's 7. She wanted to move all the time.
Her mother, and later her guardian, had taken her to local Kibera "doctors" who could offer no true diagnosis, sending her home each time with nothing more than instructions to rub her down with Vaseline. Real medicine was beyond the family's income, so she simply suffered.
Her mother, Rosemary, on a mission to save Eliana from the pain, signed up with a Nairobi recruitment agency that promised her a way out: work in the Middle East, foreign wages to send home for her daughter's care. What they didn't tell her was that the work paid $120 a month, or that the cost of her flight to Saudi Arabia and her visa would be taken out of that meagre pay, binding her, in effect, to indentured labour.
She left her daughter to save her, and became trapped.
In her mother's absence, Eliana's guardian did what she could, but with no money and no resources she grew exhausted, and the search for answers stalled. So Eliana suffered on, with no end in sight.
That's when we met her.
Once we understood the full story, we reached out to doctor friends in Nairobi. After a private consultation and two supervised visits to Kenyatta National Hospital, we had an initial diagnosis: Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, an autoimmune condition in which the immune system attacks the lining of the joints, causing inflammation, swelling, pain and stiffness. It is the most common chronic arthritis in children.
Left untreated, that inflammation slowly erodes cartilage and bone, causing permanent joint damage and restricted movement that follows a child into adulthood. Once the damage is done, it cannot be undone. But caught early and treated properly, most of it can be prevented. For a child growing up in Kibera, without that care, the disease simply takes its course, stealing mobility, strength, and the ability to do the ordinary things of childhood.
As soon as we had the diagnosis, we started Eliana on a carefully managed course of medication to slow the disease and, above all, to ease her pain. It is helping.
Our next mission: get her Mummy home.
By then, Rosemary had been moved on to Lebanon, working for another family for a pittance. Once she trusted that our goodwill was real, she managed to recover her passport. We booked her a flight to Kenya, and we met her at the airport to bring her home.
We cried when she was back with Eliana.
Diagnosis made, treatment begun, and Mummy home.
Now we are looking for a new home for the two of them, and work for Rosemary. By wonderful chance, she is an artist at heart, and, as it happens, we have been looking for an art instructor. So not only is Mummy home; soon she'll be coming into school alongside Eliana each day.
One last thing. You should see how the Little Lions receive Eliana. When she is struggling, our children look after her, they play with her, they make her smile; children and teachers alike help her move around campus, help her rest when it all becomes too much, and celebrate her every small victory.
When she smiles, we smile.
You should see her smile.
Eliana is a Little Lion now, part of our pride, and we could not be prouder of her courage. Thank you for reading, for supporting us, and for giving us the gift of helping Eliana with her life.
P.S. Eliana's arthritis is a lifelong condition, and her care, the testing, the medication that is finally easing her pain, continues. If you would like to walk this road with her, you can support her treatment and help us settle her family into a home of their own here. Every contribution, of any size, goes directly to keeping Eliana comfortable and her mother by her side.
