Shane Daly

Kasisi Children's Home is one of those rare places where one feels life is lived to the full. Under the care and guidance of the Sisters and the mummies the children thrive in an environment of care, safety, and love.

As you come through the door into the courtyard with its bright colours, decorated walls, and trees, the stereotype of an African orphanage is quickly dispelled. The first thing I saw on being dropped in the deep end was happy, smiling, laughing children, playing and enjoying all the activities that imagination and a wonderful playground can conjure up.

Being a teacher by profession, I spent most of my days in the classroom teaching mostly mathematics, but occasionally dabbling in the other subjects of the curriculum, while wishing I was just out in the playground watching life go by and children interact with one another. Plenty of educational resources for all ages made my task easier, as did the support of the Sisters when teenagers, doing what teenagers do, misbehaved or did not do their assigned work.

When you work here, you are made to feel you belong and what makes leaving possible after letting the children into your life is the knowledge that in your absence or your presence the children are loved, safe, cared for, materially provided for, and given a chance of a meaningful future. Such knowledge allowed me to simply enjoy the children and the time, and draw energy and life from it.

It is true, despite it being a cliché, that I received much more than I gave and that what is truly important in life is to find those places where life is lived to the full and so learn something about oneself. What each person learns about himself or herself will be one of the gifts they will take with them on leaving, along with the storehouse of happy memories.

Shane Daly