Githurai Slum

Nairobi, Kenya

A School for Refugee Children

I spent the day among 161 children — the collateral damage of war and violence in Central and Eastern Africa — was led by hand through the slum they call home and found home and healing in their touch.

Christ's Academy in the Githurai slum of Nairobi is a school for children displaced and orphaned by war and conflict in Central and Eastern Africa.

There are 161 children at the academy. All are refugees who have fled violence in Sudan, Somalian, Burundi, Congo and Kenya.

Among them is Aluel Kadam. Her eyes belies some of the horrors she has seen in young life in Southern Sudan. Christ's Academy offers her not only an education, but a place of hope and healing — a place where she is loved.

The director and founder of Christ's Academy is Lhelumo (Barthelemy) M'Mboboci, above. While fleeing the fighting in the Congo in the late 1990s, he came across eight children separated from their parents. He collected and took them with him. His plan was to reunite them with their families in refugee camps in Tanzania. But when he reached the camps, there were no families to reunite them with. Today, 12 orphans live him, his wife and their three children in a small, two-bedroom apartment in Githurai.

Christ's Academy grew out of M'Mboboci's desire to help more children displaced and orphaned by the violence in Central and Eastern Africa. Rafael Mutua, above, headmaster of the school, has worked with him since the academy was founded in 2001. He leads a faculty of 10 trained, accredited teachers. All all volunteers and serve without expecting any pay.

Cambridge church in Gayton, Va., supports Christ's Academy by sending enough money to feed the children each month with a little extra for supplies, materials and an occasional stipend for the teachers. Nelson Trent, a member of the church, visits to see the work of the school and play with the children.

None of the children pay to attend. They are accepted by need and receive two meals a day from the kitchen, above, in addition to their education. The school is not state supported and depends on donations to survive.

M'Mboboci used to send the children home at noon for a meal. That ended when two young girls were raped on their way to lunch. The children's guardians are refugees who worked during the day or are out searching for food. There is usually no one home — and often nothing to eat — when the children arrive.

The children entertain guests and each other with traditional songs and dance, poems and Bible recitation. Classes range from pre-school — beginning with three-year-olds — and currently go through the fifth grade. Plans are to add a grade each year as the children get older.

The children sat for exams today. Those who excel are awarded badges in each subject at the end of each term. Headmaster Mutua points to the badges Alfred Kimetu earned last term. He excelled in several subjects and was the best student overall in the school. The exams today will determine how many of those badges he retains.