She’s only 30, but already ‘mother’ of 17

Angel's smiles children's home proprietor Wamaitha Mwangi (center) with some of the boys that have been spotted for adoption at the home in Limuru on July 06, 2013. Photo/DENISH OCHIENG 

By FELISTA WANGARI

In Summary

• She could have done anything and succeeded, but Wamaitha Mwangi chose to set up a children’s home. She says that it is difficult, demanding, and sometimes emotionally-draining, but it is worth         

The year was 2008. Wamaitha Mwangi, a 25-year-old, had just returned home, armed with a child psychology degree from Australia.

She could have had a successful career abroad, but preferred to use her knowledge to mentor and nurture the minds of the children she’d left back home. She found a teaching job at a kindergarten, but it didn’t take her long to realise that this wasn’t her calling.

“I loved working with kids, yes. But I was working with privileged children, who had food, clothes, love and parents. My heart was pulling me towards helpless children,” she explains.

Fast forward to two years later at a meeting for managers of children’s homes in Limuru, Central Province. Pastor Steve Githire, manager of Elshadai Children’s Centre, spotted a young feisty woman who looked out of place, nose ring, tattooed arm and all.

“Who is that and what is she doing here?” he wondered.

He was further astounded when Wamaitha stood to talk about the challenges she was facing running her children’s home, Angel Centre.

“I couldn’t believe that such a young woman was already running a children’s home. I was amazed because this is not the kind of thing women her age are doing.”

Pastor Steve is sharing this anecdote on an unusually sunny day at the Angel Centre for Abandoned Children in Rironi, Limuru. It is perfect weather for the home’s third anniversary celebration in the usually chilly locale

.

He is addressing a crowd of friends, family and curious strangers who have joined Wamaitha and her children to mark this milestone.

Wamaitha is 30 now, and just like that day two years ago, she stands out in a single-strap orange and green African print dress that shows off the tattoo on her right shoulder: XV.VII.XXX. It stands for 15th July 2010, the day her leap of faith to set up Angel Centre bore fruit.

Wamaitha, or Wam, as her friends call her, is a “mother” of 17, and counting. She picks up a crying baby here and soothes her, calls out “baba” to a toddler and rubs his head, cuddles another, gives directions to a nanny there…Wamaitha has settled beautifully into the role of mother.

She says this is a calling that was in her long before she left for Australia for her undergraduate studies. Her friends recall that she loved children, often volunteered at children’s homes, and had a desire to set up her own some day when she was older. But her dream materialised sooner than anyone had imagined.

Getting started

She says of the kindergarten job she got after returning home.

“I felt unfulfilled…my ideal job would have been to work at a children’s home or a similar set up.

“Out of frustration of not finding the perfect job, I decided to find out what it took to start a children’s home. I thought I would just register the home, just like people do with businesses, and keep it pending till I was old enough to run one. But after talking to a children’s officer, I asked myself: What is stopping me?”

Wamaitha started on the paperwork, got two friends on board as directors, registered with the relevant authorities and got approval to run the home. But from the start, she faced naysayers. Everybody wondered why a young educated woman without children of her own wanted to do this.

“As part of my research, I talked to owners of more established homes, but most discouraged me. They asked me: Where will you get donors? – I think they worried that I would “steal” their donors. People automatically told me that I could not do it, but a woman with a vision cannot be stopped, so here I am,” she says, smiling.