Your purchase of these photos will help some of the neediest of God’s children in Kenya to go to school.
Most of these photos were shot near Meru, where we lived with the local people. There are also photos from around Isiolo, from Kitale in Western Kenya, from a village on Lake Turkana and from a village just over the border in Tanzania - all places that tourists seldom, if ever, visit.
The wildlife photos were taken in Kenya’s Meru National Park, Samburu - Buffalo Springs National Reserves, at the Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi and on the Serengeti in Tanzania, where many tourists do go on safari.
We pray that these images will help you to understand what life is like for many children, women and grandmothers in East Africa.
Most of these photos were shot near Meru, where we lived with the local people. There are also photos from around Isiolo, from Kitale in Western Kenya, from a village on Lake Turkana and from a village just over the border in Tanzania - all places that tourists seldom, if ever, visit.
The wildlife photos were taken in Kenya’s Meru National Park, Samburu - Buffalo Springs National Reserves, at the Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi and on the Serengeti in Tanzania, where many tourists do go on safari.
We pray that these images will help you to understand what life is like for many children, women and grandmothers in East Africa.
'“I'm Hungry”'
This little one in Meru, Kenya is wet, cold, sick and has had very little to eat for perhaps his only meal of the day. No child should have to live like this - but there are many in Kenya who do.
Girl in Red
It's raining - and the yard in front of her home in Meru, Kenya is all mud - but this girl is posing. She wants to look as beautiful as a model - and she does.
The Water Hole
The only source of water for many people in the Tuuru area of Kenya is a tiny stream that trickles out from under some rocks – and children are the primary means of transporting it to their homes for drinking, cooking and washing clothes.
The Water Kiosk
Ngaremara, between Isiolo and Samburu Reserve, is a hot and dry place – and bottled water there is expensive. Often families have only a few gallons for the day’s cooking and drinking needs.
“I Want to go to School Too”
A little girl in Arimet, near Isiolo, picked up her older sister’s school bag and headed off to the school. Typically, in this pastoral region, only one child in a family goes to school. Others spend their days herding goats and cattle.
Regina's Brother
He lives in mud hut with a dirt floor and very little furniture. He goes barefoot – and he wishes that he could go to school like his sister does with help from St. John Bosco Children’s Centre in Kitale, Kenya.
Three Generations in Chumvi
Grandmothers often look like they are the babies’ mothers – and in fact, they sometimes have children who are about the same ages as their daughters’ babies.
Lake Turkana Village
There is no school at Lake Turkana, Kenya for the fishermen’s children. They have to go a boarding school in Lodwar. They live in huts made of palm fronds and plastic sheets – and they learn, at an early age, how to repair fishing nets.
Turkana Mother
Young mothers in the Isiolo region of Kenya are often left behind with the children while their men are off to greener places, tending their livestock.
“Turkana Granny ”
Many grandmothers in the Isiolo area of Kenya care for their grandchildren while the parents move from place to place with their herds of goats.
At The Bore Hole
Women, girls and goats gather at the well for water in Epeding. This bore hole was drilled, and the pump and trough installed, by World Vision. It is in a very dry and always hot area, just north of Isiolo.
Samburu Mother and Children
Young mothers are often left in the manyattas to care for their children. And they often have many because they know that two or three will die young – and they hope the others will take care of them when they are old.
Turkana Mother and Baby
Babies in Isiolo, and elsewhere in Kenya, travel everywhere on the backs of their mothers. They are even carried like this while their mothers are working. It must be very comforting for them to be so close to their mothers all the time.
Four – Going on Forty
The wood is almost gone – and this little girl in the Tharaka District of Kenya is probably not looking forward to going out again to pick up more for cooking the next meal.
Four Little Samburu Girls
USAID and Ripples International help children in Arimet to go to school by supplying them with uniforms and school supplies. Some girls however, spend their days fetching water and firewood, and caring for babies and the elderly.
Baby Elephants at Play
Young Elephants at the Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi,Kenya enjoy wrestling with each other. Because they have no mothers to care for them, all the young orphans there are their family.
“Look Who’s Coming for Lunch”
A hundred or so hippos wallowed in a nearby pool of mud, but not this one – he (or she) headed out to somewhere on the Serengeti, in Tanzania, for something to eat.
Siesta Time
These young lions in Meru National Park looked pretty harmless as they napped in the noon day sun after having eaten their fill earlier in the day
Beisa Oryx
Buffalo Springs National Reserve, just north of Isiolo, is a flat, open and arid plain with grassland – an environment that Beisa Oryx, Grevy’s Zebra and Grant’s Gazelle like.
“These Thorns are Good”
Giraffes, with their long necks and long legs, are gangly – but also graceful and elegant as they stand erect and eat the thorns of acacia trees on the Serengeti in Tanzania.
Turkana Teenager and Sibling
Pastorialist families have moved to Kitali from the Lake Turkana area. Since they don’t own any land there, they are living in the middle of a maize field – in Jamanoor – which is really a camp of make-shift huts. Many of the teenage girls there are not going to school – they are instead looking after young siblings while their mothers seek casual labor.
Going to Church
Children are often on their own – left in this case, to follow the singing voices at a Sunday church service near City of Hope in Tanzania.
Poor but Caring Boy
This boy in the Tharaka District should be in school, but he’s at home helping to care for his grandfather – “the oldest man in Kenya” - in one of the driest, hottest and poorest districts of the country.
John’s Friends
Consolata Village, on a plot of land donated by a nun, is their home in the Meru District of Kenya. These children should all be in school, but they aren’t because their families are too poor.
Forced to Move or Rebuild
Because many Turkana families in Kitale are squatters on land that doesn’t belong to them, their mud and stick huts are often destroyed. Some of them move to another slum, while others try to rebuild as best they can. Children are often sleeping on the ground and cold and dirty.
Curious Kids
Neighborhood children in Kitale, Kenya gathered to watch the wazungu (white folks) as they visited with Regina and her mother and younger siblings.
Regina’s Young Siblings
Their older sister is going to primary school with help from St. John Bosco Children’s Centre in Kitale, Kenya – and these children hope that they will go to school too.