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Jamaa Home

The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity started Jamaa Home and Maternity Hospital under the umbrella of the Edelvale Trust in 1959.

The Home was founded for the welfare and rehabilitation of young expectant teenage girls, who were sexually abused, became pregnant while in school or training and could not continue with their studies, including other girls employed as house-girls.

These young women were exploited, marginalized and rejected by their families and denied the possibility of further training or continued education.

Teenage pregnancies are on an alarming increase not only in the city but the country over. Many young girls drop out from schools and even colleges because of pregnancies and the promising boyfriend disappears.

Other pregnancies are a result of rape or incest and sexual abuse. Then we have girls who because of lack of school fees are employed as house helpers or ayahs. A good number of these girls fall victim to the household male dominance. They are very vulnerable and have no power to resist their “masters” sexual demands.

Society continues to react to the situation with pressure and much stress: a stress that advocates abortion suicide and total rejection of the girl by the parent or guardians. The hope for education or a better futaure collapses. Both the young unwed girl-child, mother and her baby out of wedlock continue to bear the mark of stigmatization.

Jamaa Home welcomes the child expectant mother in her hour of deep inner turmoil and gives her a haven of peace where she gets time, guidance and counselling to look at her situation and reconcile with the reality of life.

The girls are admitted to the Home when they are 7/8 month pregnant before delivery and stay in the home for at least two months after the delivery of the baby. Girls receive warm welcome and shelter, tender loving care and protection.

They receive spiritual and human guidance and counselling, home care and baby care.

They also get opportunities for private study, and learn dressmaking and art. In planning the future of the girl and the baby, meetings are held with parents, guardians and interested bodies, donors and friends: schools and church bodies to seek the best means of helping and empowering the girl and her baby for their future. This ensures that the girl after leaving the home does not end up living in the slum.

Since its foundation many young girls/women have benefited from the gesture; in fact a number are responsible adults now, and have come back to support the institution.
It is a haven of peace for frustrated, rejected, abandoned girls, expectant mothers and her awaited unborn child, and later hope for a baby born otherwise in distress.

Mission Statement

Promote, safeguard and uphold life.

Care Given

  • Counselling
  • Guidance
  • Mother Care
  • Spiritual Care
  • Education and Professional Training
  • Medical Care

In addition to technical skills the students receive

  • Spiritual Formation.
  • Counselling and Guidance.
  • Social and Life Education.
  • Human Development.
  • Social Living Skills.
  • Creation of Good Relationships.

Obstetric Fistula

Goals and Objectives
  • To perform fistulae repair on girls and women with Obstetric fistula (O.F).
  • To train local nurses and social workers in pre and post V.V.F operative care and rehabilitation.
  • Rehabilitation of fistula victims
  • To advocate for integration of V.V.F surgery in Reproductive Health programs in Kenya.
Beneficiaries

These are the young girls and women with obstetric fistulae who have been identified by the community health workers, social workers and other medical personnel.

Definition

An obstetric fistula develops when blood supply to the tissues of the vagina and the bladder (and/or rectum) is cut off during prolonged obstructed labor.

The tissues die and a hole forms through which urine (resulting to Vesico Vaginal Fistula or V.V.F) and/or faeces (resulting to Recto-Vaginal Fistula or R.V.F) pass uncontrollably.

Women who develop fistulas are often abandoned by their husbands, rejected by their communities, and forced to live an isolated existence.