Fruits from the tree

Eating fresh fruit and vegetables straight from the garden helps to keep our children healthy at Happy House . And we are lucky enough to be able to enjoy fresh coconuts. The flesh and the milk are both delicious, but the coconut has many more uses from providing oil for cooking to thatch from its leaves. Charity tells us more.

Kitchen help

Helping to prepare meals at weekend is just one of the many things our Happy House kids enjoy. Assisting with the chores around their home is being part of a family and every weekend they sort themselves into groups and decide who should help where. It great for the busy aunties to have some willing extra hands and the children are learning skills to last for life.

Catching up

At Happy House children help each other. Whether at home or in school, they are one big family and understand the importance of being kind and helpful to others. 

So when it comes to learning, if one person is behind in a subject, or is struggling to understand, there is always someone on hand to help. 

And with our newly introduced remedial classes in school, the kids are also enjoying helping each other catch as Jacinta tells us.

Inspiring youg minds

Monday assembly is always a special time at Happy House School. Mama Sue and Papa Dave like to be there to fire up enthusiasm and inspire the the kids ready for the week ahead. The children really enjoy listening to them because they always talk directly to them and there's always something to make them laugh too! This assembly is when Mama gives them news of the remedial project being introduced to help those who are struggling to get back into learning after months of enforced absence because of the pandemic, and Papa brings them the football results.

Exciting school project

The pandemic is taking a worrying toll on children's education around the world. In Kenya, children returned to school in January after being off since March. At Happy House children's home we focussed on intensive home-education for the children living in our care to ensure, as much as we could, that they did not fall behind. But it was not possible to extended that to children from the local community who attend our school and when they came back to class in January, along with those starting our school for the first time, we discovered that many had fallen far behind. As Mama Sue says they hadn't seen a book or picked up a pencil for the entire time. Now, thanks to a generous donation, we are able to invest in a remedial project aimed at helping to get them back on track in maths, English and Swahili. We has received enough funds to cover the cost of employing extra teachers and to buy five new televisions to harness the full power of interactive learning. Here Mama Sue, founder of Children of Watamu charity, and teacher, Md Rita, explain the project.

Post lockdown learning

Post lockdown e-learning is proving a hit with teachers and students at Happy House School.

Those living in the care of Happy House, like Morphin, did so well learning, via Zoom, whilst being home-schooled during many months of lockdown, that they are grateful Mama Sue has now introduced it in to our school since it reopened this month.

And because they are already familiar with it, they are also able to share their knowledge to help returning day students from the community to adjust to a new way of learning.

Happy to be home

The love and welcome of her friends made it easy for Purity when she came back to live in the Happy House family recently. Purity, along with her brother Stephano and sister, Jessica, had previously been in our care but had been reunited with their relatives. But circumstances changed and the three youngsters have come back into our care and settled in with their friends as if they'd never been away.