CAN YOU HELP-I'M FORMING ‘THE MIRACLE BABIES FOUNDATION’

I know I can’t save the world but I would love to make a difference here in Kenya.  There are so many charities, NGO, missionaries, the UN in all its forms, aid workers-you name it Kenya has it and to an extent that maybe there are too many ‘singular’ charities flooding the country and I feel that some of them would be better off joining forces rather than 1000 different small agencies all trying to do the same thing.  But then again, if what they do changes one life, how can you stop the kindness of strangers wanting to help? I just wonder if there is a better method.  Long term people here in Nairobi are a little sceptical of people like me.  Still being an African ‘rookie’, they think that the ‘newbies’ have these rose coloured glasses on and that we can change the whole country within 6 months.  They think we want to change the world and because they have been here for a longer period of time, I guess they do see people fly in, do their volunteer time’ and then fly out without as much as a backwards glance.  Well I am certainly not that blindsided and I am starting to see it slowly myself now the longer that I am here, but I do believe that I can make a difference and if people think that is dorky or sad then I think they possibly need to take a long hard look at themselves and shouldn’t be so judgemental. 

So after being at The Nest for the last 4 months there are 2 things that have got me thinking?  They are small things and I’m asking for the help and support of my friends.  I think what I want to do is achievable, accountable and people will want to help contribute.  I don’t want to raise thousands of dollars for I want to do-I just want to make a difference  to some of the people I have personally come into contact with and it is a tangible thing, a transparent idea and I am hoping I get some people behind me.  I’ll get through my first idea in this post, the second idea is still in the pipe works and I believe it needs a little more fine tuning. 

I have decided to start and call my first foundation “The Miracle Babies Foundation”. 

Over my time at The Nest I have met a beautiful, well spoken (typical 10 year old) young girl called M.  For the sake of the blog and her identity I’m not going to use her real name.  She lives at The Nest and doesn’t have any parents and I wondered why her being that age, why she wasn’t at Limuru, The Nest's Home for the older children.  It is now school holidays for some schools here in Kenya, and I wanted to help keep M busy with some activities on top of what is organised for her during this time.  M also gets time away with a wonderful mzungu that has been coming to The Nest for years, and generally it is every week-end, which is great, and during the week in holidays, she helps out with the babies but she is 10 years old and it prompted me to ask the question why she has not been adopted out.  I could see, and can see, that it would be terribly disappointing seeing babies come and go, whether it is with their biological parents or getting a new family and she has been at The Nest for years.

It is with a heavy heart that I found out today that not only does she not have any parents, but cannot be adopted out either as she has to wait the outcome of a court case from 2004 that is still pending.  Poor M is stuck in limbo.  So what is the story?  The story in Kenya is known as The Miracle Babies and as the name suggests, unfortunately it is not what you think.  It all starts with a man called Gilbert Juma Deya who is a Kenyan evangelist based in Britain.  Deya runs an evangelist church in England where, among other things, he claims that a couple incapable of having children can be blessed with offspring if they pray hard enough. That’s not much of a shocking claim. The shocking part is that Deya wasn’t patient enough to let the Divine do his work; and Deya flew to Kenya, kidnaped, stole and bought children, and brought them back to England.  His organisation, Gilbert Deya Ministries, claims that Deya was able to help infertile women to conceive through the power of prayer.  Some people want babies so badly that they will believe anything and also do anything to have a child of their own.  Gilbert Deya was ordained by the United Evangelical Church of Kenya and styles himself "Archbishop".  He was an evangelist in Kenya in the late 1980s to early 1990s, but moved to the UK, establishing Gilbert Deya Ministries in 1997.  The self-proclaimed bishop of a congregation with 36,000 UK members claimed he could give infertile couples 'miracle babies'.  The Gilbert Deya Ministries claim that Deya's powers allow him to be able to cause infertile women to become pregnant. Mr Deya claims that "through the power of prayer and the Lord Jesus" he has helped sterile women give birth. In the UK, one woman is claimed to have had three children in less than a year. The women travelled to Kenya in order to "give birth". 

It is unclear how Mr Deya and his wife convinced churchgoers that they were pregnant when they were not and how they believed that they had given birth in backstreet Kenyan clinics.  British and Kenyan officials say vulnerable church members were convinced that Mr Deya had the power of prayer to make them pregnant although they showed no outward signs.  Desperate women, some past the menopause and others who were infertile, were convinced that being prayed for by Mr Deya and travelling to Kenya would result in a child.  Once there, they were convinced by Mrs Deya and others that they were in labour and taken to illegal clinics where they underwent what they believed to be childbirth.  They say he used trickery to convince women they had delivered babies and the whole thing was an international child trafficking ring.  A British family court judge agreed, saying infertile couples and congregation members were "deceived" by Mr Deya and that he was motivated by "the most base of human avarices: financial greed".  Mr Deya regards the children as miracles given to him by God for his followers.  "The 'miracle babies' which are happening now in our ministry is beyond a human imagination but it's not something that I can say - I can explain because they are of God and things of God cannot be explained by human beings".  The women became convinced that they had given birth were simply devout, not wilfully naive.  That is a matter of opinion and again I state that some people will do anything to have a child of their own and as crazy as some things are, people will believe what they want if they are that desperate. 

On the 21^st August 2004, police raided the Nairobi Mountain View residence of Archbishop Gilbert Deya at dawn.  They arrested his wife and took away nine children to the Nairobi Children’s Home.  Deya’s wife could only tell the police that the eight were her children and that some of them were miracle babies.  CID head of forensic science took blood samples for DNA tests from the babies, to be matched with that of Deya’s wife who claims to be their real mother.  None of the ‘miracle babies that were found in the Deya house after testing had any genetic connection to the Deya family.  In total twenty babies have been placed in foster care in Kenya after DNA tests showed they had no connection to their alleged mothers in the UK.  Mr Deya told British police he was the children's natural father and his 57-year-old wife was their mother - DNA tests proved negative and forged birth certificates were found in his home.  The sad fact is that no one is sure where the miracle babies came from and none of the children taken from the Deya house have been identified, the children's true parentage remains unknown.

So Deya has a warrant out for his arrest in Kenya for the trafficking of babies out of the country. The Kenyan police have alleged that the ministry is a baby-snatching ring, and they have petitioned for his extradition from the UK. Mr Deya is currently seeking political asylum from his base in Glasgow. He was arrested by police at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in 2006.  On 13 December 2006, Mr Deya was arrested in London by the Metropolitan Police. A police spokesman said Gilbert Deya was detained under an arrest warrant issued by Kenyan authorities, who had charged him with child abduction and trafficking. He was ordered by a court on 8 November 2007, to be extradited from the UK to Kenya to face five counts of child stealing.  Deya appealed against extradition on the grounds that he might face torture in Kenya, but in late 2008 his case was rejected by the High Court and leave to appeal to the House of Lords was refused.  It was reported in April 2010 that Deya was still in England.  In September 2011, news reports indicated that all avenues of appeal had been exhausted and Deya would now be extradited to Kenya and a UK court has ordered evangelical preacher Gilbert Deya back to Kenya to face five counts of child stealing.  Yet he remains free in Britain, not even out on bail. He collects money from his 36,000 followers, travels, and enjoys life as those he has harmed cannot. The only repercussion for him is that the British government refuses to issue him a passport until this is cleaned up. How many children have been kidnapped or bought in Kenya and brought to Britain to become the “children” of Deya’s followers is unclear.

19 children and babies remain in care in Kenya, M is one of them having been seized from his groups, and cannot move forward with her life until Deya is back in Kenya and stands trial for the allegations.  I asked Irene if I could take M to the movies while she was on holidays and was told that it was a good idea, but M is part of 11 Miracle Babies that are being cared for at the Limuru Nest and it would be unfair to take just M and so I made a decision there and there that I would be happy to take the 11 children to the movies.  This is where my idea formed and I starting thinking if there was a way every month that we could organise to take the kids to somewhere new/different.  If they are going to be stuck in their country, why not get them out and about to see their own environment.  The movies seemed an obvious choice as it isn’t far from The Nest, there are some great movies out at the moment and is a good start.  After talking to M about it, we also came up with some other ideas including the waterslides which no children have ever had the opportunity to go on, a safari drive, a trip to the lakes and the list could go on.

What I am asking for is for 12 people/companies to sponsor a day out-one sponsor for each month which will cover the cost of the fuel when we travel and maybe some lunch and the entrance fees.  I would be asking for 100AUD per month and this would be enough for us to pay for the 11 kids and 2 carers to go out for the day-once a month.  I asked Irene about it all yesterday and I was given the thumbs up from her, so if anyone is interested in contributing a day out for 11 of these special children please let me know.  I can send you picture’s, give you receipts and know that your money 100% will go towards The Miracle Babies Foundation.  If you have kids, please think about these children who cannot be adopted out and are stuck in limbo as the babies and children around them are given a chance with new families.  If we can help them to have some good memories in this chapter of their lives, then I believe that we need to give this a shot.  I am paying for the movies out of my own pocket, but if I can get some financial help for the ensuing months you can be supremely confident that the money will be put to proper use, it will be greatly and deeply appreciated and know that you will be making a MASSIVE difference to these children lives.  Thank your lucky stars the position you find yourself and your family in. Had a bad day?  Not feeling well?  Think about these poor children, who have no control over their own fate and take a second to stand in their shoes.  It’s humbling isn’t it?  This stuff isn’t out of a book, it is real life, it is happening in our world, in our decade and that makes me a little mad and also a little sad that these things are still happening in this day and age.

Please help me and the children if you can. 

I only need 12 people to donate 100AUD each. 

I hope that there are people out there willing to assist.