Dubai: Sheyma is seven years old and lives in the Tudor Motoro slum in Mombasa, Kenya, along with 375,000 others. Many of the families living here have four or five children, are predominantly Muslim and are living with the effects of HIV.
Schooling is provided for children like Sheyma, although attending classes does come with a condition: children have to wear suitable clothes and shoes.
Sheyma's family can't afford to buy her shoes, and so she cannot attend school. Lola Lopez of newly founded Dubai charity Aid in Motion has just returned from distributing Dubai's donations in the Tudor Motoro slum.
"Unfortunately I ran out of children's clothes, so there were no shoes left to give Sheyma. The government has established schooling for them, but no shoes equals no school," she said.
Last April, Gulf News reported on the clothing donations, which were stuck in the emirate after the shipping offer was withdrawn.
After several months, the donations made it to Kenya, and have now been distributed among families living in the slum.
"None of this would have happened without the people of Dubai. One bag of clothes actually clothes a whole family. If it hadn't been for the thousands and thousands of kilos of clothes, and if it hadn't been for the companies that sponsored the containers, these clothes wouldn't have made it. Although we ran out, there's no feeling quite like putting shoes on a child that's never had any," Lopez said.
When the containers reached Mombasa, the clothes were further sorted by MEWA (Muslim Education Welfare Association) and Red Cross workers.
"The local health care outreach workers sorted the clothes for the 50 to 100 families affected by HIV that they each work with. On the first day we took 40 bags of clothes to 40 families - the women chose items for the families that they were familiar with. I was amazed that when we delivered the clothes, they fitted them perfectly. These women work really closely with the families and know them really well," Lopez said.
"Many of the families couldn't believe the clothes were for them - around 100,000 items were donated by the Landmark group. They kept asking if we were sure the clothes were for them - they've never had anything in their lives," she said.
Humble beginnings
Lopez first decided to start the charitable drive as a simple clothing collection. Now that simple collection has blossomed into a fully-fledged charity - Aid in Motion.
Lopez now has two full-time volunteers - Bernadine Muller and Denise Midgely - that organise the team of some 500 Dubai volunteers, who collect, pack and sort the clothes before the shipments are sent.
There are a number of volunteers collecting on behalf of the charity in numerous areas around Dubai who sort the donations before they're sent to the charity's headquarters.
Currently, the charity's donations will be delivered mainly to Kenya and Tanzania. "Aid in Motion doesn't discriminate against colour or creed - we'll help anyone that needs help. At the moment, for the next couple of years, we will be delivering to Kenya and Tanzania, because that's where we currently have on-the-ground support," Lopez said.
She continued that the charity is also committed to keeping a reserve stock of clothing, which can be sent within 24 hours to any country in the region, when natural disasters or crises occur.
More distributions
After the success of the first clothing drive, Lopez is now planning to distribute in Lamu and Kilifi on the east coast of Africa.
"We're now doing a concerted drive for children's and infant clothes, abayas, kanduras, sandals and copies of the Quran. There are mosques with no copies of the Quran."
Lopez is also hoping to take 15-20 volunteers on the distribution trip to Kenya, to help with the sorting when the containers arrive.
"Poverty has pride. People are poor and desperate, but I won't distribute soiled clothes - not when there is such an abundance of wonderful clothes. The beauty of Aid In Motion is that no-one has a salary - we're all volunteers," Lopez said.
For more information about the charity, volunteering or donating, go to: www.aidinmotion.com
