DOB – June 10, 2011

Came under Tumaini care, 2015

Rukaya came to us when we were begged to do a home visit on the children’s behalf.  The entire family, mom and six kids were living and starving in a one room tenement in the worst slum I have ever visited.

There was not a bite of food . . . mom was so sick she couldn’t walk and we had to have her assisted to a hospital.  It turned out Mom (HIV+) had a TB tumour growing in her stomach and required immediate surgery.

Tumaini got the surgery for mom, rented a house and put all the school aged children into school.  Mom would convalesce for a couple of months afterward, then began disappearing in the night, leaving big sister Hadija home alone to care for everyone.

About six months after mom’s surgery, one day, Hussein (we had put Hadija into boarding school) brought the younger children to Tumaini along with the keys to their house and informed us that mom had ridden away the night before with her mattress, on the back of a piki piki.

Rukaya is the younger sister of Hadija, Hussein, Swalehe, and Malki, and the older sister of Sumaya.

She is a beautiful, sweet and compassionate young lady who does her very best at everything she attempts.  Although Rukaya is usually seen as a calm child, she definitely has a kick to her!  Beware when she gets into one of her goofy periods, as she will play prank after prank and giggle the whole time. As a very studious girl, Rukaya excels at math and spoken English and Kiswahili.  Rukaya’s excellence in school allowed her to move from Baby Class straight to Class One (skipping Intermediate Class!).  If she keeps up her hard work, she will do amazing things in the future!