- Kilavi is also appealing for donations to continue supporting the family afford basic needs.
- He can reached at 0722 722 171.
Like the biblical Jew in the Good Samaritan story who ignored the injured by the road, most people tend to see beggars or street families languishing in squalid conditions and do nothing about it. But not Anthony Kilavi.
More than a year ago, he was in the company of friends when they saw a woman with her two little children begging by the road in Nairobi, who seemed sickly.
They were emotionally moved and Kilavi decided to do something about it.
But what initially started as a random opportunity to help woman and her children afford life’s basics has now turned into something else. He now has to shoulder a huge bill as the mother and one of her children have developed an eye disease.
“I was in a group and we broke down seeing how the woman and her children were. She seemed sick, weak and had been begging by the road for years. The children, all of them under 10, were trying to carry their mother, struggling to bear the weight,” Kilavi said.
“Imagine, two little children trying to carry their mother, moving her from place to place as they beg for alms, every day, meaning that their schooling is disrupted as they struggle to have something to put on the very table.”
Kilavi said he approached the woman asked her how he could assist them. That's how a relationship started.
For a year now, he has been supporting the family by paying rent for them in a modest house besides catering for their monthly shopping.
The family has become comfortable with him to the extent that the children find it easy to call him any time of the day whenever they need assistance.
“Even my wife knows that the children can call me any time. She sees the calls and tells me its that family seeking help,” he said.
Kilavi is head of consulting and advisory at Zamara Actuaries, Administrators and Consultants.
He said a disease later affected the woman's eyes, turning her blind. Then paralysis followed. Unfortunately, no hospital has been able to give her proper diagnosis.
The woman's eldest child, who is about 10 years old, has also developed the same symptoms: Eye infection and signs of paralysis.
“The children say the mother complains of the infection and pain in the eyes and weakening and numbing of the body that seem incurable,” he said.
Kilavi is now appealing to well-wishers to help him support the family and enable them get medical help.
“Doctors who are able to properly diagnose this condition need to urgently come forward and the mother and her child,” he said.
Kilavi is also appealing for donations to continue supporting the family afford basic needs.
He can be reached at 0722 722 171.