Dollie Ambassador Sally Nelson lives in Southern California and is the director of Anza Tena Dream Center and African Children’s Outreach. The vision and mission of Anza Tena is “to assist African children, youth and families; those who are poor, abandoned, orphaned and reside in Nairobi, Kenya region.”
When Sally traveled to Kenya last month on her up-teenth visit, she brought Dollies with her!
“I always had a passion and desire to help children and young women. My burden became more focused to reach the children, teens and young women in all of Africa, but especially East Africa. I have had the opportunity to live in a number of African nations and while living there, my vision of over twenty years was to have a primary school, vocational training center and a girls home for the poor, orphaned, abandoned and disadvantaged children, teens and women in Africa.
My dream become a reality in 2006. We began with (2) girls at the “House of Hope” and (20) children at the “Rainbow School”. Today, “Rainbow School” has over (100) students.
My granddaughter (who visited with me!) and I both distributed Dollies to students who live in the nearby Kibera slums. The majority of our boys and girls come from single parent homes where the mothers have very little or no education, and are often without family support.
We have two other programs, a vocational center and a girl’s home. Our girls’ home, “House of Hope”, is for orphaned and abandoned girls of all ages. It is here where we provide them a safe, loving, nurturing and encouraging place to call home.”
I asked Sally to tell us more about her visit to “Rainbow School”:
“I wish you could have been in Kenya with me to see the excitement when my granddaughter and I brought the big bag which held all the Dollies into the first classroom. The children sensed that we brought them something special. We started with the students in the grade four class and went to each class by grade ending in the nursery.
Once we opened the bag and the children saw what was inside, there was cheers, clapping, jumping up and down with so much happiness. I know when we were in grade four class and opened the bag for the first time, the entire school and everyone else around us could hear how happy the girls were!
We took out many different dollies, so each girl could come up and pick which one they wanted. Their smiles were from ear to ear as they walked up to choose their very own dollie. Some girls knew right away which one they wanted…other girls took a little time to choose since they liked so many of them.
Once they chose their dollie they hugged and hugged their her with smiles and lots of emotion. It was like Christmas morning when children first wake up and run into the living room and look under the Christmas tree. It brought tears to our eyes so see how happy and thankful they were to receive such a gift. The girls continually said, “Thank you, thank you!”
Many of our girls (students) have a single mom, grandma, aunt or guardian taking care of them. A few have both parents, but the fathers usually don’t have any kind of job and don’t take responsibility for their family. Most of the caretakers have little or no education and are very poor, living in horrible circumstances and abusive situations. The children basically don’t have anything. My husband and I purchased underwear for each of the students (boys and girls) because most of them don’t have any. We try to do this once a year.
Offering the girls their very own dollie was something they will never forget and neither will I!
Since so many of our girls struggle with abuse of all kinds, I feel these dollies gave the girls a sense of security and hope. It was a clear demonstration that someone cares about them.
When this little girl received this dollie, her face just lit up and she wouldn’t stop hugging her doll. I believe this doll gave her such comfort and security (I think it was like that for each girl).
