Cosmas Nzilili shows visitors around a vegetable garden at Sikizana Trust Rescue Centre, a children’s home he runs in Makueni County on February 19, 2022. PHOTO | PIUS MAUNDU | NMG
The children's home located at the end of a dirt road was a beehive of activities when a Business Daily team visited over the weekend.
Three giant greenhouses teeming with flourishing Sukuma wiki and tomatoes dot the flourishing maize field surrounding the centre.
The children's home has struck a deal with Serena Hotels whose Kilaguni Lodges Hotel which is tucked at the heart of the nearby Tsavo West National Park buys the surplus vegetables.
Tucked in a rocky neighbourhood on the slopes of Chyullu Hills, Sikizana Trust Rescue Centre is the home of more than 80 children who would otherwise be languishing in the streets.
Cosmas Nzilili and his wife Rachel run the centre which is one of its kind in Makueni County. Agribusiness has seen the couple scale down their reliance on sponsors to sustain the facility.
The children's home located at the end of a dirt road was a beehive of activities when a Business Daily team visited over the weekend.
Children of various ages trooped in from the neighbouring Mwitasyano Primary School where they school. Besides doing homework and playing, the children clean the compound, cook some of their meals, and assist with farm work.
“We strive to provide a homely environment to destitute children we rescue from various situations in this region and beyond,” said Mr Nzilili during a guided tour in the facility.
Three giant greenhouses teeming with flourishing Sukuma wiki and tomatoes dot the flourishing maize field surrounding the centre. At another corner of the compound, a farmworker is busy harvesting fish from one of three concrete fish ponds donated by a sponsor.
Mr Nzilili’s, 48, was once a street child himself after dropping out of primary school due to lack of fees. After languishing in the streets of Mombasa for four years, well-wishers rescued him.
This is how he went back to school. He excelled in primary school and joined Starehe Boys Centre and later the University of Nairobi where he studied financial management.
Mr Nzilili who sees himself as a living testimony that children deserve a second chance in life wears his past like a badge of honour. This background, he revealed, is what catapulted him to set up the children home.
“When we started the children rescue centre in 2005 we depended solely on well-wishers. Oftentimes, however, the aid we drew could not match our growing needs. Consequently, we initially struggled to raise 10 children in a rented premise at Mwitasyano Township,” Mr Nzilili said.
Over the years, Mr Nzilili and his wife set up a humble children's home on a plot they had acquired near the township.
“Sixteen years down the line, our most prudent investment remains the agribusiness component of the children rescue centre. Keeping fish and growing various crops and vegetables has enabled us to cut down on overdependence on aid while at the same meeting the nutritional needs of the growing number of children.
"We are buoyed by the outcome of the experiment with fish, vegetables and food crops and as a result, we are seriously considering raising chickens and keeping at least a few heads of dairy cattle to provide the children with milk,” Rachael said.
Meanwhile, the children's home has struck a deal with Serena Hotels whose Kilaguni Lodges Hotel which is tucked at the heart of the nearby Tsavo West National Park buys the surplus vegetables.
Mr Nzilili said they supply tomatoes and sukuma wiki worth Sh500,000 per year to Kilaguni Hotels.
This is besides the around Sh150,000 per year they earn by selling the vegetables to local traders.
“Growing assorted vegetables and food crops has significantly cut down on our cost of operations and sustained our expansion spree in a bid to meet a growing need of children rescue in this region and beyond,” Mr Nzilili said.
That notwithstanding, the children's home is still popular with philanthropists.
Although he is widely travelled, Mr Nzilili is at home mingling with the children who have grown up alongside his own at the children's home. They all see themselves as brothers and sisters and identify the couple as their parents.
The institution prides itself in enabling many neglected children to attain their potential. So far, it has churned out engineers, teachers, social workers, and a renowned journalist.
“The successful old students troop back once in a while to support the institution. They motivate the others and rope in their philanthropic friends who offer bursaries, scholarships and even foodstuffs,” Mr Nzilili said.
