Restoration for first-year students: A reflection by our counselors
by Jackline, Pamela, and Hellen, Neema’s counselors
Students playing a card game at Neema
When the first-year girls joined Neema, they looked lonely and isolated, and most of them were self-centered and wore a face of worry and sadness. But since then, they’ve started looking bright, and a few are even beginning to wear smiles on their faces. They’ve started sharing about how life is different now that they’re a part of Neema, and for the first time, some are feeling loved and appreciated for the little things in life. They can learn and interact, as compared to when they first joined Neema, and they’ve been able to make friends with whom they can open up to. And they are learning to appreciate who they are as individuals, rather than what the world thinks they are.
Some have shared that they are glad to have people who listen to them without judgment. And through this, they are learning to open up and express their pain in individual counseling, which is creating transformation by leaving their hearts enlightened. In general, they have brightened up and look jollier, and it is evident that they are gaining hope and are ready to continue on the journey of transformation.
Faith, a student at Neema
One of the first-year students shared, “I have faced several rejections, lacked food, soap, and lived most of my time worrying and very stressed about what to eat and where to get money to buy [myself] soap. I lived so much in isolation and did not want to interact so much because I was tired of being seen as a burden. But ever since I joined Neema I found a place to belong and no longer feel the spirit of rejections that I did then by my own relatives. And I finally have a place and people who love me and have accepted me. I am learning to stay free among people, and I feel loved among them, and I am learning to freely interact. For the first time I do not feel like a burden anymore because I am not reminded of the food and the care I am given. My stress level has gone down because I do not have to worry looking for money to buy food [and] soap because Neema provides it for me. I feel happy at heart that I have been remembered by God, whom I thought had forgotten about me for a very long time, and I have a place to belong and the people who listen to me.”
Pamela Chebet, Head of Counseling Department
Jackline Birungi, Consulting Counselor
Hellen Ondoro, Counselor & Social Worker
