Double Joy - an article by Chrissie Hinde

To have joy one must share it. Happiness was born a twin.
Lord Byron

I recently saw a greetings card with the above quote and thought it summed up my experience of Double Joy very well. This is my attempt to share it with you.

Double Joy is the rather odd but very apt name for the project my mother initiated 12 years ago in rural Kenya. Its purpose is to support the growing number of children orphaned by Aids in her community. It is a project I have been involved with from the start and it has become a major source of joy and fulfilment in my life. I’m writing this article in the hope that you too will allow Double Joy into your hearts and minds.

When my mother first had the idea for Double Joy she was told the project could never succeed and that she was foolish to proceed. Undeterred, she bought a piece of land occupied by rocks, snakes and thorn bushes and applied for funding from Unicef. When the funding was not forthcoming as she had hoped, she approached friends and relatives. Support for Double Joy gathered like the proverbial snowball, initially slowly and steadily, but with growing impetus as the word spread. Within 3 years Double Joy was caring for 90 children. By 2001 we had enough support to set up a UK based charity called Friends of Double Joy. For me it’s a great example of what a person can achieve with sufficient vision, faith and determination.

The backdrop to Double Joy is one of people grappling with serious poverty, overlaid with the crippling sickness, grief and loss imposed by Aids. As you can imagine it’s hard to feel hopeful in such circumstances, and the children who have lost their parents are the most vulnerable of all. To play a part in bringing hope and joy into this bleak situation is a tremendous privilege, and deeply enriching experience. It’s not just the offering of support; it’s the relationships I enjoy with the children and staff with whom I regularly exchange letters. Double Joy also has a number of friends of all ages who write to the children. The children love getting letters from overseas.

My mother continues to live on site and has an overseeing role, although she has passed on a lot of her work to her ever-expanding staff team. She lives in a house about the size of our kitchen at the meeting house and her life style is the most frugal of any westerner I know, and yet she describes herself as having a wonderful life. When I told her I was writing this article she texted me the following message: ‘How many people get the chance to be instrumental in creating a little bit of heaven on earth and then can live in the middle of it supported by so many loving people.’

If you’re interested in knowing more or getting involved in some way I’d be very happy to talk to you. We also have a web site at www.double-joy.org.uk.

Chrissie Hinde

More about Double Joy

Double Joy is Bondo district in Southwest Kenya (East Africa) by Lake Victoria and close to the border with Uganda. The children come to Double Joy with their siblings and live as family units in small houses. Older children help to care for their younger siblings with the help of the house staff, so that the families are kept intact.

Double Joy has its own Nursery and Primary School and provides an accelerated learning scheme for those who have missed out on their education. There is a strong emphasis on nurturing self-esteem and developing the individual child’s abilities and interests. The children learn to grow food and to care for the cows, donkeys, sheep and hens. They are also taught vocational skills such as carpentry, bicycle repair and tailoring. They continue to develop these or additional skills at Polytechnic when they leave.

Singing, dancing and drumming form a strong part of their Luo culture and they know many traditional songs and dances. Anyone visiting Double Joy is treated to top class entertainment. This is a quote from the diary of Hazel Warner a Friend from Yealand Quaker Meeting who visited Double Joy in 2004.

‘After supper of tilapia fish fresh from the lake, the children put on an evening of entertainment – fabulous singing and dancing of traditional Luo culture – amazing energy, joy, spirit and skill – very moving indeed. They have so little materially yet are so happy – truly humbling. How have we got it so wrong in our culture? Why is there so much discontentment? Song and dance are so important’.

The following are accounts from some of the older children at Double Joy.

‘I play football at Double Joy so much and I really enjoy it with other orphans like me. I even know how to do some practical jobs, which can help me in my future. I know how to repair bicycles, some little carpentry, and shoe repair and there is more I would like to know. At Double Joy I have good clothes. I have my own box, which I put my clothes in.’
Timothy Onondi

‘When I came to Double Joy I found the life flowing smoothly and I was very happy to be here and now I am going for my birthday and I have somebody to take care of me. Double Joy is a lovely home to live in and I thank the Lord for his mercy and a chance to live’
Caroline Atieno

‘With me now I’m having everything needed for life and there is food, hospital and also birthdays. So here it is safe and very comfortable and education is also very high’.
Miriam Awuor

‘I am thanking God that here at Double Joy I am getting enough clothes. We have good shelter and we are eating every day. I want to work hard in class so that I may join secondary school and after finishing I may go to university and when I become rich I would like to build an orphanage home like this one.’
Denis Ochieng

‘Wa tugo maber, wa lemo maber, kendo wa chiemo maber.’ (We play well, we pray well and we eat well.)
Edward Okoth