Elisha Main

Elisha Maina was abandoned when he was a little baby in Nyhururu town. He was collected by a passersby in the street and taken to the local police station. The police took him to a children's home and from here, Elisha was fostered by a lady who took him to LangaLanga, a town near Gilgil (40 miles away). This foster carer severely physically abused Elisha, so much so that he, to this day, is covered in scars all over his body. In one incident she hit his head so hard against a radiator that he broke his skull. Elisha slept with the goats and sheep despite the foster carer living in a comfortable home. He went days without food and long periods of time without water until he was so malnourished and sick that he could no-longer work on the farm which the foster mother had forced him to do. The foster carer no-longer wanted to keep Elisha as he was no use to her now he was sick, she discussed ways to abandon him with her friend on day which Elisha, by chance, happened to overhear. Elisha turned what he had heard over and over in his mind all day and decided that he must leave and find a safer place to live. That night, Elisha went to his sheep pen in which he slept every night and pretended to go to sleep as usual. In the middle of the night, when he was sure the family were fast asleep in the house, he got up and walked for 7 kilometres, determined to find a better place to live. Elisha reached Gilgil police-station the next morning, tired, thirsty, hungry and sick. Elisha slept on the cold corridor floors of the police station for two weeks, with no blanket or pillow. After this time, the police took him to the Sanata Restart Centre. This happened to be on the day of the end of summer holiday party held at the Coulson's family home. He came to the party and silently took in this new world he was suddenly surrounded by. He filled his belly with foods he had never tasted before, especially his favourite - chocolate cake. As like most children, his eyes were much bigger than his stomach and felt rather sick after eating far too much sugar! He was taken to the local pharmacy to get some enos (indigestion tablets) and twenty minutes later, he did a big burp and then asked to go back to the party for some more chocolate cake!

Elisha is such a bright child and has picked up English faster than most of the other boys. He will be joining primary school in January and came top in his entrance exams after just three months of the rehabilitation with Sanchat. He has warmed the hearts of so many people through his enthusiasm to try all new things and utter determination to better his life and make best of every situation. Even at 5 years old he has promised that when he is older, he wants to learn skills to enable him to help neglected children and work at the centre himself. He is so thankful to Mary for rescuing him.

Elisha's head is still covered in scars but his mind is in such a happy place. He makes friends wherever he goes. The Restart children were taken to go see their relatives, Elisha with no family in this world requested to go see his friends at the police station. One policewoman asked Elisha what she could buy for him for a present. He requested a torch as he doesn't like not being able to see at night at the restart (only recently have the Restart had electricity). To this day, he has this torch and takes the greatest of care of it.