Kayleena Soren - Kenya Team

 

Hey everyone... this week I get to introduce you to the very sweet Kayleena Soren.  Kayleena loves being active, she plays the piano, sings, swims, camps, and loves ballet.  She has 8 siblings and loves all food including a love for ice cream with cookie dough or oreo cookies in it.  When Kayleena grows up she wants to work in the field of health, social work, or humanitarian work.  Kayleena wants to go to Kenya because it has been her goal since she was a little girl and she has a desire to serve people.

Scott visited Kayleena Soren’s service site this week which is the Childrens Service Society. This organization provides education and support for grandparents and others in kinship parenting roles to help non-traditional families be successful. Kayleena helps each week with the children who are being raised by their grandparents.  While the grandparents attend a class, Kayleena and others take the children and feed them dinner, this night we had pizza, play games and have other activities.  One of the fun things they do every week is called “Peaches and Pits”.  During this time each child gets to opportunity to tell the group what the best and worst thing was that happened to them during the week.  They also have a lesson that deals with different issues that these children face in their situations.  One of the things I was very impressed with was the honesty and direct approach they take with the children.  They discuss directly with them the situations at their homes with their parents that have led to themliving with their grandparents. Whether it be drugs or safety issues the openly discuss how their grandparents have come to their aid.  Kayleena has already built a great relationship with the kids at her service site and I can tell she is a valued volunteer.