A teacher with the children in nursery school:

Emmie and Jessica, two sisters, were born in December 1998 and December 2000 respectively in the Kenyan highlands. After the death of their single mother they were left with a constantly drunk grandmother and survived on one meal a day given by the local Child Welfare Society. The social services referred them to SOS Children's Villages and in December 2008 they began new lives at the SOS Children's Village Mombasa.

Jessica is a happy and beautiful girl and has adapted to her new home very well. She is now in the second grade of the neighbouring SOS Hermann Gmeiner Primary School and has made many friends at school and in the village. A keen dancer and singer, Jessica is learning to swim in the nearby Indian Ocean.

Emmie is also at the SOS primary school, where she smiles a lot and takes care of her younger SOS brother, Alan. Like her sister, she loves to dance and sing but the first time she went to the beach she was very scared of the water and told her SOS mother that she has never seen so much water before.

Both girls have now settled well into their new environment and have made friends, although it took time. Initially they were very quiet and used to sit and hold on to each other while they watched the other children playing. Their new mother showed them lots of love and the rest of the family welcomed them with open arms. They also received some counseling and eventually began playing with the other children.

Once they felt comfortable the sisters began to talk of their former life upcountry and had many stories to tell, especially when they played with toy animals, which must have reminded them of their younger days. One day they came across a toy elephant and proceeded to tell their mother why they were afraid of elephants.

They girls had lived near a forest where there were many elephants. Jessica described them as very big, always walking in a family of about six members. But, she added, there is usually a lone elephant that is very dangerous. She described how one time a man was chased by a lone elephant which tossed him in the air and dropped him down on the ground before covering him with tree branches that the elephant had cut down with its tusks. Jessica added that when you see a lone elephant you have to run for your life because it will charge at you and chase you and destroy everything around you.

Living at the SOS Children's Village Mombasa, Emmie and Jessica no longer have to worry about the dangers of lone elephants or when they will have their next meal. Instead they are enjoying a life with a new family in a child friendly environment where their only worry is getting their homework done. Instead of running from elephants they are learning to swim in the nearby ocean. Life could not be more different for the two little girls.