Joy is not always the big stuff in life; doing well in an exam, getting an amazing gift, a new family member or the piece of jewellery you have wanted forever. Joy is relative and unique to all of us. Joy, Happiness, Delight, Pleasure whatever word we use is a feeling deep inside that lighten our step and gives us a sense of well-being. Joy is something our boys have not had too much of lately. But that can change. The road will be tough and some may not walk the whole trip together. They have much to change and they can’t do it alone. They have tried and nearly died on the journey. Play Kenya want to be with them but not do it for them. We will give them the tools to build their own future. But it’s not a journey that they alone need. How about us? How many times have we turned our back on kindness and ignored someone when a smile or a help was all they were asking? Let’s change that from now. Choose Kindness when you have nothing more to offer. It costs us nothing. We expect the vulnerable to change – do we need to do the same?

One of our young men spoke recently about the hopeless feeling of standing in town and being hated for existing. For being spat at because he was huddled in a corner of a shop in the heavy rains, no blanket, no bed, just his own thin body to keep himself warm. The shop was closed, it was late but these group of men came over to shout at him and tell him to get a job and stop stealing and frightening people. This young man carries fruit and veg every day in the market to survive; his ‘tips’ for carrying kilo after kilo of shopping don’t even cover his food each day. He takes no drugs and drinks no alcohol. He can’t save enough to get a deposit on a house but that’s all he dreams off, on the dark cold violent nights when he tries to rest his exhausted thin body to work another pointless day.

He is one of our young men who we will work alongside, with kindness love therapy and education.

Today, after he was given a heavy padlock for his house, so the police and the community can’t beat him while he sleeps, he used the words that warm my heart and break it at the same time. He said tonight I am home. Tonight, I am a person and not an animal to be beaten and driven away.

Please let us Choose Kindness and help rebuild the brains of those who believe they deserve to be hated simply for existing. It’s the least we can do