Help 60 Vulnerable Children Stay in Their Families

Every child deserves to grow up in a family, loved and cared for to thrive in life. This was not the case for Natasha and her two siblings, Blessus and Pendo. The three children come from a single parent family, their mother suffered with mental health issues as a result of growing up in an orphanage herself.  It is unfortunate that her condition led to people taking advantage of her and she was abused sexually resulting in an unwanted pregnancy.

Natasha was born and brought to Kandara children’s home by an uncle 3 weeks after she was born since the uncle was young at the time and had no idea of how take care of an infant. Coincidentally, Blessus who is Natasha’s older sister was also being cared for at the baby unit and it is believed that the same uncle had brought her some years back, also as an infant. The two little girls grew up together knowing they were siblings as the house mothers took the liberty to build bond between them hence they loved being in each other’s company. In the four years that Natasha lived at the baby unit, she grew up as a beautiful, healthy and cheerful girl who was loved by all. She started schooling in the early childhood development centre constructed by Raising Futures Kenya within the children’s home.

We came to learn about the detrimental negative effects of institulization of children and embarked on a journey to reintegrate these two siblings, among other children, back to their families so they would have the opportunity to grow in family and community. There was anxiety from the orphanage care givers and the uncle who had brought the children, but what was certain is that the girls needed a place to call home and a family that will love, care and protect them.

The vulnerable child support programme led by my colleague Winfred began intentional engagements with the family of Natasha and Blessus and worked in collaboration with the children’s officers, care givers, the orphanage social worker and matron to reach out to the uncle who had now settled with his own family. There were numerous meetings, counselling and psychosocial support children as part of preparation for reintegration. These sessions led the team to a new discovery of another sibling related to the two girls who was placed in a different orphanage. Pendo is their older brother and it is believed that he was born during the time his mother lived at orphanage.

A decision was made to reunite the boy with his sisters and these involved visits to the orphanage where the brother had been placed and through working with the administration and social workers, they children were allowed to visit each other and spending holidays together which eventually led to moving out of the orphanages permanently to their uncle’s home. This was one of the best moments for Winfred who was in charge of reintegration of children and this is what she said, “it was a beautiful journey that took more than three years but had a happy ending”.

Our staff have continued to be in close communication and monitoring of the children through regular visits to the home, bringing all the reintegrated children together over the holidays and conducting visits occasionally to ensure the children welfare is not compromised. Natasha and her siblings now enjoy living in a home with their uncle, his wife and a cousin same age as Natasha. The uncle is so proud of them and that he enjoys teaching them, nurturing and providing for them something he missed as he also grew up in an orphanage.

We would like to thank you for continued support of the children who are placed back to the families because it is through your generous giving that we are able to provide them with education and other needs so that they feel loved and cared for. Our future plan is to empower and strengthen these families economically so that they can be self-sustainable to take full responsibilities in raising the children.

Thank you so much for your support, 

Sherry Waweru

The reintegration of children to loving families would neither have been possible or successful without your support towards this programme. Thank you for allowing us to achieve our ultimate goal of seeing every child raised in a safe home where they will receive love, care and protection. This programme has brought so much happiness to us as a team, especially when relatives are reunited when they had no idea that the child or children were alive or living in a children’s home, like in the case of Grandpa Peter.

Grandpa Peter is the maternal grandfather of three beautiful girls who had lived at Kandara Children’s Home for more than 10 years. Maureen and her twin sisters Sharon and Linnet had been living in the children’s home without the knowledge of their maternal family because all along they thought that the girls were under the care of the paternal family. Maureen was just three years when their mother passed on a few months after giving birth to the twins. The children were left under the care of the father who very sadly neglected them, forcing

Maureen to go out and beg food from neighbours and strangers on the streets to feed her younger sisters. The neighbours were concerned with the welfare of the children hence reported the issue to the children’s office hence - the children were then placed at the children’s home due to the father’s negligence.

During the family tracing process, our team member Winfred, with the help of the children’s home social worker, traced their relatives and came to learn about grandparents who were very surprised, but overjoyed, to learn that the girls were well. They were excited to learn about our plans for reintegration and were among the first families to take the girls home after months of visiting, bonding and counseling. During the August holiday get together, Grandpa Peter brought the girls to see us, looking beautiful and healthy. I asked them how life in family was and Maureen responded. “I love my new home and my grandparents”.

Through your support, Vision Africa has been able to meet their educational costs and the good news is that Sharon sat for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and did very well so she will join high school in January 2019! 

Thank you for your generous giving that has enabled us to provide reintegrated children with the education and care they deserve. In 2019 we will be working closely with all the families we support to establish income generating projects so that they can be self-sustaining and have the capacity to support the children's education themselves! We look forward to keeping you updated on our progress here.