Adopt- A-Child Project: Wanalea Children Home and the EduAid Scholarship Program

AID Kenya Foundation is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to mobilize voluntary humanitarian aid and development assistance to orphaned and vulnerable children, teenage mothers and disenfranchised populations in rural-urban Kenya. On humanitarian grounds, the Foundation implements, The Project HOPE Kenya ,in the following forms of support: EduAid Scholarships, school uniforms, feeding, health-care, sanitation, clothing, sanitary towels, vocational training, and psycho-social care.

Armstrong, Executive Director, AID Kenya Foundation, with Wanalea Children' Home kids.

WANALEA CHILDREN'S HOME:

Wanalea Children’s Home, was co founded through a strategic collaborative partnership, between ADDHU, a Portuguese International Humanitarian Organization, based out of Lisbon, Portugal, and AID Kenya Foundation, a not-for-profit humanitarian aid and development assistance foundation headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya.

DOCUMENTARIES:

The Center formally started in January 2007, following a research that was conducted by AID Kenya Foundation in the year 2004 and 2006 that found out that most orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) are not well cared for and most live in absolute poverty in Kenya’s informal settlements(Slums or Ghetto) after their parents died of HIV/AIDS, or were abandoned by teenage mothers.

AID Kenya Foundation, explained the research findings in a book that was published in 2005 by Robert Neuwirth, a New York based investigative journalist, through his book, the Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, A New World.  Find more on the blog: http://squattercity.blogspot.com/. Later on in 2006, the findings were shared in a documentary that was covered by another investigative Journalist, Dr. Sheri Fink, a reporter of Public Radio International/BBC USA, based in Boston, Massachusetts. Documentary Link: http://media.theworld.org/wma.php?id=12186wf

Initial kids were selected from Kware Slums, and others from Nakuru, Kisii and in Meru. Later on after the post election violence, that happened in 2008, we selected more kids who were internally displaced. Now we have 26 kids in residence and several hundreds under the Foster Parents Program/Adopt-A-Child program, where we support kids while they live with guardians. Normally, the support we extend cover food, medical care, books, school fees (EduAid Scholarship Program).

Adopt-A-Child Project:

On this particular program, we seek out for families and individuals or corporations or Kenyan Diaspora that would like to support OVC kids in rural-urban Kenya. Education is critically important for the future of Kenya and we can realize the development of the national and address abject poverty by investing in children. 

Children under the EduAid Scholarship Program attending  rural public school in Kenya.

Sponsorship:

We have many thousands of children seeking for The EduAid Scholarship Program. To support a kid in a whole month, it takes at least KES. 5000.00 equivalent to USD. 65.00, that almost USD. 2 per day. Most children who have either been orphaned or abandoned never go to school neither do they get care and support from the extended families, and if they are girls, they become child laborers or house maids at between age 8-10 or become teenage mothers at the tender age of 13 year or join prostitution which is rampant in rural and urban slums.Just imagine!! For boys, they join other older youth who are idle and unemployed and start taking drugs or become petty thieves. Under the Foster Parent Program, we commit a guardian to ensure that the kids regularly goes to public school near their neighborhoods and are well fed, clothed, cared and monitored.

Program Monitoring and Reporting:

Our field officers and grass-root collaborators and the community corroborates the regular information we receive from the guardians in form of letters, pictures, and further requests for the sole protection of the kids.

Under the EduAid Scholarship Program, we distribute school uniforms, shoes, sanitary pads, writing materials, school supplies, backpacks, text books, story books, pencils, pens and crayons.

Armstrong, Volunteers, Staff and Kids visit the Nairobi National Park on Education Trip

Program Implementation:

Curently the program is implemented in Kisumu Ndogo,Kware Slums, Ongata Rongai, Kajiado County; Kitui Ndogo Slums, Nairobi County; Kitutu Community, Kisii County; Canaan/Pipeline IDP Camp, Nakuru County; Ole Maa Maasai Village, Embakasi, Nairobi County;Mitahatho Village, Kiambu County; Murungurune-Nkubu Community, Meru County; Mageta Island, Lake Victoria, Siaya County; Bahari Community, Kilifi County; Lake Turkana Community, Turkana County; and Kimilili Community, Bungoma. We will cover more regions in the months and years ahead under our Strategic Plan of Humanitarian Action 2010-2015, as we enlist more supporters.

Volunteer Program:

GoNomad Feature: AID Kenya Foundation's Experiential Learning & Cultural Exchange Program Feature Story at GoNomad, http://www.gonomad.com/helps/1011/kenya-volunteer.html

For feedback, contact:

Program Coordinator

Adopt-A-Child Project

AID Kenya Foundation

P. O. Box 5956-00200

Nairobi, Kenya.

Tel. + 254 772 178 818

Cell: + 254 722 649 965

E-mail: info@aidkenya.org

Website: http://www.aidkenya.org