There are an unbelievable number of orphans in Kenya – an estimated 2 million – and most have lost their parents to AIDS-related diseases. In other cases, their parents are too poor to look after them, and, as a result, many children are neglected, abused or abandoned. At our children’s home in Thika, around 45 kilometres outside Nairobi, we look after orphans and other vulnerable children from this group.
In Thika, nearly all these children live in one of the slums. Many migrants settle there, originating from the Kenyan inland areas. Day after day, they go in search of work. The poverty in the slums is considerable and circumstances in which children grow up harrowing. Simple needs such as a daily meal are for most not simply a matter of course. Many of these children become involved with drugs or succumb to crime or prostitution.
In 2005, Marnix Huis in ’t Veld and Maureen Kromowirjo began working as volunteers in an existing orphanage, but before too long, they realised the immense need for extra capacity in Kenya, in order to assist the large number orphans and other children in need of help. One year later, they began building the current children’s home and the surrounding buildings. We have since reached the maximum room and 56 children have found a new home.
For the latest news, read the blogposts on the children’s home.