The children

One of Macheo’s most important principles is that all children are able to develop individually as well as possible.

Kids of Macheo Childrens' Home All the children at the Macheo Children’s Home were born between 1993 and 2005. School is the most important activity; they all go to a good, private, primary school in the area. Every day, we take them to school and pick them up with our own school bus. In the evenings, the children help to prepare the meal and do their homework. They also do all their own washing, which is very common in Kenya.

Once all the day’s tasks have been taken care of, it’s time to play. Within the grounds of Macheo, there is a playground, a football field and a large trampoline, which the children love. But they also enjoy making up their own games, and in the weekend they sometimes watch films together.

On a regular basis, the operators discuss the development of every child. The operators also consider it very important for each child to discover his or her own talents and interests; therefore a lot of attention is given to creating this possibility for every child. Every Saturday, the children take part in various clubs, including theatre, football, arts and craft, self-defence, reading, music or acrobatics.

We also encourage contact between the children and their remaining families. Every first Saturday of the month, family members are given the opportunity to come and visit; for example, when one of the children is celebrating a birthday. During the holidays, many of them also visit their families.

The children are raised by ‘housemothers’ and ‘housefathers’, who have received training in leadership, first aid, hygiene and planning. The role of the housefathers is particularly important as they fulfil a father role, which is sometimes lacking in children’s homes

The work of the social worker is also vital. Aside from administrative tasks, she is responsible for the physical, academic and social development of every child.
The children are sponsored solely from the Netherlands and have one or more sponsor parents. We established the child sponsor programme when the orphanage first opened for this purpose.

In the photos, you can certainly see that the children really feel at home at Macheo Children’s Home!