The documentation "Finding Hope Home" of Maisha Films is now available. It is about Lucy and Duncan, when they began to rescue
children from the streets of Nairobi. You can get insights into the start of Hope Home, the difficulties in running it and
many other things.
You can find the movie on the website Finding Hope Home.
Have fun watching!
Usually, Christmas is celebrated in Hope Home in Gathiga on 28th December because on the same day 25 years ago, Hope Home was founded.
This year, it already started on 27th December when a few chefs and other people from Gathiga came to help with the preparation
of the food. The next day, there lots of different pots of food filled with rice, beans, vegetables, meat and many other tasty dishes.
Everything was distributed into boxes with which Lucy, Duncan and some other people from around the home went to Nairobi. There, the people from
the streets who had been waiting since the early morning got the meals after a short prayer. They were very thankful.
At the same time, there was a party in Gathiga for the children and the community.
Hello to everyone! We, Celina, Rieke and Jonas work for this year in the Children's Hope Home in Gathiga, Kenya. Right now, about 50 children
live here and most of them come from the streets of Nairobi. In Hope Home, everybody gets a chance for education.
Last year, the kids couldn't go to school for a long time due to lockdown. Now, there is a lack of money for school fees, uniforms and other
items.
In Kenya, the possibility of going to school is a question of the financial situation of the parents and not self-evident. That's why we wish
our children to finish their education because it is very important for a better future. We will be very grateful if you can support us.
Even a little donation can help a lot.
bank account number: 112 88 42 02
bank code: 360 700 50 (Deutsche Bank AG, Essen)
IBAN: DE05 3607 0050 0112 8842 02
BIC (SWIFT): DEUTDEDEXXX
If you want to know how the daily life in school is for our children, here is a video for you..
We hope that you can support our project.
Asante sana!
After a year's absence Lucy and her family were able to return to their home in Kibiku. With your support they were able to rebuild the second floor and on 1 October they solemnly moved in with lots of singing and prayers.
House fire leaves Lucy’s and Duncan’s family homeless
The house caught fire around 7 am last sunday, fire fighters were called just to find the second floor of the family home fully engulfed with heavy smoke and flames. They were able to put out the fire and everybody was able to escape uninjured but the property was heavily damaged and lots of belongings were lost. It has been a shocking and terryfying experience to all of us. We’ve not only lost a family home but also a second home to all hope home kids and many volunteers, who have stayed in the house while volunteering at children’s hope home.
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined but we are certain that it was not intentionally set and may have been the result of an electrical fault. Lucy said Ndegwa, their grandson, woke up to the strong smell of smoke and ran downstairs calling out for her. From Ndegwa realizing the smoke in the room to the house being totally involved in flames was just a matter of a few minutes, she said. By the time she reached upstairs to get Njeri, her younger granddaughter of three years, who was still sleeping, she could hardly see anything. The flames and smoke were everywhere. Somehow she managed to pull her out, which appears to be a miracle to all of us. So far Njeri and Ndegwa are physically fine though they seem to be very affected by the whole situation. Despite the pain of loosing the house and all the destroyed belongings, we are greatful that everybody made it out safely.
For now the family is trying to figure out what to do next after the trauma of watching their family home of five years go up in flames and losing almost everything they own. The house is complete blackened and broken and the rooms that have not been completely destroyed by flames have been severely damaged by the smoke and the extinguishing water. They will have to pick up the pieces and probably start from scratch since they are still waiting to find out if their home will be declared a total loss. As you can see on the picture above the damage upstairs is extensive but as for the main floor it appears to be intact, aside from broken windows and repairable damages that were caused during the firefighting. So we were hoping to be able to re-use it and only have to restore the upper part. Unfortunately at this point the whole structure of the house is considered unsafe and we might have to rebuild it from scratch. There are concerns that the heat from the fire might have damaged or weakened the primary structures and we are not sure whether it is adivisable to rebuild on the same foundation. This will be determined after inspection by structural expertise. But even in this situation Lucy and Duncan still consinder themselves and their family blessed and requested that nobody should cry over lost property. Lucy said she is grateful that everyone came out safe we could've been dead or grieving right now. Things can be replaced, people can’t.
We will be travellig to see the family from the 9th of August. On the 18th of August 5 new weltwärts-volunteers will follow us. Life at hope continues and we are going to work this out. For the meanwhile the family has been staying with relatives. But they are looking to rent a house with enough space for volunteers as well. So you are all welcome to volunteer and then we’ll see that we help rebuild the house! For this purpose we are hoping for your support. We are reaching out to our hope home community and friends to try and raise any funds possible to help the familiy go through the process of recovery and rebuild their home. Please share this and spread the message. We know we can do some good for these people who deserve it so much. For donations please see the account details or paypal button below. Thank you again to everyone! We’re totally overwhelmed with the support many people are showing.
Expect the unexpected! All of a sudden, officials from Nairobi stood in Kihara and demanded overall improvements in areas like facilities, playgrounds, hygiene etc. Otherwise they would have to shut down both the orphanages, the officials said. In fact they were asking for "chai". As Lucy is not willing to constantly bribe anybody, she is already working on the required improvements. She managed to cover the immediate renovations in Kihara. In Gathiga the first phase of bigger constructions already started with one of the main buildings being replaced by a large dining room. But the major challenge still lies ahead of us. In a second phase, based on a proper construction plan (with all the bells and whistles like an architectural drawing and overall budget) that is highlighted in this very report, we will build an orphanage that meets all requirements. To make this happen, we are rallying for supporters and urge you to lend us a helping hand.
Children’s Hope Home e.V. just launched its educational campaign. Within the next month we intend to gain new sponsors in order to allow the kids in Gathiga and Kihara to continously attend school. Currently we have children in five different elementary and high schools. However, far not all of the kiddos go to school and we are faced with the problem that kids are constantly sent home from school due to lack of funds. Mama Lucy is acquainted with the principals so that payments can be postponed and thus prevent that kids are taken out of class. But also the schools have their limits. The situation is really dramatic, both in primary schools as well as in high schools. We therefore ask for your support and would be grateful if you would also refer friends. Further information can be found in the following video. Through the following links you can learn more about the children in Kihara and Gathiga and their educational needs.
There are still many homeless children living rough on the streets of Nairobi begging or doing risky jobs to earn some money for food and clothing. Though Children’s Hope Home cannot accommodate or cater for all the kids on the streets of Nairobi, there are many other child welfare institutions in Kenya that could and are willing to.
"But most organizations find it difficult to convince children to leave the streets“, says Duncan, who is an expert in this area. “There’s a certain way you have to approach the kids on the street. You have to engage them. Play some street games, joke with them and speak their language, later you can ask them questions to learn about whom they are. Winning their trust is not something that happens the first time around. There are different types of street children, some who live with the family, some who have run away from home, some who beg, and some who occasionally live on the streets. Each of them has to be dealt differently.”
As many of you may know, Duncan frequently hits the streets of Nairobi early in the morning together with a group of volunteers and some of our grown kids to bring street children in Nairobi breakfast. With years of visiting these street children many of them know Duncan and are very fond of him, not once or twice has he managed to take a whole gang of street boys out of the streets. While we take a meal a day for granted, a meal once a week for many children on the streets of Nairobi is a luxury and provides a chance for Duncan and our volunteers to approach the kids several times and try to convince them to leave the streets.
With growing interest of our volunteers to engage in the feeding project more often, Children’s Hope Home has come up with the idea of Duncan’s donuts hoping to raise enough money to support Duncan’s noble cause of reaching and feeding 30 children at least once a week. In order to visit the kids regularly this project will need volunteers support and some extra funds to buy donuts, bread, drinks and cover for travel expenses. Keeping this project going therefore will be very challenging yet it is also important to remind our kids where we started and how far we’ve come by now. In this it will be a very meaningful way to teach the kids to think of others and engage in volunteer activities. Please help us make that commitment.
Further information can be found in the following video.
We expect all of you to join us at folklore festival in Wiesbaden from 24th until 26th of August. Find us in the arts and crafts area. Btw, for those willing to give us a helping hand throughout this weekend we have plenty of room to stay overnight! mehr
About two months ago Shana, Amelia and their supporters announced their decision to phase out Jump4Joel until 01 June 2012. As a final goal they want to raise a final $10,000, which is supposed to cover the remaining administrative expenses as well as tuition and fees for the college scholarship program. We are very grateful for that and want to take this opportunity to thank Shana, Amelia and their team for the longstanding support for Gathiga Children's Hope Home. We are very honored to have met and worked with such loving and committed people. Keep up the good work and see you guys back in Kenya.
With J4J closing out soon Gathiga Children's Hope Home is facing a new and major challenge. In regard to our upcoming event on 08. and 09. June we are currently working on a sponsor campaign and therefore ask you to keep an eye on our hopepage. We would also be grateful if you would refer friends. We look forward to seeing you all in June and would appreciate your feedback in order to make further plans!
„Everyone over here in Gathiga Children’s Hope Home very much appreciates the support you have been giving us. We had a wonderful day and your donations really helped meeting our kid’s immediate demands. The funniest moment was when someone mentioned ChawaChawa, which means louse in Swahili. Our kids just couldn’t believe receiving gifts from lice. There is a saying in Kenya: Kidole kimoja hakiui chawa. It means one finger cannot kill lice and symbolizes the need to help one another. You all are very welcome.” (Lucy Njoki Muiruri, Director)
