KWETU HOME OF PEACE
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Mission Statement
To Rescue, Rehabilitate and Reintegrate boys from the streets of Nairobi back into their families.
About This Cause
BACKGROUND Kwetu Home of Peace (KHP) is a Rehabilitation Center for Street boys which operates in 3Rs i.e. Rescue, Rehabilitate and reintegrate. It is located in Nairobi at Madaraka next to Strathmore University and Ruai; Madaraka is the drop-in Centre and Administration while Ruai is the main Centre where main activities take place. Kwetu Home of Peace belongs to the Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi and administered by the Assumption Sisters of Eldoret. It was established in 1993 by Fr. Michael Meunier of the Missionary of Africa Congregation as a feeding center and later due to increase of Number of Boys and activities it was upgraded to residential home in 1996. It provides street boys with basic needs, education and life skills they need in order to become proactive, productive, engaging members of the society and masters of their own destiny. KHP has been serving humanity for the past 30 years with the motto of “To love is to Share” for the 30 years we have reached out to over 3000 children who had no hope, and have given them an opportunity to develop physically, Mentally and Spiritually. We rescue, rehabilitate, reintegrate children who are mainly abandoned, abused, orphaned, desperate, and neglected. We provide them with food, shelter, clothing, education, medical care, Spiritual and most importantly the family spirit full of love. That is the reason this place is called KWETU HOME OF PEACE “KWETU” stands for a place someone can call a home and proudly identify with that place where people live together in love, peace and hope 1. Vision Transformed street boys develop to their full potential. 2. Mission To Rescue, Rehabilitate and Reintegrate boys from the streets of Nairobi back into their families. 3. Values Spirituality - KHP is an institution founded on Christian foundation of the Catholic Church and therefore puts emphasis on the belief in God. Family care – the family institution plays a critical role in nurturing children. It is the basic unit of society and first line of socialization of children Child Participation – KHP believes participation as a process of empowerment through which children learn to undertake roles and responsibility in matters pertaining to their own well-being Discipline and Safety are integral part KHP practice of engaging with children. It is KHP’s duty to empower children with habits such as self-respect and proper pride in their own integrity that they observe the norms of good conduct Social and Emotional development is of great concern to the effective engagement with children. Strathmore Students come to assist in this activities. 4. Objectives • To build the capacity of parents and local community structures to protect the rights of boys and girls and prevent them from becoming street children. • To identify, recruit and rehabilitate boys from the streets of Nairobi • To facilitate reintegration of rehabilitated boys with families • To Enhance Capacity to Manage and Mobilize Resources to Implement Program ACTIVITIES Street Work and Rescue This involves regular visits to the streets to establish contacts with boys. Social workers reach out to the children on streets to identify and bond with boys who can join the centre for rehabilitation. It also involves rescue of boys who are lost and need assistance to trace their parents or guardians. Drop in - Madaraka Boys from streets start their rehabilitation process in Madaraka. It is the first phase of our program and serves as temporary stay, usually for a period of 3 months. Some of the activities in this phase include; Home Visits/Tracing; to identify the child’s home, parents and/or relatives and also helps understand the social environment of the child. Guidance and Counseling; this involves individual counseling where professional counselors interact one-on-one with the child. Seminars and Workshops; this includes organizing talks for the children on various issues such as self-esteem, sexuality, drug abuse among others. Non-formal Education; this is undertaken by professional teacher to help determine the stage at which a child stopped schooling if at all they started going to school. Extra curriculum activities; e.g. football games and various indoor games such as draft help to identify a child’s talents. Here we appreciate Strathmore University for they send their students for community service and are of great help to the boys. Spiritual inculcation; Guided by the house fathers, children hold reflections every day and attend Sunday service every week. They are taught how to pray by themselves and above all to build a close relationship with God. KHP being a Catholic Institution, boys are taught about mass and they get mass two to three days a week with volunteer priests. Responsibility training; the boys engage in daily chores such as cleaning, sweeping and so on. Besides on Sundays they take care of the cooking with guidance from the House parent to learn day-to-day responsibilities. Medical Care; given the environment these children come from, they require thorough and constant medical care. Thorough medical examination is done within the week of their arrival. Rehabilitation and Reunion/Main Centre - Ruai This is the second phase of Kwetu program. It continues what was started in phase one but with more activities added. A child is expected to stay in Kwetu for at least two years before they get re-united with their families. The rehabilitation programme focuses on: Formal Education; once at the Main Centre, the children undertake formal education in the neighboring public and private schools. These children stay at Kwetu for only two years but they should continue with their education even after reintegration. Strathmore University has given scholarships to some of our boys in various schools. Responsibility, skills training and talent development; alongside responsibility training as in Drop-In, not every child has interest and ability to excel in formal learning. Hence skills training and talent development are very important in furthering success in a child`s future for example we have Brass Band, Acrobatic, dance and individual creativity for instance composing of songs. All the boys are introduced to farming and each gets a small potion where they learn farming. Parents’ Therapy Programme This is a program that is set apart for parents before the boys are reintegrated. This is done by our counselor. Parents are invited at least three times a year for this and also they are encouraged to meet the counselor as individuals in case they have personal issues. Our focus on parents’ program is to achieve successful reintegration. PROJECTS Kwetu runs small projects with threefold aims; 1) To serve as skill and responsibility training for boys which introduces the children to ordinary activities such as farming, taking care of animals etc 2) For income generation. 3) Provide food for the children. Some projects are run in the first phase -Drop In and others in the second phase Ruai is sizeable piece of land and many significant projects can be done there. The following are the Projects currently being undertaken in a small way: Open farming Dispensary REINTEGRATION This is the goal of Kwetu Home of Peace. After rehabilitation period (1-2 years) the child is reintegrated back into the society/family. We believe family is the best place for a child. The child is supposed to continue with education after reintegration to enable him to look after himself in future. Then two-year period of follow-up when the child is with the parents and continuing with education is provided to help the child stabilize in the society. NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS Rescue: Kwetu home of peace has rescued over 3,000 street children from streets of Nairobi of which they come from different Parts of the country and some they come from our neighboring countries. Rehabilitation-the rescued boys undergo rehabilitation, in this process, we have different activities that the boys being involved: formal education Counselling session both group and individuals, spiritual formation, nurturing talents such as modern dance, tradition dance, Brass band and football. Our boys use their talent to entertain different people in different occasions. Education-Kwetu home of peace considers education as the best mode of rehabilitation, through this program, we facilitate full transformation of rescued children by supporting them through education until they acquire the highest level of training based on their ability. KHP has a successful story for our boys, 1 graduated last year from university, 3 boys are in University, 5 in tertiary, 33 in secondary schools, 15 Junior school and 70 in Primary school. Since 1993, KHP has helped to rehabilitate 3,000 children. Over 2800 children rescued from streets of Nairobi have been reintegrated back to their families. These are children who would spend their lives living in the streets, carrying heavy sacks eating left-overs and had glue bottles permanently stuck to their noses. Their health was poor due to persistent drug abuse and malnourishment. After undergoing rehabilitation at KHP, their lives drastically changed to the better. They became healthy; Physically, Mentally, Socially, and Spiritually.