Partnership Overview

The Fame Children's Home was started by Mr Dunlop from the United Kingdom in 1998.  It is situated 8 km from Maseno University near Kisumu City in Kenya.  Currently there are 53 children living at the home, 5 pre-schoolers, 35 who are in primary school and 13 who are in secondary school.  The children in the home are mainly from nearby surrounding villages with a few from other areas in Nyanza Province.  The majority of their homes are poverty riddled and HIV/AIDS affected with one or no biological surviving parents.  Most of the homes they come from are managed by aged grandparents or guardians and the social issues are grave with a high incidence of child defilement, violence and unequal opportunities for female children.

Most of the children were being brought up in an environment of moral decay and religious confusion.  The Fame Children's Home has endeavoured to answer some of these issues.  The home is a role model and show case where the children not only enjoy a secure Christian environment but also live with mature, loving Christian staff.  Over the years the home has emphasized good nutrition in feeding the children and created a learning environment that has improved the children's academic levels. Children in the home go to public schools which are around the home.  However those who have passed Standard 8 go to secondary schools where they have been invited to join. 

However, because of the quality of care provided by the Home there has been a huge demand on the Home to accept more children.  In view of this they want to expand, improve and integrate the various aspects of the home.  This will help provide food security, give excellent educational facilities and provide a vocational training programme for the children who complete their schooling and are over 18 years old, both from Fame Home and elsewhere in the larger community. 

As the community is in a poor spiritual state they would also like to provide leadership/discipleship training which would benefit not only the home but also the local churches and the community, seeking to protect Christian family values which are constantly under attack.

When Outreach Community Centre took over the Home they had to dismiss all the staff and start over again with a new culture and operations. Some were re-hired. One of the team from OCC in Nairobi came out for eight months to set up the procedures and it seems to be running efficiently. There is a need to have a permanent social worker on the team here.

Each child has a detailed file with all their information. They are known by the staff and seem very happy in their environment. The Home is a beautiful place with a lot of large trees around it. The older children go to boarding schools. Fame pay for their daily needs and tuition fees and the family or guardian is responsible for the boarding component of the costs.

History Of Partnership

Since the formation of the home in 1998 it has been financially supported by the man who founded it, however due to financial constraints the home was officially handed over to the care of Daniel Ogutu and the Outreach Community Centre in July 2008.  Bright Hope World has had a long association with Daniel (KEN01) and as the Outreach Community Centre did not have the funds to financially support the Fame Children's Home he approached us regarding the possibility of partnering with the home. 

Beneficiaries

The 53 children who live at the Home benefit directly from this partnership but children and families in the wider community will also benefit as the Home is expanded/developed and more components added. Most of the children stay in the Home and some are supported outside the Home. When they turn 16 they leave and go to live with guardians.

They determine vulnerability using the following criteria:
1) the age of the child
2) a report from the local area chief about the status of the family
3) if they have some land or not - depends if their parents have left them any when they died
4) family income or lack of income
5) the size of the family

Challenges

They face a number of challenges in the area. BHW is not intending to address all of these but in writing them it helps us to understand the situation:
1) They are vulnerable in the area of funding. The total cost of running the Home to full capacity is around US$1,800 per month. The original donor is still supplying some of this but it will not continue. The interest of BHW is to try and assist them to become self sustaining financially.
2) Schooling is a problem for them. The quality of education in the area is quite poor and they would love to start a school.
3) Food is always an issue for them, especially variety in the menu. They have started a small poultry project and want to expand it. They grow some maize but have to purchase extra.
4) Water is an issue in the dry season, they would like a borehole and hand pump to get them across that time of the year.

What We Like About The Partnership

Bright Hope World has had a long association with Daniel Ogutu and has a good working relationship with him.  He and his wife are having an amazing impact in their community and we have huge respect for him.  We have confidence that this Home will be well overseen and the proposed developments carried out in such a way that many people's lives are changed for good.  We like the fact that the Home not only seeks to help the children from a physical and educational point of view but is also seeking to shine God's love into their lives and impact them spiritually.  They have also not restricted themselves to just helping the children living there but are also wanting to reach out into the wider community.

There are very nice facilities at the Home. There is a dining hall, 3 dormitory blocks that have room for more children, a kitchen block, flush toilets, offices, food and general stores, and staff quarters for four families. Two semi-permanent classrooms have also been built for the preschool which has 72 children in it, 3 of them from the home and the rest from the community.

There are two huge water harvesting tanks sunk some 6 metres into the ground and this is a very valuable addition to the facilities. These give gravity fed water to the toilet blocks. There are septic tanks to deal with waste. There is a solar system that gives light to the rooms at night. This is a cloudy area of the country so this is not very efficient all year round.

These are hard working people. They have a large garden already and grow Napier grass in anticipation of having cows in the future, rape, tomatoes and mitoo (a local Luo vegetable). They have leased 2 acres of land on which they grow maize and beans. Last year they produced 30 sacks of maize and use about 1 bag per week. 

They have a concern for the spiritual welfare of the children. They have devotions for the students and staff morning and evening and a Sunday Fellowship. The local church is quite suspect and they cannot attend that even though it is on an adjacent property. The leaders there have taken money out of this partnership in the past and are not very helpful in any way!

Key People

Leadership Profile

Oscar Oningo is the manager of the Home. Oscar is married and has 2 children. His wife does not live on site and has employment with the Centre for Disease Control near to Kisumu, about 50 kms away. She comes each week for a few days. He is a born again Anglican and has a very strong faith.

He has a farming and marketing diploma and looking around the place he is passionate about the environment. He has a small tree nursery and a huge garden which means the place is almost self sufficient in vegetables. He has leased more land and is growing grass for cows and maize for the Home. Oscar got the job by applying for it and easily won the race for the position. He seems like an ideal person for the position.

Other People Involved

Daniel has put a board of management in place who live in close proximity to the Home. There are six people on the team and they meet regularly to oversee the Home and visit monthly.

Some of the board members are:
1) Bob Abdullah - Bob is a pastor in Kisumu and is married to Lillian
2) Rodger Ade - Rodger is from Nairobi but works in South Nyanza Province with an educational NGO. He is married to Grace who is the house mother at the Kariobangi partnership in Nairobi (KEN01b)
3) Patrick Mito - Patrick is married to Phoebe and is a voluntary pastor of an Elim church in Kisumu. He works in the Government veterinary department. 

There is 7 staff ranging from an Early Childhood Education teacher, cooks, groundsman and watchmen for security.

Vision And Annual Strategy

There are a number of things that could be done here but the strategy of BHW is to assist with helping the Home become self-sufficient in terms of food production and finances.  We have committed to putting in US$7,000 per year for three years and will reassess the situation at the end of 2012, see what has been achieved and develop a future strategy. 

The vision is that by the end of the three year period (December 2012) the following will have been achieved:
1) A borehole will have been put in along with a hand pump. Currently the children go to the nearby stream each day for water in the 2 months (July - August) dry season.
2) They will have developed more land for food production/cash cropping.  This will include seasonal crops and security/fencing etc
3) They will have 4-5 dairy cows producing milk and this includes housing and adequate cow fodder being grown
4) They will have a broiler unit for chicken production
5) They will have purchased an Amiran kit for vegetable growing (The kit consists of a greenhouse, water tank, drip irrigation system, sprayer, seeds and fertilizer)

Personal Testimony

Real "Life Change" Stories

Judith Aurah is from a nearby village and came to Fame Home in 1998, the year it started. Her father died in 1995 and her mother is still alive. She came to the school because her mother could not care for her and she had no school fees or personal effects. Her mother had eight children to try and care for. She went to the local school.

She enjoyed living at Fame and found it to be a safe place. She was treated well and while here learned about the Bible. She became a believer in Form 2 while at boarding school. Jedidiah, the staff member who retained her job, was the house mother from the start and is like her mother. She is a wonderful woman.

Judith is now training to be an early childhood teacher in Maseno. She started in April '09 and is 20 years old. This is a two year course but she wants to follow this up with a diploma and a degree.  She is a day scholar and it costs around $160 per year to do the course.

Judith is a really nice, confident young woman and quite capable of communicating in English. She has come back to Fame Home to do training / work experience placement with Jedidah in the preschool. It was lovely to hear her story and that she is now training to be able to care for herself in the future. She cannot imagine what life would have been like if she had not come to Fame.