HOW MANY ORPHANS still needing a home in Kenya? Well over TWO MILLION. To combat this problem Kenya Government is promoting a drive towards 'Adoption' and 'Fostering' hoping to eliminate the orphan factor by 2020. Because of this it has been determined NOT TO ENCOURAGE the incidence of MORE Children's Homes!! The Provincial Children's Officer for Rift Valley Province, Abdi Sheikh Yusuf, writing to me recently said -
"....it is important to note that as a policy the government is gradually going away from institutional care to family and alternative care. That is why we wish to promote Foster care guardianship and adoption. This is in line with the international protocols that say placement in an institution be a last resort and for the shortest time possible. We are not encouraging opening of more institutions. While they may be necessary they are not ideal for up bringing of children."

Children that have been orphaned or abandoned need the security of home and family. Children in Kenya that have lost their parents to AIDS (whether or not they themselves have HIV /AIDS or not) have lost both; their parents being dead and their family retreating from them as from the plague! Others have seen their homes burnt and their parents murdered before their eyes in tribal and other conflict. To actually recover from this emotional attack upon the expected peace and tranquility of family life, they need to find the nearest alternative to what they have actually lost. Not easy. All options are open to abuse, and in this generation, these abuses are so much exposed and sensationally advertised both in the media and social services that it seems nowhere and no one is safe enough to ensure the safety of the child in need. Indeed it may be that all children are in danger of being distanced from normal human affection, emotional stability and basic humanity by this (in my opinion) over emphasis and fear of the paedophile and other human abuse, and that we shall in fact produce even more unbalanced, unstable, and psychologically disturbed adults. If natural parents and blood relations can abuse their own children, it is obvious that the same risk extends to foster parents and even adoptive parents. Prevention of such cruelty depends on supervision, and appropriate measures in place to punish the offender. Most governments, especially in the third world just do not have the ability to put enough supervisors on the field to keep watch over how children fostered or adopted are in fact treated, or even how government financial funds offered in assistance are used. In January 2007 The Kenya News Desk reported:-' According to Vice President Moody Awori, Children's Homes will be phased out within the next 20 years so that at the end of the period all orphans will be placed in homes where they can grow up in a family environment . However, an Editorial in the Daily Nation adds ...'This raises a number of crucial questions. What measures have we taken to ensure such children will be better in foster homes than in Institutions? How is the Government going to monitor the millions of children involved, considering that right now the Children's Department is almost moribund?' Even in the developed world it has been found difficult to monitor just how orphaned children are being treated in adoptive and foster families. So how will the Government ensure that the children it has farmed out to foster homes are not turning into slave labourers? How Will it guarantee they will not fall into the evil clutches of paedophiles?'

NO ANSWER has ever been given to these questions asked not merely by the Kenya News Desk and the Daily Nation but by countless other Children's Organisations across the Country including Testimony Faith Homes, and the Uasin Gishu Children's Services Forum. Of course we are not suggesting that Children's Homes are perfect in every event - any more than we might say that all foster parents and adoptive parents are paragons of virtue and beyond the possibility of maltreating and even neglecting the children placed in their care. BUT we are saying that Children's Homes should not all be counted as less than useful. Children's Homes run as family homes (as many in this country are) CAN offer the possibility of a stable home and loving family ongoingly. TFH now in its 40th year can safely say that the majority of those who have passed through our hands managed not to be disfigured by their past, nor injured by their being in a Children's Home. But we are not perfect either and we admit that not all children - even with their natural parents will always be happy. Nevertheless we do not see the current need of institutional care diminishing by 100% - perhaps not at all! For this reason, as we have many times before stated, we feel it is unfortunate for the Government to discourage charitable investment in the building and support of children's homes. RIGHT NOW we do not have enough to cater for the NEED............

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A FEW WEEKS BACK I described a visit to the home of 'Obi' a Christian taxi driver suffering from AIDS. He shares his home with 12 children also with AIDS.

The U.G. Children's Services Forum (I am General Secretary) have been encouraging this man and his wife, and have also managed to interest a donor in the U.S.A. to help him. The outcome has been for this Donor to provide for a completely NEW mini-bus to replace the one existing and ready to die, as well as to assist build a NEW home for the children. I was there with him in the Compound this last Wednesday with members of the Forum and also the US donor. It was truly a joyeous occassion, and very moving to see the HOPE and HAPPINESS given. The Deputy Mayor of Eldoret, Cllr. Mrs.Magut was also present. 'OBI' supports his orphans and home by running his taxi. At the same time he uses every opportunity to witness to his passengers concerning the truth about AIDS as well as to the power of the Gospel of Jesus to CHANGE lives. He will continue running his old 'bus' until it no longer can run, and thus as least for a time, hopefully double his income, and help MORE children.

ESTHER WAHOME, well known Kenyan Christian Evangelist and Vocalist, has recently thrown in her lot with MALTA GUINESS a non-alcoholic drink made by the GUINNESS GROUP. This has given her quite a lot of flack from other Christian Groups within the Country, who feel she is out of line in supporting and also taking support from a Company which is employed in producing alcoholic beverages. She seems quite determined not to see anything wrong with her action; she insists she is supporting a bona fide 'health drink' totally non-alcoholic. No doubt she is paid well enough for her Image and Endorsement now increasingly seen on public bill-boards, hoardings and banners across the land. The complaining 'churchmen' are outraged that she should be linked up to a 'brewery' and taking tainted money from it. What do I think? - Well I think GUINNESS is anxious to encourage the young generation, not yet turned on or tuned in to alcohol to get used to drinking its product so that later they will go on to imbibe with equal quantity their other ALCOHOLIC product. It's the NAME that counts here in the company's psychology. MALTA Guinness is just a 'bait' to hook you. As such it is dangerous, and to my mind not to be encouraged - though probably unable to be prohibited very effectively. Privately, and completely without any evidence, I could easily believe there might just be a very small 'teeny-weeny' and perhaps almost undetectable drop of 'something' in it to kind of prepare you for the stronger element later on!............
Sorry Sis. Wahome - you might just be encouraging those who have, so far, clean escaped to eventually drown in GUINNESS or worse, pulling down their homes and families round their ears. Should you risk being a wrong guide, and having to answer for it later on?


Hope this will find you all well and ready to FIGHT for your FAITH.
Love to you all in Jesus Name


John and Esther