THE STATE TO PHASE OUT

CHILDREN'S HOMES,

RESETTLE ORPHANS

(today's Standard Newspaper 10th June 2022)

ONCE MORE KENYA UNSETTLES THE LIVES OF THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN.   NOT ONLY DO THEY DESTABILISE DOZENS OF LONG STANDING STABLE RESIDENTIAL HOMES FOR CHILDREN IN THE  COUNTRY, BUT THEY ALSO PUT THE CHILDREN WHO RESIDE SAFELY WITHIN THESE HOMES INTO A STATE OF TOTAL INSECURITY, WITHOUT ANY PLACE TO RUN TO FOR HELP.

 

THIS is a photo of a Wedding; the Wedding of our son Steven and Anjela Green, taken way back in 1996 when Testimony Faith Homes was already 33 years old as a Home for Children.    Children who had grown up with our own children in the same house as ONE family - young and old - all came together, as one family, on that day, to continue to demonstrate that we were ONE FAMILY.         They STILL meet together, and support one anther, and consider each other 'family'  even now, twenty six years later.       A very good example of how Children are able to find Home and Family in a Residential Care Home.

AND THIS HOME

Testimony Faith Homes & School

Has survived for 53 years without state support and without appealing for help

from the general public.

A Christian Family Home and School

Dependant upon God 

AT THIS PRESENT TIME

Testimony Faith Homes still has a resident population of 130 children and young people aged between 3 and 18 years, boys and girls.   All reside in FOUR family Homes,

here in Elgonview Estate, Eldoret.

And these children have been brought up in divergent family homes 

of thirty in number, including the house parents, Dad and Mum, with 

their own children, totally integrated as a family in each of the four houses.

THESE CHILDREN

HAVE COME FROM MANY DIFFERENTS BACKGROUNDS.

It IS true that SOME of them do have one parent, and some may even have two.

BUT when they were brought to us, it was not a matter of poverty 

that brought them to us.   And some, where it became possible,

were able to return to their own home and family, but not many.

Only those who we were sure would be loved and cared for by

loving and caring parents.

A Home & Family must be having Love & Care

in it, in order to make it work.

WE also believe it needs GOD in it.

The latter is not a generally accepted necessity, 

but we beleieve it is.

WE, THE MANAGEMENT, 

OF TESTIMONY FAITH HOMES

have enjoyed fifty three years of endeavoring

to assist children from all over Kenya, hand in hand with Government.

We will always Thank the Government for the opportunity.

BUT WE DISAGREE

with this latest 

Government Policy,

and have done so, since it's inception more tnan 20 year ago.

We do not accept that ALL Homes should be Closed.

WE BELIEVE THERE IS STILL A NEED

for US to continue on.

Our children are settled.

They are loved and cared for.

They do well in School.

They are well behaved.

They value each other as Kenyans, and as human beings.

IF HOMES OF OUR STANDING,

AND THE CHILDREN THEY CONTAIN, ARE SCATTERED

BACK TO THEIR RESPECTIVE ROOTS, WE BEELIEVE

MUCH DAMAGE, PHYCOLOGICALY, AS WELL AS

PHYCALLY, WILL RESULT.

So many of our children where brought to us in need

 of Care and Protection, from the very Parents and Environment, 

they they will now be returned to. 

To do this will, without doubt, bring serious repurcusions.

It will set lives back years, and bring to useless waste

innumerable years of careful nurture, and even education.

We NOTE that the application of this Policy is to take a proposed TEN years, but the sense of instability and insecurity that will immediately be felt, will already begin to achieve a great deal of damage.  It can be said that children in Care Homes over the last 20 years have already been forced to consider being uprooted once again, and this time more apprehensively than ever.