Help us bring hope to shattered lives

There has always been extreme poverty in Kenya but the poorest people in the world are hit hardest during a recession.  Tourism, remittances from relatives abroad, exports of flowers and vegetables, and international development assistance are absolutely critical to Kenya’s survival but they are falling fast.  Five years ago, someone earning 100 shillings a day (70p) could buy enough maize and beans for a meal.  Today, these basic food items have quadrupled in price and millions have no work.  The 20 million Kenyans that live on less than £1 per day no longer know where their next meal will come from.

People are being forced to make harsh choices between buying food or buying medicine, sending children to school or clothing them.  Life expectancy has already fallen from 60 years to 46 years. Sick parents will die earlier because they can’t afford medicines, many more children will be orphaned and their relatives won’t be able to look after them.  Orphan girls will be right at the bottom of the pecking order when food is scarce.  There are already at least 50,000 destitute orphan girls but more will be abandoned, left to scavenge for food and risk being exploited and abused.   We aim to rescue and transform the lives of as many of these children as possible.

Why Kenya?

Kenya is a beautiful country with a rich heritage.  But after years of poverty, conflict, drought and disease, half the population live on less than £1 per day, millions suffer from typhoid, cholera, malaria, HIV AIDS and other diseases and hundreds of thousands of children have lost their parents.  UNICEF’s statistics are daunting: 3,000,000 people face malnutrition; life expectancy has fallen from 60 years to 46 years and 12% of children die before they reach 5 years old.  Kenya has the third highest number of Aids orphans in the world.

Orphan girls are at the bottom of the pecking order when food is scarce.  We estimate that 50,000 orphan girls have been abandoned and these children suffer extreme poverty and neglect, exploitation and possibly abuse and death.  

That’s why we rescue girls