In Korogocho many children are left orphaned. In order to provide holistic care, VPM has established a small 20 bed orphanage, which is approved by the Kenyan Government. Because the orphanage is not large enough to meet the demand, VPM arranges foster care for many more children from Korogocho.

VPM’s orphanage is based in one of the units of the Lucky Summer housing project. Twenty boys and girls aged from 6 years to 13 years live together.  They are cared for by staff from VPM, who live in the orphanage with them. 

A typical day during the school week would be something like :   7:00am             Get up. Breakfast of tea and cornflour porridge or bread. 7:30am             Walk 1km to school to be there for 8 o’clock. 8:00am             School day starts. Lessons, 4:30pm             School finishes and walk back to Lucky Summer. 5:00pm             Play outdoor games 6:00pm             Cup of tea and do homework. 7:00pm             Supper of ugali & different things; then stories or games 8:00pm             Bedtime.

On Saturdays they have a free day and have plenty of time to play outdoor games. We try to allow them to be children and have freedom to play.  On Sundays they wake up at 8am and have breakfast ready for Sunday School which begins at 9am. They stay at church until after the main service at 12:30pm; when they return to Lucky Summer.

Needs : In the short term, there is a real need for caring for these children. The monthly costs of caring for one child is around £10. This includes food, clothes, medical care and staff care costs.    

However, there is a real need to relocate the orphanage. VPM have successfully appealed to the Government for a two year grace period to build an Orphanage away from our Lucky Summer housing project.  The agreement that is that we need to buy another plot of land in Lucky Summer to build the Orphanage.  

After a Ministry of Lands search, we discovered that the owner of the plot of land we were planning to purchase had not been paying his dues to Nairobi City Council. As a result, we have had to cancel the deal. We are still looking for a suitable plot of land, and we have money set aside for purchasing this when we find it. Once we relocate, we will be able to build a larger orphanage so the number of residential orphans will increase.

Needs : In the medium term, we will need some additional support to complete the construction of the orphanage as costs will have risen during the delay.