YOUNG LIFE CHILDREN’S HOME—A HOME EQUAL FOR ALL

The King will reply, "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me" - MATHEW 25:40

‘At the end of the day, it is not about what you have or even what you have accomplished…It’s about who you have lifted up, who you’ve made better. It’s about what you’ve given back.’ Denzel Washington.

Tragically, millions of children all over the globe have become orphaned for many reasons: war, famine, displacement, disease, or poverty. Of the more than 155 million children classified as orphans, 15.1 million have lost both parents.

While Kenya is a beautiful country renowned for its wildlife, it faces many of the challenges borne by multiple developing countries in Africa. The lack of a social safety net, migration to cities from rural areas for jobs, HIV/AIDS, sexual abuse by relatives, and female genital mutilation by the Maasai have all contributed to the burgeoning orphan population.

The abandonment of a child is unimaginable, but it happens every day in many countries of the world, and Kenya is no exception. Unemployment and extreme poverty, health challenges, substance abuse, family dysfunction, fear, and despair too often lead to the unimaginable. And I have witnessed it with my own eyes. Hospitals throughout Kenya regularly face the problem of mothers walking out of wards without their babies, never to return. It is not uncommon for a baby to be abandoned outdoors in a ditch or bush, pit latrines, or just left on the doorstep or in the hands of one likely to show compassion for the child.

Answering God’s Call to Care for Orphans & Vulnerable Children

Throughout Scripture, God has expressed his concern by asking that His people show concern and care for orphans. He pictures Himself as “A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, Is God in His holy habitation” (Psalms 68:5). Adoption is one of the metaphors used in the Bible to explain how Christians are brought into the family of God. Jesus came “that we might receive adoption to sonship” (Galatians 4:5), and He was successful: “You received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children” (Romans 8:15, NLT).

Outside of Scripture, the first people to officially care for orphaned children were the Romans, who opened the first orphanage in history in around 400 AD. Long before then, however, both Jewish and Athenian law required that orphans be supported until age 18. The philosopher Plato once said, of adopted orphans, “A man should love the unfortunate orphan of whom he is guardian as if he were his own child. He should be as careful and as diligent in the management of the orphan’s property as of his own or even more careful still.”

Generations later Seventh-day Adventists were reminded of their responsibility to care for orphaned children. The way they cared for these children along with others who have “special needs” was presented as a test of their character. Note the following:

I saw that it is in the providence of God that widows and orphans, the blind, the deaf, the lame, and persons afflicted in a variety of ways, have been placed in close Christian relationship to His church; it is to prove His people and develop their true character. Angels of God are watching to see how we treat these persons who need our sympathy, love, and disinterested benevolence. This is God’s test of our character.

It is strange that professed Christian men should disregard the plain, positive teachings of the word of God and feel no compunctions of conscience. God places upon them the responsibility of caring for the unfortunate, the blind, the lame, the widow, and the fatherless; but many make no effort to regard it. —Ellen White in Testimonies for the Church 3:511,.517

YOUNG LIFE CHILDREN’S HOME

Young Life Africa Children’s Home is a home for the less fortunate boys located in Ruiru, Central Kenya. Since adoption is seldom an option in Kenya due to a wide range of bureaucratic challenges, Young Life Africa Children’s Home aims to rescue, rehabilitate, accommodate, educate and feed orphans and vulnerable children from society targeting children from five to eighteen years.

The home was started in 2003 and since then, they have helped over 200 kids.

It’s located in Kenya, Ruiru district, Murera division about 1.5 K.M off Thika superhighway behind Kenyatta university Ruiru campus.

Activities undertaken include:

Training the community in home-based income-generating activities.
Engaging youths in curriculum activities like sports and art-related activities with aim of identifying and nurturing talents.
Advocacy campaigns on Family health and HIV/AIDS, children's rights, domestic violence, and substance abuse among the youths in the community.
Teaching modern farming activities targeting vulnerable families in the community.
Vocational training and formation of associations for youths.

Young life Africa children’s home's mission is to maximize the full potential of our children and youth through rehabilitation, a participatory engagement that serves their endeavors to realize their dreams come true and aspirations in building a better Kenya.

OBJECTIVES

To rescue, rehabilitate, accommodate, educate and feed orphans and vulnerable children from society. This ensures reduced vices e.g drug abuse, and theft cases by building character and improving the children's social skills.
To provide support to vulnerable children from society sport and recreational groups and organizations in counties by the provision of advice, training, guidance, and funding to assist in the improvement.
Educating fatherless and orphaned children up to the completion of secondary school and where possible, to tertiary education.
To provide underprivileged youths with necessary technical skills e.g welding, embroidery, catering, masonry, painting, agriculture, and others which enables them to be self-reliant in order to solve the huge problem facing the country of unemployment.
To serve and support parents with difficult social and economic circumstances, who want the necessary care for their children.

Young Life Africa Children’s Home is committed to caring for each child, regardless of their health status, taking them into their Home and providing them with love, and instilling in them hope for a future. I have heard it from many visitors who have walked through their doors, “Young Life Africa Children’s Home is not an orphanage, it’s a Home.”

HA-KAIRO SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH—CHILDREN MINISTRY AND THE CHILD’S HAVEN VISITS YOUNG LIFE CHILDREN’S HOME

Every year, the Ha-Kairo Adventist Church in partnership with The Child’s Haven Ministry, as a way of thanking GOD for keeping us alive and well, holds a children’s home visitation with the aim of giving back to society. This year, 2022, we chose to visit Young Life Africa Children’s Home since it's the closest to our church. A HOME EQUAL FOR ALL was our visitation theme.

I must say, our experience working with Young Life Africa Children’s Home is one worth sharing as it taught us so many things and shed light on many issues in society that we as people take for granted.

The visitation held in July 2022 at Young Life Africa Children’s Home was indeed very successful. The amount of energy that went into planning, the sacrifices that the team made in order to ensure everything went on perfectly, and the dedication that the children themselves had in terms of preparing performances and dressing at their best ensured that the visitation was nothing but extraordinary.

Just a month or so before we left, our elder posted an appeal to parents at the church for any donations of clothing, shoes, toys, educational supplies, etc. I was so overwhelmed by the response!

We arrived there on time and met our brothers and sisters from Neema Foundation who had also come to visit the boys.

The turnout was encouraging and I would like to thank all for coming to support the wonderful boys and remind them that they too are special and have a destiny that is set apart for greatness and prosperity alone. On behalf of Ha-Kairo church, I would like to thank everyone that gave all they had to make the event a success. The faces of the 34 boys were beaming with joy! We could not have had it any other way! The children were jovial, ecstatic, and had a wonderful moment and experience in their lives.

Before leaving we cooked and shared a meal equally, we began by serving the young ones who range from 1-5 years followed by the older kids. Everyone ate to their fill.

We gave our donation as a church and prayed together before dispersing to our homes.

You too can become a Young Life Supporter!

Young Life Africa Children’s Home seeks to improve children’s life by supporting 4 areas that are in constant need:

➲NUTRITION: Ensuring that the children get their basic nutritional needs so that they can grow strong.

➲HEALTH: Prevention for raising healthy kids, treatment of current diseases and emergencies.

➲EDUCATION: Fees for school to make sure everyone can receive an education.

➲INFRASTRUCTURE; Improving and maintaining our infrastructure to make Young Life a better home for the boys

FINAL WORD

Varsity Scope supports the many approaches of care provided for orphans, but all need to show concern and care. The ultimate goal is to provide for a loving, caring home in which these children will grow up to love and serve Christ as their Friend. The following counsel given by Ellen White is indeed noteworthy,

Let those who have the love of God open their hearts and homes to take in these children. It is not the best plan to care for the orphans in large institutions. If they have no relatives able to provide for them, the members of our churches should either adopt these little ones into their families or find suitable homes for them in other households. – Ellen White in Counsels for the Church, p. 286.

Varsity Scope is appreciative of the several Adventist organizations working for orphans and vulnerable children.

For more details on accountability and getting involved, please contact the management at

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Thank you all for your support to make Young Life Africa Children’s Home achievements possible.