Your 2023 Impact Report

We are so deeply grateful for your support in a year of growth an improvement in 2023!

• On the new playground you built, street kids are experiencing safe childhood again.

• With staff you trained in parenting strategies, moms and dads are learning practical lessons in their homes on family connections, expectations, and discipline.

• Through business training and seed money, you’ve helped parents afford hot meals and school fees for their families.

Did you know you’ve also helped forge a national movement in Kenya this year? Traditional orphanages are now required to embrace a family-based care such as we have been providing for 10 years, Your Shelter has become a beacon, training others in the region. Countless children will be liberated, rehabilitated, and reunited with loving families!

Your ongoing, generous support is changing lives for vulnerable children and their families. Thank you!

Kristen Lowry and Eunice Murage

Co-Executive Directors, Shelter Yetu

Click here to see the full 2023 IMPACT REPORT, or here are some highlights:

Empowering families

We have a new way for you to support street children at Shelter Yetu: Empower their parents!

You can PREVENT children from returning to street life by giving their parents an opportunity to start a microbusiness and provide for their children.

Ten families are set to start this six-month empowerment program in February. Two other cohorts started last year and already seeing success garnering enough income to pay school fees and provide more meals per day.

WHY? RELAPSE RISK IS REAL. As we rescue children and prepare them to go back home, we see many families struggle to meet basic needs. This often leads to children begging on the streets and dropping out of school, drugs, gangs, and criminal activity.

Children in safe homes with stable incomes are much more likely to thrive!

Each family’s spot in the program program will cost $1,000 and provides this family:

• 2 weeks intensive group training in microbusiness and savings/loan groups

• Seed money for a micro business

• Food and school fees support, which tapers off as their businesses grow

• 6 weeks of follow-up and coaching

• 4 months of check-ins

• An amazing opportunity to rise out of poverty with dignity so their children may NEVER live on the streets. 

Would you like to sponsor a family? Click here: https://donorbox.org/family-empowerment-program

Please contact us with any questions: info@shelteryetu.org

Sometimes, it's someone else

KINSHIP is a powerful word in our work, especially when parents are not an option.

We found Benjamin* in April, surviving on the street by begging for handouts from people in cars he guided through parking lots. He hadn't seen his mom since he was a toddler. When is grandmother passed away, he couldn't bear to live with his father's addiction and abuse. He skipped between friends’ houses, but eventually ended up living on the street before he joined us a Shelter Yetu. As he worked through the rehabilitation program, social workers tracked down an aunt with a safe and welcoming home.

Everyone was smiling the day he moved into her home last month. Shelter staff helped him bond with the other children in the home, engaged neighbors, and guided his aunt to a nearby school to start enrollment. Follow-up visits reveal he is doing well with this "kinship" family! Thank you for playing your part in these success stories happening every week!

*At Shelter Yetu, we respect children's right to privacy. So while their stories are true, client names and images may have been changed to protect their privacy. Thank you for understanding.

Churches & Orphans - Changing your conversation

Is your church’s orphan strategy reuniting families?

Churches have been strong champions for international orphan care, but is their approach effective? Our co-director Kristen Lowry is helping churches rethink the ways they have been serving vulnerable children.

As a consultant for Send Relief, Lowry is helping churches transition away from supporting institutions that indefinitely house children. (Research is showing most “orphans” have families.) Lowry is showing churches how to work with “family-based” organizations that find children safe, loving families through reunification with parents, kinship care, adoption, or foster care.

This shift can be difficult for churches who have sent long-term financial support to partner institutions, or who have sent short-term teams to serve the same orphanages for a few days each year.

Lowry commends churches for serving children, but short-term teams may not be benefit children who may have attachment disorders due to abandonment and/or other trauma. Also, churches should ensure their financial gifts are supporting legitimate strategies.

How can a church pivot to more effective orphan care? Reach out for free a personal consultation with Lowry here.

Other tips to flip the conversation for your church:

• Learn about family-based care.

• Approach your outreach leaders with questions about the strategies used by orphanages your church supports.

• Plan a vision trip to a family-based place like Shelter Yetu.

• Consider alternatives to temporary care for children: Empower their caregivers, encourage social workers & long-term missionaries, train teachers, equip parents, etc.

• Listen to Lowry and other church leaders on this “Think Orphan” podcast:

This one's for the girls...

Amani* (far right) is the sister of one of our former Shelter Yetu boys.

Shelter Yetu focuses our rescue efforts of boys because of the high number of boys living on the streets.

However, when our social workers are out in the community, they are always looking for opportunities to serve and empower girls. Recently, one of our social workers conducted a home visit with family where he had recently reunified a young boy.

The social worker found fourteen-year-old Amani* at home. She dropped out of school in fourth grade when her parents separated and her mother began to struggle with finances.

As they were talking, Amani shared her desire to go back to school.

Amani admitted to feeling lonely at home when other children her age are in school.

She shared that older men in the community are hitting on her and pressuring her toward early marriage. Relatives are also pressuring her to engage in domestic work in exchange for food.

But Amani dreams of a different life. And now, because of your support, Shelter Yetu is helping Amani to return to school!

We are currently in the process of working with a local school to re-enroll Amani.

She is so excited to go to school and dreams of being able to support her mother once she has finished her studies and gotten a good job.

*At Shelter Yetu, we respect children's right to privacy. So while their stories are true, client names and images may have been changed to protect their privacy. Thank you for understanding.

YOU are growing a national movement in Kenya

Our dorms have a safe bed for every boy, but this is meant to be a temporary stop on the way back to a safe home.

Kenya’s government is making monumental reforms to orphan care, and Shelter Yetu is excited to be a resource helping NINE orphanages throughout the region embrace these positive changes.

In the next 10 years, Kenya’s “Care Reform Strategy” will seek to transition the majority of children in traditional orphanages to the same kind of family-based care Shelter Yetu offers. The goal is to prevent children from living long-term in institutions and send more children home. We truly believe THIS way is better!

A nearby orphanage housing 75 children is one of the first in the region to seriously embrace these changes being partnering with Shelter Yetu for help. In the last two weeks, Shelter Yetu has been invited to assist 8 more orphanages, serving a total of about 400 children.

Two Shelter Yetu social workers will soon be training the orphanage staff in trauma-informed care, family tracing, case management and parent empowerment. 

“Most of these orphanages are serving children who are not orphans at all, but children who have been disconnected from their families,” said Kristen Lowry, Co-Executive Director of Shelter Yetu. “We know they are doing the best they can, but we are so happy to help them–and anyone near us who wants to learn about what we are doing.”

Thank you for supporting Shelter Yetu. YOU are influencing orphan care throughout Kenya for the better.

A new opportunity for 20 families...

We are excited to kick off something new!

The last two weeks, a facilitator from Zambia is teaching all our social workers about a family preservation and empowerment program called the Graduation Approach. This time-bound model teaches poor and vulnerable families about:

• financial literacy

• how to form savings and loans groups

• entrepreneurship and skills training

• using seed capital to begin a small business

The program also provides families with seed capital and supports their family’s basic needs as they establish a new business.

We plan to pilot this project with 20 families. Half will be families with children that Shelter Yetu has rescued from the streets, and the other 10 families are at risk of separation. We hope this will give parents dignity, lift them out of poverty, and allow them to provide for their families!

Another organization using this program reports great results: 95 percent of the families who were eating one meal a day are now eating two or three meals a day. That’s a big impact!

This initiative aligns perfectly with our mission to empower vulnerable families to move beyond extreme poverty and become self-reliant to meet their own basic needs, improve their communities, and build better futures for themselves and their children. Please reach out if you would like more information about this initiative or would like to partner with us.

Shelter staff heads into the field as part of the practical training for “The Graduation Approach.”

Your impact in 2022 - It was a year of growth!

Before we get too far into 2023, we want you know the impact your support made in 2022. It was a great year!

• 119 children rescued off the streets.

• 95 children reunited with safe, loving families.

• 2 young men transitioned to independent living.

• 205 families received ongoing support.

• 15 young adults received technical training.

• 100 children attended schools with school fees covered.

• 49 families nourished through emergency food support.

Your support also helped:

• build a new front wall and organic garden (see photo below)

• open our new social work office.

• open our new counseling house.

• complete general renovations.

• hire four new full-time staff.

• train 23 orphanages in family and community-based care.

THANK YOU for continuing to invest in vulnerable children and families in Kenya! Stay tuned to read about our growth plans for 2023, and how you can be involved.

Sometimes it's simple...

Often, Shelter Yetu social workers deal with incredibly heart-breaking and complex cases. But sometimes, the solution is simple.

Boniface* is the fifth-born of eight children. He lives with his mother and siblings, and was attending school until January of this year. In January, Boniface lost two of his school books on the way from home. He was told by his teacher that he couldn't return to school until he had paid for them in full. Because he knew his mother was struggling to make ends meet, he opted to go to the streets to try and make some money.

On the streets, he succumbed to peer pressure, and began using some drugs. Then he felt too ashamed to go home. In February, a Shelter street officer rescued Boniface and brought him to Shelter Yetu. After three months of healing at the Shelter, Boniface was ready to return home. Shelter Yetu was able to pay for his lost books, and now Boniface is back at school! Our social worker will continue checking on him at home and at school every month to make sure he's doing well.


*At Shelter Yetu, we respect children's right to privacy. So while their stories are true, client names and images may have been changed to protect their privacy. Thank you for understanding.

Coming soon: IMPACT TRIPS!

Have you ever wanted to visit Shelter Yetu in Kenya? See the work of the Shelter firsthand? After two years of COVID restrictions, we are excited to be hosting friends of the Shelter again in Naivasha soon.

Please help us by filling out a (very) short survey so we can begin planning impact trips for the near future!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LHNS2VC

And if you or your church are interested in coming on a pilot impact trip to Shelter Yetu, please reach out to info@shelteryetu.org.

Support For The Whole Family

We are constantly working to grow and improve our family strengthening process. Regular follow up is an important part of this, and as we've mentioned in previous updates, we've expanded our educational support to include siblings and other children in the home. The success of a reintegrated child is so dependent on the health of the entire family, so we are really focused on strengthening the family unit and support system for each boy who goes home. Children belong in families.

Healing For Henry

Henry* is a very special case, and one that required collaboration between many different people and organizations. 

Henry came to Shelter in August 2020 at just 12 years old. He had been staying on and off the streets for more than a year, and was suffering from many setbacks, including cognitive delays due to drug use and behavioral struggles. In his first few months at Shelter, it was difficult for him to even remain in class with his peers.

Over time, and thanks to the diligence of our social work and academic team, Henry began to make progress - academically, behaviorally, and socially. The social work team also began working with his family, and found that his grandmother was willing and able to be his primary caregiver, and she was committed to his success.
  Social work staff at Shelter, along with Henry's family, began making a plan for him to return home and be enrolled in school. Everyone knew that he would need a lot of support from his teachers and administrators in order to succeed. Fortunately, his family was able to find a great school and they spent a lot of time with the school staff, updating them on Henry's special needs. His teachers committed to the family that they would do everything they can to ensure Henry catches up to his peers. 

Since being reintegrated in July 2021, Henry has not only survived, but thrived at home and school. His family and teachers report he has improved significantly in every area, and he is always beaming when Shelter staff comes to visit him.

We are so grateful for everyone who contributed and continues to contribute to Henry's success!
*At Shelter Yetu, we respect children's right to privacy. So while their stories are true, client names and images may have been changed to protect their privacy. Thank you for understanding.

In order to continue supporting children and families like Henry's, we need your help!

If you'd like to be a part of this important work, you can submit a one-time or recurring monthly gift.

Thank you!

2021 Wrap-Up

We are incredibly grateful for our busiest and most successful year yet! Thanks to your support, we were able to rescue, rehabilitate and reunite more children than ever.

In 2021, we:

• impacted 465 families

• rescued 131 children from the streets

• reunited 72 children with their families

• trained 20 young adults in a technical skill

• supported 46 families with monthly food distribution

• provided education support for 69 former residents and 12 siblings

We are thankful that 2021 was a hugely successful year for our work. In the coming year, there are some large projects we need to accomplish in addition to our normal work of rescuing. With your support, we hope to:

• build a new garden that can serve as a food source for the children, an additional source of income and a training ground for learning sustainable farming practices.

• rebuild our perimeter wall which was destroyed last year so that Shelter Yetu will remain safe and secure.

• hire a second counselor to meet the needs of the children and families that come through the Shelter.

• hire an additional social worker to help with follow-up of more than 200 children in the community.

Please consider investing in one of these critical projects. For more information, or to contribute toward one of these projects specifically, you can get in touch through our email: info@shelteryetu.org

Rescuing Isaac

2022 is already in full swing, and we have rescued 25 boys to date. One of those boys is Isaac.*

Our street officer is in the field every week - this is a very important part of our rescue process, as he is able to identify boys who are new to the street and prevent them from experiencing the hardships and abuse that come from life on the streets.

Twelve-year-old Isaac only spent one night on the street before being rescued. He had never given his mother any trouble, but had begun spending time with some peers in town, selling scrap metal. He was eventually influenced to sleep in town by those peers, but met our street officer and was rescued the very next day. While counselors and teachers were preparing Issac to return home, his mother was searching him every day after work and had almost given up hope when he arrived home with a Shelter social worker. She was overjoyed to see him, and he was just as thrilled to see her. Because of Shelter Yetu's quick intervention, Issac was spared many of the horrors of life of the streets.

A reintegration plan has already been put in place for Isaac, and he will be home with his family and back in school by the next term.

*At Shelter Yetu, we respect children's right to privacy. So while their stories are true, client names and images may have been changed to protect their privacy. Thank you for understanding.

Here are just a few of the boys who've been reintegrated recently or are currently in the process of being reintegrated.

It's Not Too Late To Make A 2021 Donation

2021 was another difficult year for all of us.

The pandemic continues bring challenges across the globe, especially for families who were already struggling. In Kenya, economic instability continues to drive more children to the streets.

Yet, despite the challenges, Shelter Yetu has had our most successful year ever. As of this week, we have rescued 130 children from the streets, almost doubling our impact from the previous year.

And we continue follow up on more than 200 families in the community, making sure that children reintegrated to their communities (and their families) have all the support they need.

We have expanded our operations into Nairobi, and almost doubled our staff in the last two years.

Yet, there is more work to be done. There are still 300,000 children living on the streets of Kenya, separated from care of a loving family.

In this season of giving, we want to invite you to partner with us to rescue vulnerable children,  restore families, and strengthen communities please consider an end of year *tax-deductible donation to Shelter Yetu.

Our work can't continue without your support.

*Donations must be postmarked December 31, 2021 or earlier to be deductible from 2021 taxes. Online donations are valid until 11:59 PM 12/31/2021!
 

Thank you,

Eunice Murage and Kristen Lowry
Co-Executive Directors, Shelter Yetu

The Heart Of The Rescue Mission

Multiplying Hope

As the year comes to a close, we are celebrating so many successes as an organization. Those of you who have been following us for some time may remember that we have been working hard to reach more children and families, focusing on more rescues, quicker (safe) reintegrations, and dedicated follow-up. As we've looked at the numbers and figures over the past 6 years, we are blown away at how our efforts are paying off, and we wanted to share those statistics with you.

2016
31 boys rescued
17 boys reintegrated with family

2017
32 boys rescued
19 boys reintegrated with family

2018
23 boys rescued
16 boys reintegrated with family

2019
41 boys rescued
38 boys reintegrated with family

2020
70 boys rescued
43 boys reintegrated with family

2021 (to date)
120+ boys rescued
50+ boys reintegrated with family

We are blown away at how we've been able to improve our processes and serve more children and families. This exponential growth would not be possible without our generous supporters.

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Rescuing…From What?

One of our Co-Executive Directors, Kristen Lowry, recently wrote about her time in Nairobi doing street work alongside our street officer.
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This afternoon I joined the Shelter Yetu street officer, Elphas, as he did street work in Nairobi. We visited three bases. We saw more than 300 children.

With the Shelter, we often talk about “rescuing” children living on the streets. But what does that mean? Rescued from what?

Wherever you step, your foot sinks down into layers of sewage and trash.
Everything is black from burning tires. The air is thick with smoke. With jet fuel, and marijuana.

Children are sleeping in the sewage. Young girls, pregnant, are sniffing glue while holding their infant babies.

There is a level of desperation, of hopelessness, that most of us will never encounter. This is hell on earth.

“Please can you rent a room for me and my baby to be safe?” Rape, the threat of rape. These children have no safe place. No way to close the door and rest for a moment.

A young mama picks up a cookie off the filth and breaks it in half, giving half to her toddler and eating half herself.

The violence. A teenage boys picks up a stick from a pile of firewood and begins hitting other children with it. No one bothers to stop him.

A baby, wearing a diaper she’s probably been wearing for days. Her mama: “Please, can you buy me a pack of pampers?”

It is hell. There is no safe place. There is no escaping. There is no one you can trust, no place you can rest. No door to close to make it all go away, even for a moment.

An 11-year-old boy, asleep in a pile of sewage next to the river. Sewage leaks from a pipe above his head. Flies everywhere—he doesn’t even bother to swat them away anymore. He’s tired. Too tired to get up and see what is happening. Too tired to receive the food we are offering.

This is what we are rescuing from. This is real.

One of the boys was talking to me as we walked to the tin-shack restaurant. “We are trash eaters. Do you know chokoraa? It means trash eater. This is us!”

No, I wanted to tell him. You are wapendwa wa Mungu. Beloved of God. You are worth so much more than this. But the words caught in my throat.

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Did you know that the Tuesday after Thanksgiving is known as "Giving Tuesday?" It's an opportunity to remember and support the important work of nonprofits in the midst of the holiday shopping season.

This year Giving Tuesday falls on November 30th, and we are inviting you to partner with us to grow and expand our operations even further. To do so, we need to hire an additional social worker, counselor, and teacher next year.

We need 15 new partners to commit to $50 a month in order to reach more children living on the streets. If you're willing to stand with us, please sign up for a monthly donation and comment "Giving Tuesday" in the comment box. Also, keep your eyes on our social media on November 30th for one-time donation opportunities that will be matched!

Together, we can change the lives of vulnerable children.

Officially Shelter Yetu!

It’s Official!

Earlier this month, we celebrated 20 years of Shelter and our transition from Naivasha Children's Shelter to Shelter Yetu.

We enjoyed celebrating with so many who have invested in our program over the last two decades, including our directors, board members, our local children's officer, and many other community members and supporters. We also debuted our documentary short that highlights the great work being done at Shelter. We hope you will take some time to watch it here.

If you're not already following us on social media, please check out our new links at the bottom of this email.

Check out a few of our favorite moments from the celebration!

A big way we support reintegrated boys and their families is by helping provide school and uniform fees so that the boys and their siblings can continue their education. This term, Shelter Yetu is supporting:

• 52 children in primary school

• 11 children in secondary school

• 3 young adults in college

If you’d like to assist us with school fees, please reach out at info@shelteryetu.org
or, donate at shelteryetu.org/donate and comment “school fees.” We appreciate your help as we support these families.

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We are so thankful for 20 years of service to street-connected boys and their families. It would not be possible without your generosity.

If you'd like to support our ongoing efforts to restore families, you can submit a one-time or recurring monthly gift.

Thank you!

New Name, Same Mission!

Celebrating 20 Years!!

As Naivasha Children’s Shelter celebrates 20 years of life-changing work in Kenya, we are changing our name to reflect our commitment to all street-connected children in Kenya. While our previous identity has served us well, now our work has reached outside of just Naivasha and into all of Nakuru County, and even into Nairobi County.

From October, Naivasha Children’s Shelter will be officially known as Shelter Yetu. In Swahili, this new name translates to "Our Shelter." We hope "Shelter Yetu" better communicates our country-wide work and our commitment to all street-connected children and their families and communities in Kenya.

We're excited to share a preview of our new logo with you.

Andrew* is the eighth born in a family of nine children. He came to Shelter in May of this year after being rescued from the streets in a nearby town. When our social worker accompanied him on a visit in July, his sister recognized him from a distance and came running to greet him. She immediately called their parents and they came rushing from their jobs to see him, crying and rejoicing together.

They had not seen Andrew since April. He had dropped from school in January and started to work at slaughterhouse. He eventually started spending the night at the street, and his family saw him less and less. They looked for him throughout their town and nearby areas, and were very worried when they could not find him.

On that visit, he and his family talked and discussed his future plans. He expressed that he would like to continue building upon the carpentry training he was receiving at Shelter, so his family promised they would look for a local workshop for him.

In early September, Andrew was reintegrated to his family, much to the delight of his family. He will join a carpentry workshop to continue honing his skills before joining the workforce.

*At Naivasha Children's Shelter, we respect children's right to privacy. So while their stories are true, client names and images may have been changed to protect their privacy. Thank you for understanding.

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Recently, the staff of Shelter participated in a trauma-informed caregiver training. It's essential that all our staff, from our director to our cook, understand the trauma our clients have been through and be a part of their healing process.

This training was supposed to happen in 2020 but everything shut down. It has been rescheduled three different times due to COVID and we are so thankful we were finally able to participate!

Some of the skills that the leaders and caregivers of Shelter learned during the training were:
- Connect before correct
- Understand our senses
- Understanding triggers
- How to help develop a child’s sense of felt safety, understanding sensory needs children might have

All of this works together so even the caregivers better understand themselves and the children and teens in their care. We are so proud of, and thankful for our staff, and the skills they are implementing. And we are grateful for our donors for making this training possible!

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As we continue to navigate this pandemic and keep all staff and residents safe, we need your help more than ever.

If you'd like to support our ongoing efforts to restore families, you can submit a one-time or recurring monthly gift.

Thank you!

A New Adventure - Rescuing In Nairobi

Nairobi Update

Experts estimate that 250,000-300,000 children live and work on the streets of Kenya, with more than 60,000 of them in Nairobi. We have long recognized the need to rescue children in Nairobi, a need that has only increased as the number of street children has risen due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier this year, we were granted permission by the government to begin emergency rescues in Nairobi. Our street officer spent many weeks visiting Nairobi and getting to know the street culture so that he could begin to prepare boys for their Shelter journey. At the end of June, we welcomed our first group of boys from Nairobi, and to date we have rescued 18 boys. We are grateful for this opportunity to expand our reach and serve more boys and their families.

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Welcome to our newest Shelter resident, a calf born earlier this week!

Fred* came to Shelter in February 2021. He had been running away from home and going to the street on and off for a few years, and it had been more than two years since he had consistently lived at home. His family would regularly go and look for him on the street, and always prayed he would decide to change his life and return home.

When he came to Shelter, Fred was ready to put his life on the street behind him and expressed his desire to learn to weld so that he could provide for himself and his family. While he was at Shelter, he and his family worked closely with our staff to ensure that he was ready to go home and stay with his family without running away.

In June, he moved back home and started training in a local workshop. Our social work team has conducted several follow-ups and each time, they have received glowing reports from his family and his trainer. According to the trainer, Fred is responsible, reliable, and hard-working. His family also reports that he is doing well at home.

For the next few months, Fred will continue his training, learning all he can about welding. If he continues to work hard, he will transition into a paying job later this year. We are so proud of him!

*At Naivasha Children's Shelter, we respect children's right to privacy. So while their stories are true, client names and images may have been changed to protect their privacy. Thank you for understanding.

As we continue to navigate this pandemic and keep all staff and residents safe, we need your help more than ever.

If you'd like to support our ongoing efforts to restore families, you can submit a one-time or recurring monthly gift.

Thank you!

One Year In - Here's How We're Doing

More than a year ago, the World Health Organization formally declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a pandemic. Since that time, Naivasha Children’s Shelter has continued our work of rescuing children from the streets, providing them with rehabilitation services and reuniting them with family. However, our work during the pandemic has proved challenging. 

During the pandemic, we have been one of the few organizations who has continued with street rescues. Children living on the streets have been particularly susceptible to the disease because of poor sanitation.  In addition, the number of children living on the street has seen a huge boom due to economic insecurity and the closure of schools for almost a year. 

We were able to continue rescues because generous funding from our supporters to conduct COVID tests of every child rescued from the streets. 

Unfortunately, many of the children we have rescued have tested positive for the virus. Therefore, we had to convert our newly-renovated counseling house to an isolation centre, and our staff have been isolating with both positive and exposed cases.  Between staff and space limitations, this has severely limited our ability to rescue as many children as we would like.  

We’re grateful for your partnership as we plan an emergency rescue of 25 children in May. We are in the process of exploring ways to expand our capacity for rescues during this “new normal” in order to reach the thousands of children living on the streets and desperate for a chance at a new life. 

With rainy season beginning in Kenya, the boys at Shelter have been staying busy with indoor activities, like working puzzles, in addition to counseling, remedial education and life skills.

David* is the fifth born of nine children. According to his mother, he went to the streets in 2016 when he was only 10, after being influenced negatively by his friends. His mother frequently went to town to bring him home, but he continued to run away. Eventually, in 2018, he went to live with his grandparents, but after a short time, he ran away again and did not return home.

In August 2020, David was rescued and brought to Shelter, where he expressed a desire to change his life and return home with his mother. His family was overjoyed and eager to welcome him home. After completing the transition program at Shelter, engaging in weekly therapy, and spending time with his family over short visits, David was reintegrated this month. He will be enrolled in school when it resumes in May, and he and his family are so excited to be together again.

*At Naivasha Children's Shelter, we respect children's right to privacy. So while their stories are true, client names and images may have been changed to protect their privacy. Thank you for understanding.

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As we continue to navigate this pandemic and keep all staff and residents safe, we need your help more than ever.

If you'd like to support our ongoing efforts to restore families, you can submit a one-time or recurring monthly gift.

Thank you!

Helping Families Succeed

Follow-up is an integral part of the work we do at Shelter. It is important, especially in the first year after reintegration, to ensure any issues at home are resolved in order to prevent relapse to the street. When a boy leaves Shelter, our social worker follows them closely with phone calls and in-person visits, working with the families to identify any needs or issues in the home. These needs can range from food insecurity, to educational needs, to lack of employment, and our team works closely with the families to identify solutions and come alongside the parents or caregivers to support them in their long-term goals to sustain their family's needs.

Ensuring the boy's success means ensuring the success of all family members. This year, because of your support, we have been able to expand our support to include school and uniform fees for siblings in the home for those who need it. We are also constantly exploring new ways that we can assist families to create sustainable businesses and other sources of income. We are committed to looking at each family's individual needs and supporting them if/as they need help.

Below are just a few of the siblings we have supported for school, some who are attending school for the very first time!

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The number of children living on the streets has increased drastically with COVID. Each week, we are rescuing new children, testing them for COVID and enrolling them in the rehabilitation program at Shelter, which includes lots of time for creativity and games.

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Children belong in families.

That's why we're committed to the work of family reunification. Almost every boy who enters Shelter has a parent or extended family member willing and able to care for them.

For our supporters in the U.S.

Many Americans have received, or will be receiving COVID-19 stimulus checks this month. Some of us need the money, but for many, it may be an opportunity to give to others in need.

What could $1400 do in Kenya?

• Feed a family of five for 2 years

• Support school/uniform fees for a primary student for 7 years

• Cover Shelter's entire food budget for one month

• Provide skills training and job placement for 7 youth leaving the streets

If you'd like to support our ongoing efforts to restore families, you can submit a one-time or recurring monthly gift. 

Thank you!

Back To School

Students across Kenya returned to classes in January after almost a year away due to COVID-19. Unfortunately, many families have struggled to place their children back in school. Our social work team has been traveling across the country assisting parents to enroll reintegrated children back in school. Unfortunately, school fees and uniforms have been a significant financial burden to many parents who are already struggling due to the ongoing pandemic. Our staff saw a need to help other children in the families we support, and because of your gifts, we were able. This year, we have assisted 47 students to return to school.

Our team will continue conducting regular follow-ups with the families and schools to ensure that each child is continuing well with their studies. We look forward to seeing them succeed in their academic pursuits!

Celebrating 20 Years!

This year, Naivasha Children's Shelter celebrates 20 years of life-saving work in Kenya.

Our story began in 1996, when the East African Women’s League launched a feeding and teaching program at the YMCA in Naivasha town to help with the growing problem of street children. The project was very successful, but the children still had to leave at the end of the day and sleep on the streets.

The ladies continued to reach out to boys living on the streets until 2001, when Debbie Case and Melissa Keng realized their dream of establishing a home for the boys. Ten acres of land were donated for construction of a shelter. Case and Keng rallied friends from around the world and Naivasha Children’s Shelter was born.

In 2014, Eunice Murage and Kristen Lowry joined the Shelter team as volunteer Co-Executive Directors. Murage and Lowry have continued the Shelter legacy with a new approach aimed at rescuing more boys from the streets, and restoring families.

To celebrate 20 years, Shelter is rebranding this year to Shelter Yetu. In Swahili, this means "our Shelter." Shelter has been growing and expanding our reach for several years now, and this new name represents the larger scope of our work throughout Kenya. While we remain committed to serving the children of the Naivasha community, we have been able to expand our rescues to other cities with the county, and are exploring partnerships across the country as well.

How You Can Help

If you'd like to support our COVID-19 efforts to keep families togther and/or our ongoing family reunification work, you can submit a one-time or recurring monthly gift. 

Thank you!

We Need Your Help This Giving Tuesday

Despite the many challenges of 2020, the Shelter has continued our life-saving work of rescuing children living on the streets and reuniting them with family. This year, we have been able to rescue 70 children from the streets, reunite 40 children (and counting) with their families, provide skills training to 12 older children who were not prepared to return to school, and provide monthly food aid to 24 families affected by the pandemic. While we can celebrate all that we've been able to accomplish this year, we still need your help. Covid has brought about many unexpected challenges for us--changes to our usual programs, unexpected expenses, and loss of donations. Would you be willing to help us make for budget shortfalls this year so we can continue our life-saving work in Kenya? Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday, and your one-time gift can make a huge difference to children living on the streets in Kenya. 

Did you know that neither of our Co-executive Directors, nor our U.S. staff receives a salary from the Shelter? That means, instead of going to overhead costs, your donation goes directly to the ground--where it's needed most!