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.
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!
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!
