St. Pauls Children Care Center is an N.G.O. registered in Kenya. Our core activity is to manage the childrens home under the same name, which is situated in Embul-bul village of Ngong Town near Nairobi, Kenya. At the childrens home, we give care, shelter, clothing and education to orphans, destitute and vulnerable children. Currently, our home has 70 children.The NGO also manages a primary school, Shalom Academy, which was established to give formal education to the children of our home.
As I had predicted, the 2009 x-mas was one huge party. Thanks to SWK of Holland who kindly donated money for foods, the children had a sumptious lunch and dinner. After lunch, they went playing water games with the staff and other guests. It was just hillarious.
I have a feeling that this x-mas will be one of the most memorable the children have ever had in this home. Local cooporates and individuals are gearing up to join the children, with festivities and activities that will make them a happier, healthier and joyfull lot. Most of you have asked me not to mention you by names, but in a wholesale kind, I want to assure you that we appreciate you in a very special way. We pray for you that Almighty God will shower you with His abundant blessings.
Of very special consideration is the support we have continuously, regularly and kindly been receiving fromSWK ( Stichting Weeskinderen Kenia), Wings of Support (WOS and the KLM crew) , WANAWA Foundation ( all from Netherlands),Six Eighty Hotel, Oswall Center, Maroo Paints, CP shoes ( all from Nairobi), plus our friends in the USA, Australia, Ireland and also here in Kenya. It is your kind hearts, your compassion, your sympathy and greatest of all, your love for the children of St. Paul's, that we have come so far.
On behalf of the community of St. Pauls, I want to wish each and everyone of you a merry x-mas and a happy new year 2010. May God give you joy, happiness and peace this festive season.
At the far end, ground floor is the Main office and the main entrance to the children's home. At the upper floor above the office is the children computer Laboratory. Next to the office will be the water filtering room. The rest are sleeping rooms. God is Great, able and with us. Amen.
At the far dark end, ground floor is the dinning hall and kitchen. On the upper floor is the library and TV room. At the middle of the building is the children' sleeping rooms.
The school calender comes to an end in the next 3 weeks. All our children will be moving a class higher come January. A special request to all our supporters, say a prayer to the class 8 pupils who will be sitting the end of primary school exams 0n November 18 -20. It is a national exam set by the Government and which determines which way ones life unfolds. If one passes best, they get a chance to join the best secondary schools in the country ( our version of Ivy League)
Lets Put these young girls and boys in the able wisdom of Our Father In heaven.
Finally after opening the new building on 26 July 2009, the children have now moved in. We would like to thank all those who made this project a reality. The children are currently on holiday and are having a great time in excitement in the new dormotories.
On Sunday, July 26, 2009, the new building will be officially opened. We shall be posting on this site the program. The fire that burned the childrens home happened on 29 July 2008. Exactly one year later, all are welcome to witness God's mysterious ways of doing things!
Thanks to the continued support from our friends at Hilversum School in the Netherlands, we bought 5 more computers for use in teaching our children computer skills. We shall for ever feel indebted to the entire community of the Hilversum School Association, the children, the teachers and the parents. May our dear Lord do great good things to all of you.
On 5th May 2009, Yvonne came visiting and brought another dear friend of the children, Ira Stempels also from Netherlands. They brought the children Toys and Clothes. Ira stayed with us for 2 days and we found in her a mindful and caring friend. Thank you so much good ladies for you enduring love for the children.
Finally, we are on the home stretch on the new building. The roofing is in progress and we will be doing the interiors soon. Thanks to all our friends and well-wishers who have stood by us during this reconstruction.
Thanks to our great friend Henrike, the children were able to enjoy the Nairobi Safari Walk on the 10th of April 2009. To her we say 'may God bless you abundantly.
This Easter holiday, we took the children for a suprise visit to the NAIROBI SAFARI WALK. At the Nairobi safari walk, you are able to see wild animals like lion,leopard, cheetah, impala etc. It is just 20 minutes drive from our home. Most volunteers who come to stay with us will always have the opportunity to see this wilderness that is inside the modern city of Nairobi. ( this is the only national park inside a city in the whole world). The children really enjoyed the outing.
One of our children ( now a young adult), Annah Gathoni, who joined a secondary school form one in February 2009, has topped her class being in position one. This she achieved despite having joined the high school 2 weeks behind schedule. She is an inspiration and a good example to all the other children and we take this early opportunity to congratulate her and encourage her to perform even better aiming for the limited vacancies in our Universities in four years time.
Last Friday, we had a day full joy, happiness and lots of fun. It was the school fun-day. The children participated in different fun games. There was the hilarious feet-in-the-sack race, also the egg-in-the-spoon race, and many other enjoyable games. The teachers too played with the children including a game of volleyball.
There was a lot of silverware for the trophies to those who endured and won in the various categories. The trophies had been donated by local well wishers and we would like to thank them all and look forward to be holding these fun games every end of school term.
The first term of learning at the school is coming to a close. The children will go for Easter Holidays from the 2nd of April 2009 and resume classes at the beginning of May. It has been a blessed term.
All the children were given school bags by Linda from Holland, they also got a new Head and Deputy head teacher. The results for the Standard Eight national exams were very encouraging. Discipline has quite good among the pupils. And of course the school hall has been completed.
We thank all our friends, supporters and well wishers for making all these achievements. WSK and WOS of Holland have been very supportive in paying the Teachers salaries and buying school teaching materials and books.
Henrike ( KLM Crew) did give the children very good story books which they will be reading during the holiday.
Today, Linda, one of our good friends and surporter from Holland is visiting us. Only last week, our other great friends and suporters, Esther, Henrike and Hanneke, also from Holland came visiting and stayed with us for three days. They brought lots of gifts for the children, and also lots of love.
Linda came with the good news that her school has raised money for assisting us. We have been to the departmental store with Linda and Jayne and identified 2 washing machines that we will buy with the money so that the mothers work of laundry may become easier and thereby give them more time to take care of the children.
All I can say is a big THANK YOU to all of you ladies. We are trully grateful to have such fantastic friends. May God bless you and take good care of you all.
From Tom, Jayne, and all the children of St. Pauls.
The Children of St. Pau's and the pupils/ students of Shalom Academy would like to thank you for the funds you donated to give them a school hall. Now that the long rains are expected any time ( it always rains in the morning?? why??) we will be holding our morning assembly and school prayers in the hall away from the cold. Thank you all so much together with your teachers . Special thanks to Ms Hanneke. We count ourselves lucky to have such caring friends like you. God bless you all. The Hall Is finally a reality.
The rebuilding of the boys domitories, kitchen and dinning hall is progressing well. We are still short of funds by one million kenya shillings, but God is great and as you can see, we are now on the upper floor. The lower floor is ready for plastering and installation of internal fittings such as electricals, plumbing and sanitary items. We appeal to all our well wishers for donations to enable us fill the finance gap of one Million Kenya shillings.
Today, the contractor building the school dinning cum multi-purpose hall has started roofing. We expect the rest of the work to take approximately one week to complete.
The projecthas been funded by contributions from very young children from a school in Holland through the kind arrangement of Henrika's Sister. We thank them whole-heartedly for this kind assistance.
On behalf of the entire community of St. Pauls Children Care Center, the children, the support staff and the management committee, I welcome you to our blog. We will be using this blog to interact and update all our friends,supporters, volunteers, donors and all other wellwishers on the activities and programs going on in this childrens home.We will especially be posting pictures of the progress we are making in the rebuilding of the section which burned down in July 2008.We hope that this effort will bring all of us closer to achieving our vision and mission.
OUR VISION:
To be the leaders by word and deed in the care of underprivelleged and vulnerable children in Kenya.
MISSION STATEMENT:
To harmoniously utilize our diverse expertise to efficiently and effectively put to good use all the resources available to us for the most benefit of the children under our care.
Our children's home has guest houses for accommodating volunteers form all over the world. If you would like to come to Kenya for volunteer work, then, I request you to make this your destination. You may volunteer to assist in the home chores, or to organize lunches for the elderly people in our community. Other work that can be done is repair and mentance of the home, painting, teaching life skills and plumbing.
