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RAHA Kids Child Protection Program for Street Children

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About RAHA KIDS

RAHA KIDS is a Christian organization under the Coptic Orthodox Church in Kenya that fundamentally strives to save children who have been orphaned, abandoned, outcast, abused or exploited, from a dangerous and hopeless life on the street. RAHA KIDS endeavors to heal the wounds of these children, to nurture in them an environment of integrity, social maturity, an assurance of God’s love, as well as empowering them to live a healthy life with dignity.

The HIV and AIDS epidemic in Kenya, among many other unfavorable socio-economic factors has driven many children to lead a vulnerable life on the streets. According to SOS, in Nairobi, the country’s capital, 250,000 people have no roof over their heads. Of this mass of people, it is the children who suffer the most. Official national records indicate that there are 60,000 street children in Nairobi today.

While we work to meet the immediate needs of children living on the streets, such as rehabilitation, counseling, primary & medical care, safe accommodations, the social workers are working in parallel to locate family members, identify the cause of the child running away, and map out a sustainable exit plan for the child to be successfully reintegrated, be it back to their home, a foster family, a boarding school, or another suitable children’s organization.

What does "RAHA KIDS" stand for?

RAHA KIDS Vision

Our vision is to see the street children of Kenya becoming contributing members of society and leading an honest and righteous life pleasing to God, to themselves, and to society.

Program Approach

The first dimension of the program is the RAHA KIDS Drop-in Center. After some time and research carried out on a particular child’s case, a thorough assessment takes place to map out suitable options for that child. The social worker attempts to find out where the child can be placed. For example, it may be possible for the child to be placed back in their original home after some reconciliation/counseling with parents or guardian, or perhaps with another family member or a foster family. If neither of those options is viable, we then look at other institutions that could benefit the child such as boarding schools, vocational training schools, etc. This process takes place while they are being rehabilitated at the drop-in centre. However, we have established that in order for the rehabilitation process to be fully effective and successful, the children need to always be in a supervised environment, by day as well as by night. As such, we have found it necessary to establish RAHA KIDS Rescue Centre where children can spend the night after their day at the drop-in center. This arrangement will be temporary until a permanent solution can be found for each child.

We believe that home is the best place for a child, and we try our very best to reunite children to their families, however not all children have that door open to them. As such, the third facet of the program is RAHA KIDS Village, which, in the future, we hope will cater to that need. RAHA KIDS will adopt the family-based care model, pioneered by S.O.S. Children’s Village, with the special needs of former street children in mind. The Coptic Church has already offered RAHA KIDS a beautiful 3-acre land in Limuru, Kenya where we hope to build families for children who do not have a suitable family environment to grow up in. Children staying at this village will grow up in a family setting, will attend a nearby school or get vocational training on site, and will dwell with their respective house parents at night, during which they will eat, sleep, study, play and do their chores. Children would live there until they are old enough, mature enough, and equipped enough to provide and support themselves and eventually start their own healthy families.