2. Community Outreach & Non-Profit Collaboration

We work in a sector that benefits immensely from the sharing of ideas and resources. There are many different organizations working to help vulnerable children and families in Africa, but there appears to be a lack of systemic wide-scale communication and cooperation among national and international non-profit organizations. We are working to change this.

Our first conference, “Education: Overcoming Inertia” was held in June 2009 in the village of Njabini. The conference brought together local care-providers, decision-makers at larger agencies, members of rural communities, academicians, and politicians. This conference focused on how common obstacles - often relatively minor on their own - undermine educational efforts in children’s homes.

Flying Kites Magnet Effect | Read More >
Magnet Effect will pull together organizations from the non-profit and private sectors on a national and international level to help develop the following elements of local life: agriculture, education, environment, health, infrastructure, human rights, microfinance, and women’s issues.
Through our newly pioneered Oasis and Magnet Effect programs, Flying Kites will work with other childcare providers and the local community of Njabini to improve the standards of living for men, women, and children alike. To learn more about the Magnet Effect click here.

Flying Kites Oasis | Read More >
Flying Kites Oasis provides impoverished orphanages with a business model they can utilize to operate effectively and increase the level of care they provide to orphaned children. To accomplish this goal, we have established a team of non-profit directors to meet with other orphanage leaders, offering an initial review of their organizations and immediate recommendations to improve upon their current structure.  The Oasis website (to be launched June 2010) will offer resources for orphanages to use and provide a forum where staff can discuss concerns and reach out for input from other organizations. We make website templates, policy handbooks, and fundraising materials available to participating orphanages, and volunteers who apply to work at our Academy are required to spend time assisting nearby children’s homes.  The Oasis Program has garnered much positive attention from the Nairobi City Council’s Department of Child Welfare and we are currently surveying 89 Nairobi orphanages, from which we will select 20 homes to pilot this, the second phase of the program. To learn more about Oasis click here.

Local Outreach
A 2007 census* showed that 12% of households in Kenya were caring for orphaned children in addition to their own children. The average number of orphaned children per household stands at 1.9. However, children who do not have relatives to take them in often have no other option but to live on the streets. Homeless, these “street children” forage in the city’s garbage dumps for food, begging or stealing to survive. The children who come to live at our home have no possibilities for placement in the village with extended family members, but many orphaned children do. We help local families care for orphaned children. The goal of our outreach program is to keep the majority of vulnerable children where they need to be: in school and with their relatives.

When parents die in Kenya, it is often grandparents, aunts, or uncles who take on the responsibilities to care for an orphaned child. It is almost always preferable to keep the child in a familial structure, even when the household is not headed by the child’s parents, but this can put an overwhelming burden on what is often an already precarious financial situation.

Many guardians submit applications to our Center because they can no longer afford to care for additional children. However, small grants, usually between $9 and $14 per month, drastically reduce this pressure, allowing the children to remain with their extended family.