Children’s Home
At the NLAI centre a Children’s Home has been established, for boys and for girls. Most of these children are orphans, children who come from the streets or they are children who in other ways have been betrayed.
Approximately 45 boys are now part of the New Life Boys House and approximately 65 girls are part of the New Life Girls House. They are mainly between the ages of 4 and 20 years.
The Boys Home was opened in 1997 and the Girls Home in 2003. In 2007 a new, modern Girls Home, built by NLAI, was opened. It is NLAI’s goal to raise funds to build just as nice a home for the boys, as the one for the girls.
The children are offered professional counselling and care to help them get through any trauma from their past. The aim for all the boys and girls at the NLAI Children’s Home is that their lives will be transformed by restoring their trust in adults, letting them feel and know that they are loved and precious and thereby build their self-esteem. All the children in the Children’s Home are therefore sponsored until they have completed their education. Hereafter an exit process is employed and the support is reduced over a period of three months where after they will be able to care for themselves. Many former youth from the Children’s Home are now self-sustainable. Some have got married and have had children.
New Life Boys House
At the end of 1997 the first seven boys moved into the newly opened Boys Home. These seven boys were in training in the carpentry class, which had been started just two years earlier to help some of the orphans from the streets. It has been estimated that in Nakuru district there are 3800 street children, and the need to offer these children an alternative to the streets became increasingly evident. Today approximately 45 boys are part of the home, and those that are there daily sleep in a big dormitory together with a home parent. In the home the boys are met with care and understanding – contrary to their former rough lives. All the boys attend primary school, secondary school or are enrolled in education. In their free time the boys play sports, especially rugby and football, practice acrobatics, play music and are active in the Church.
New Life Girls House
After New Life Boys House had been started, an increasing number of girls came and asked for help. Neither the municipality nor the government has any help to offer those who have been abandoned or been a victim of violence or sexual abuse. New Life Girls House, a home for vulnerable girls and teenagers, was therefore started in 2003. A group of girls moved into the newly started home and experiencing a safe environment, made a huge difference in the girls’ lives. An increasing number of girls joined the home, and the need for bigger facilities became evident.
In 2007 the girls were able to move into a newly built, two-story house, with a kitchen, dining hall, lounge, bathrooms, toilets and rooms, each with four bunk beds. It is a modern house with tiles on all 570-m²-floor surface as well as on the walls in the bathrooms, toilets and in the kitchen. 65 girls are now part of the home and four home parents take turns in caring for them. All the girls attend primary school, secondary school or are enrolled in education. The girls help with the domestic duties such as washing clothes and cleaning, just as they help prepare food together with the staff. This helps give them a foundation in life, so that they in their future will be able to care for themselves. In their free time the girls love to sing, dance, play sports and be active in Church.