Kiota in a nutshell

We can tell a lot about Kiota. But we keep it short on this page, hence 'Kiota in a nutshell'. Kiota children's support center has been in existence since 2012. Kiota means 'nest' in Swahili and symbolizes care, love and attention of the children who will fly out at some point.

The house where Kiota is situated is a big family house. 20 children (8 girls and 12 boys) from ages 4 – 18 years live here. The girls and boys all have their own bedroom with bunk beds. The girls’ bedrooms are located on the first floor – the boys’ bedrooms are located on the ground floor. Additionally, both a house mother and a house father are present day and night.

Life skills

We believe it is important that both a man and a woman are present in the house. This way, the girls can talk about real girls stuff with the house mother, and the boys can talk about real boys stuff with the house father.

It is also very important that all children learn how to deal with both a man and a woman, because this is what humanity consists of. Men in Kenya are seen as ‘unreliable’ - we would really like to contribute in changing this image. We also try to achieve this by sharing knowledge through so called ‘life skills’ in which all children participate. We teach them several life lessons to prepare themselves for certain choices in life, think of choices in friendship, falling in love, trust, education, helpfulness, honesty and so on.

The children's background

Children who are taken in by us mostly come from traumatic family situations. You can think of abuse and abandonment – the lack of education and poverty play a big role here.

When a child is taken in at Kiota, we make sure the child is provided with the basic needs (food, water, a bed, clothing). Furthermore, we make sure the child is able to go to school and is provided with medical care when needed.

Reintegration – going back to their family

Besides all of the above, the reintegration plays a very important part, because in this program we want to reunite the children with their families again. This reintegration program has to be executed with care, because the child’s future depends on this.

We also provideFamily Planning and Empowerment'. This program is important for reintegration, but also to contribute to self-reliance of the families and for the child as an individual person.

Our dream

Besides the programs as listed above, we have to make a big dream come true:

The Kiota Dream