International Peace Initiatives (IPI) creates spaces where orphans can find who they are and thrive. Our homes provide a place where vulnerable children find love, care, shelter, food, education and a roof over their heads so that they can break the cycle of poverty in their lives and that of their families. With 63 orphans living at Kithoka Amani Children’s Home (KACH), the home has outgrown the space we currently have, especially in times the schools are closed because of COVID-19. We have been desiring to do this for four years now without success due to lack of funds.

40 lives of the boys aged 5 to 18 years will be improved directly. The boys who will be housed in the dormitory will enjoy the living space, helping them to sleep better, study better with less noise and disturbance. An extra space they deserve to enjoy while playing and helping other boys to get on with their day-to-day activities so they can thrive.

When we bring in workers, builders and their families, as well as – in the long run – the boys’ families the project will impact an estimated 30,000 lives:

• The community has already benefited from a piped water project we have shared with them as it wove its way to our site.
• The women’s group members who have benefited from our water-filtering systems that we shared with them.
• The community with which we share care for our environment – we planted 1,000 trees around the place where the boy’s dormitory is built in April, 2021.
• Several schools that are around where the boy’s dormitory is will interact with our children in school and attend holiday programs that we set up with the KACH kids for the community kids; the shared playgrounds we share with the community children and youth during the holidays to compete in various games (soccer, netball, etc).
• and the annual community exhibitions we intend to organise (they bring around 2,000 people together) to show case items our children make (soap, jewelry, weaving, wood work, construction using recycled items like plastic bottles and stabilized soil blocks).
• The international guests (students, interns and volunteers) who visit us annually totaling 1,000 annually – we hope the numbers will increase after COVID-19 is over).
• The community members who will learn permaculture and integrated land use design from our farm.
• The radio programs we hope to create as well as social media platforms to share our approach to regeneration and creating resilience in our communities; and so on – these people numbers add up and we actually impact many more through our radio and television presentations – (as we have done at the current KACH site).

Donations totaling Ksh 779624 (or €6,000) will be used for the roof, doors, windows, toilets, plastering, paint and the floor. Extra donations will be used for a kitchen and dining. The total budget for the entire boys’ dormitory to accommodate 40 boys was Ksh2,500,000 (or €19,531). With the donations through iMACT direct, IPI could buy bags of cement and sand to finish the walls.

Our long term goal is to create Amani Homes for peace where children grow in a wholesome and loving environment in-order to build resilience in their lives. Through the care provided at Kithoka Amani Children’s Home (KACH), the children will be able to break the cycle of violence in their lives, families and communities. Our purpose is to transform the lives of 100 children with a Home that models that love is everything a vulnerable child needs to thrive!

The community wanted to bring their young men to help our youth build the dormitory. The local leader came by and wanted her son to join our boys because they had observed that our children were very hard working. Also, the local football club invited our boys to play soccer with them. Our youth invited other youth from the community to help and learn at the food forest at IPI. Dr Karambu Ringera: “[What surprise me is] how mature the children became because of COVID-19. They had a sense of unity and inclusiveness that I had not seen before. They were ready to share their food and ne learnings with other youth in the community.” Overall, the project became an entry point for our kids to get to know the local community youth. This land used to be a waste land, that we use for the dorm AND for growing our own food in the food forest we created. Already the youth harvested 10 bags of beans from this land. It is a place that will ensure food security for the home. Other crops we grow include cereals, fruit trees (lemons, oranges, avocados), tubers (cassava, sweet potatoes), bananas and indigenous trees. Dr Karambu Ringera: “The children are learning how to reclaim wastelands and understand the same process goes to enhancing one’s life. The transformation I see in them – taking charge of their lives, being responsible and accountable make me very proud of them.” So far it is successful because we have only a few things to include to complete the dorm once we get more funds. Unfortunately, the initial donor who was raising funds for the project was heavily affected by Covid, and we are not sure when to finalise it. After we complete the project, and the boys can move in, this will mean a great deal to them: space where they can do their studies without congestion.

Follow up

We need to raise more money to complete the dormitory – fit in the doors and windows, finish the floor, paint the walls and furnish the dorm so that the boys can move in. Other stakeholders can play their part too. Water is a huge problem here. We are fetching water many miles awa and the water source near us was commercial water that we have to buy. Drilling a borehole in this region will be amazing.