Furaha Orphanage is a grassroots initiative founded and directed by Esther Kadzo Kazungu. Despite having very little means, her strength, faith and vision inspired her to shelter and nurture the orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) in her community.

 

The Orphanage is situated near Kilifi Town (see map), about 1.5 hrs North of Mombasa, along the Kenyan Coast.  Kilifi district is one of the poorest districts in Kenya.

 

The centre was registered as a Self-Help Group in March 2007, and obtained national registration as a Charitable Children Institution in March 2009.  The certificate was officially handed to the Orphanage on 2nd November 2009 (see attachment below).

 

With the help of 7 staff, Furaha Orphanage currently takes care of 30 OVCs (15 girls, 15 boys), from 7-18 years old.  The children are from the local community within Kilifi district.  Most of the children have lost their parents to HIV/AIDS, malaria, or other causes of sickness.  The surrounding community is extremely poor, and the children's extended family networks are either non-existent, or unable to cope with an additional child or group of siblings.

 

All 30 children at Furaha Orphanage are now enrolled in the local primary school (Kibaoni Primary School), where they have been performing well.  They have successfully completed their 2009 academic year, and have resumed classes for their new academic year which started this January 2010.

 

In addition to taking care of the 30 OVCs, Esther (the Director and a trained teacher) teaches nursery school for free to 45 community children whose parents are too poor to enrol them in school.  She also has her own five daughters, with the youngest being 3 years old.