We are an Australian based charity dedicated to the provision of care, safety education and love to a group of abandoned children in Kenya. 

Zaidi ya Dreams is funded entirely by the generosity of donors who share the Zaidi dream of allowing these children to dream dreams of their own. We encourage you to join with us in the dream by donating to this worthy cause.

Our administration costs are very small and virtually all of your contribution will go directly to the children in Kenya.

Located in Kenya,  Kamiti 30min from bustling Nairobi, Zaidi ya Dreams offers a serene environment for children with traumatic backgrounds to heal and grow.

We believe that no child should grow up in a childrens home. Sadly for some children in Kenya this is a sad reality.  We reintegrate wherever possible and as soon as possible. The children who remain at Zaidi ya Dreams have no other safe place to go.  

The children at Zaidi ya Dreams are survivors of abandonment at birth or soon after, physical, sexual and emotional abuse.  

Yasmine Ernst  

Zaidi Ya Dreams was founded by Yasmine Ernst. Yasmine has combined her love for children, passion for social justice, and belief in the possibility of change to bring hope for a future to a small group of children.

Yasmine was born in a country town in Victoria Australia and was schooled in the beautiful city of Adelaide. During this time she witnessed the work of Government and community organizations in bringing health and education to the underprivileged. Her strong advocacy for social justice and undying determination to overcome adversity and bring opportunity and hope to those with none has always been part of her.

Yasmine spent a year in Guatemala as an exchange student. She lived with a local family and experienced the culture and struggles faced by the people of Guatemala.

Yasmine's intolerance for racism developed during her time at Flinders University where as a student she became involved heavily with the Latino dance movement. Through this, she was exposed to the rapidly growing Sudanese community in Adelaide. She became increasingly aware of the negative effects of racism in Australia.

Having completed her studies at Finders University Yasmine returned to Guatemala to spend a year volunteering in local schools and helping local organisations with promotional videos. She witnessed numerous cases of injustice including an occasion when a young Sudanese boy who had attended church camps where she was a leader was killed trying to break up a fight between his friends over a girl. The media portrayed the boy as a gang member and troublemaker. A grave injustice to the boy whom Yasmine knew to be quite the opposite.

Yasmine returned to Australia to do honors. She became restless to bring issues of racism and injustice to light. She studied the plight of child soldiers in Sudan and observed the bias in media reporting. That bias was having a negative impact on the lives of innocent survivors living in Adelaide and other parts of Australia. She responded with the production of a short film to bring attention to the topic.

In 2010 Yasmine decided to travel to Kenya to make a pilot for a project she was developing. She combined this with volunteer work in a children's home and the filming of the Sudanese summit in Nairobi. Yasmine lived in Kenya for twelve years and provides ongoing support for the fantastic band of children that is Zaidi Ya Dreams.

As children grow Zaidi grows with them. We are no longer taking babies. We are growing together as a family. We are doing this so that we may continue to offer a high standard of care to the older children instead of having to focus on young children always. After high school the children will have the opportunity to go to university or do an apprenticeship in a chosen field. 

We are teaching the children life skills as we go. We have started teach them,  

Cooking

Self care

House keeping

Tax and accounting basics

Car maintenance 

Household Budgeting

Job interview skills

Relationship management skills and

Personal advocacy. 

Zaidi receives money from donors who have seen or heard about Zaidi and want to support. Most of the money raised has come form Yasmine's family. 

We are sponsored by Bayside Family medical practice, Animals Australia and other one off donations from Rotary, Small businesses and Schools.

No. The government does not give any financial assistance to Zaidi ya Dreams children's Family. 

This is a multi part question. 

1. School is not actually free. Corruption means that there is a fee that must be paid in order for a child to attend. Children who do not have the 'Fee' will be sent home. Children also need to pay a small fee for porridge. They must have uniform, school shoes and bags. This is not possible for many families. By taking this burden away from family members they are more willing and able to house a child. 

2. Quality of education. Governments schools tend to be over crowded with class numbers being unmanageable for teachers. This can work for kids who learn well on their own. For kids with trauma backgrounds they do not tend to do well. 

3. Distance. Children in the community may not live near a government school. Some children walk four hours to get to school. leaving before the sun comes up and coming home when the sun is down is not conducive to learning. 

For all of these reasons we mainly use private schools for the children in and out of care. 

We work with government authorities to rescue children in need of care and protection. We admit children from birth to three years old. We have admitted older children in emergency situations or where sibling groups are involved.  Once in our care we do everything possible to get them back with safe family members. See family reunification. The children who remain with us have no safe traceable relatives. 

No it does not always work out. Sometimes it fails in a few months some times it takes a few years. We keep monitoring the families to make sure the child is being well looked after and attending school. 

We have very clear policies and procedures to ensure children in our program are respected, protected and active in their own protection. We carefully select employees, and make regular school and home visits.

These children are however very vulnerable and perceived as easy targets. We constantly talk to the kids to make sure they are safe. We do get times where teachers and even our own staff have smacked children. It is very hard to change this culture. We believe that teaching the children their rights and safety behaviors is key to preventing any abuse. 

Fantastic! there are many ways that you can help.  You could

 volunteer, 

donate, 

create your own fundraiser 

or simply help spread the word about our work – sharing on social media is a great start.

You could run a fundraising campaign for your school, office or in your local community. Anything from a raffle, selling chocolates, car was to bottle collection can help us meet these children's needs.

We need a range of skilled volunteers, including teachers, councilors, accounting and communications. Please send us as much detail as you can about your background, your skills, education, and experience, and we’ll contact you to see how you can best get involved. 

You can also post one of our photos or videos on social media, or sign up for our newsletter.

All our financial transactions are 100% transparent. Because we are a small hands on organisations without overheads all of your money goes where it is needed. This is supported by an accounting and auditing process that meets Australian, and Kenyan standards for not-for-profit organisations.

You can read our annual financial reports, which detail exactly where our funds go. Please let us know if you would like to see these documents or if you have any further questions on this.

All directors give their time for free meaning that the donations go exactly where the need to be.

Local Kenyan staff are paid a fair wage.