The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) has initiated a two-year project—the Helping Hands Partnership—to support orphans, vulnerable children, and young adults aged 10 to 24 years in Nyanza province, on Lake Victoria in southwestern Kenya.

In addition to interventions that will directly benefit children, the project will strengthen the support children receive in the community by building the capacity of 25 school management committees throughout the province. Adults, chosen from among local faith-based congregations and professional counsellors of partner organizations, will be trained as mentors to provide additional support and guidance for the children.

An estimated 250,000 children live on the streets and beaches of Kenya, a nation of more than 30 million. Kenya’s National AIDS and STD Control Programme (NASCOP) reports that at six percent, Nyanza province has the highest rate of “double orphans” in the country. Many of the region’s children have lost their parents to AIDS-related diseases.

"The communities in Nyanza live below the poverty line. With an increasing number of orphans the traditional extended family care for children is overburdened and unable to cope," explains George Baiden, country director for ADRA Kenya.

The Helping Hands Partnership encompasses several projects that will benefit a total of 800 children and young adults.

To help keep vulnerable children safe and off the streets, the project will meet the basic needs of 20 children in child-headed or other vulnerable households in five provincial districts. ADRA will provide each of the 100 children with shelter, beds and linens, food, cooking utensils, school fees, uniforms, and books. In addition, the children will receive assistance in establishing and developing livelihoods. Adult mentors will be trained to support the children.

Another 160 students in eight secondary schools will receive much-needed textbooks.

ADRA will also provide farming tools for 350 young heads of households to use in growing food for their families. Aiding in the success of the children’s efforts, adult mentors will be trained in child involvement and food production, while others will learn to support child-managed agricultural initiatives such as the production of vegetables, chickens, and rabbits. Another group of mentors and guardians will be trained in entrepreneurship, how to manage a revolving fund, and set up a system of mobilized labour to support child-headed households.

Children will participate in guidance and counselling sessions, which will include HIV and AIDS awareness and prevention education. Project leaders will liaise with those of the ADRA Kenya’s Child Education Support and Development project to help vulnerable children enter the Manga Juvenile Remand Home, a facility designed to help street children reintegrate into a home setting. ADRA will also work with the Manga Juvenile Remand Home to rescue, rehabilitate, and reintegrate children into stable, caring homes.

In partnership with the Kajiado Girls School and Maasai Development Project, the Helping Hands project is working to protect 200 young girls from the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM). The project will support the Maasai Development Project’s efforts to promote alternative rites of passage to FGM in Kajiado and Narok districts in the bordering province of Rift Valley.

“We have no idea how much hope this project will give to orphaned children, especially girls, and how much the destiny of even whole communities hang on this modest investment in their future,” says Baiden.

The Helping Hands Partnership project is funded by ADRA International and is scheduled to run through January 31, 2009.

ADRA is present in 125 countries, providing community development and emergency management without regard to political or religious association, age, gender, or ethnicity.