Blog
Tumaini News: March 2023
It has been a journey of friendship and partnership with City Life Church, Truro that started when Sue J visited Tumaini in 2009. In March 2023, we had the joy of welcoming a small group of four from Truro family. It was a week of many activities and reflection on this journey of hope.
A Visit to the streets
Tumaini’s mission is to see children rescued from the streets and vulnerable situations and return home to their families. We visited the streets with Pastor Matt’s team to relate with children awaiting rescue. We continue to rescue children from the streets of Nairobi and other regions in the country, reestablishing them at home and in the community.
Giving Mutua a home
Last Year, one team member visited City Life Church, Truro. She shared fellowship and updated our friends on the progress of Tumaini’s work, sharing stories of children rescued and families in the process of restoration. She shared the story of 8-year-old Mutua who had known the slum as his home. He was in and out of the streets most of his life. His family of sixteen (16) siblings lived in a two-bedroom rental house in the slum. It was partitioned with a bed sheet, had only bits of furniture and household items together with an empty cooking pan. We had rescued him from the streets and taken him back home. We realized that this family situation needed urgent intervention to change this situation to help Mutua settle and be established at home.
The family had a small piece of land in their village and expressed their desire to relocate to their land. They were stuck and unable due to financial challenges for a big family living in the slums. Tumaini team supported them with basic needs, the community gave what they could and then City Life Church family raised resources needed to build them a house.
During Pastor Matt and his team’s visit last month, the house was opened and dedicated to God. Today, Mutua and his family are in their own home on their own piece of land. Thank you, City Life Church, Truro!
Visiting the Children Remand
As well as rescuing children directly from the streets, we are also working with centres for children in Nyeri County and most recently, we have supported Nyeri Remand Children’s Home to reintegrate children. During this team’s visit, we spent time with the children and young people who experiencing different issues in their lives, undergoing rehabilitation and others were waiting to return home. We had a time to encourage them, share some gifts and play football which was a blast!
A visit to Naivasha Safe House (NSH)
We are also supporting NSH to reintegrate children with their families. Tumaini’s mission is to bring healing to abused children and ultimately make a lasting change in the child’s family. We do this by showing love through reintegration with safe family members, provision of education and use various empowerment strategies to strengthen the families. The visitors received a wonderful welcome and had a lovely time with the children at the centre.
Partnership, shared meals and Fellowship
We shared our lives together, travelled and worked together. But it was not all about work, we took them on a short safari to Nairobi National Park to see wild animals in their natural habitat, especially the famous Big Five. The team also visited Masai market for curios, saw Nairobi city from the top of the tallest building (KICC), and visited a coffee house to taste real coffee amongst many other activities, all in a week!
With Kenyan hospitality, a good visit doesn’t end without a shared meal. We had our final meeting to share a meal with our visitors, reflect on an intense week and look into the future. There are still many children on our streets and insecure places who need to return home to safety; many needy families who need provision and restoration. You can partner with Tumaini, by walking alongside a child or a family, visit us, take the journeys with us, and know about this amazing work that continues to give hope to children and families and communities. You can become our ambassador and a champion for orphans and vulnerable children.
Pastor Matt who led the team from City Life Church, Truro concluded: ‘It’s been an amazing trip to a wonderful country with an outstanding and dedicated team of people who practically share God’s love with some very vulnerable people living in difficult circumstances. The team are dedicated to seeing the Kingdom of God extended and advanced and it was a joy to spend time with them.’
