rescue restore reunite

STRONG POINT CHILDREN’S HOME is a TEMPORARY RESCUE CENTER (not an orphanage) for orphaned, vulnerable, and abused children in Kenya (East Africa).  Our motto is “Because every child deserves a family!”  Our core values are: Rescue. Restore. Reunite.  As a Christ centered organization we are committed to showing compassion on to those who are less fortunate.  Psalm 82:3-4 says “Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.”  We believe that God has ordained families to raise and nourish children, and we believe the best place for every child is in the context of a loving family.  We truly wish that ministries like ours did not need to exist, and that every child had a loving family.  Tragically, this is simply not the reality in a world filled with sin.

Many children in Kenya live in terrible circumstances that often result in harm or even death without immediate rescue and intervention.  Multitudes of children are neglected, abused, orphaned, malnourished, and/or abandoned.  These children urgently need someone to rescue them.  Without immediate rescue, many of these precious children will die.

RESCUE.

This is where we come into the picture. We work at the community level with village chiefs and government children’s officers to identify the most vulnerable children who desperately need our assistance.  Poverty alone is never a valid reason to separate a child from their parents.  Our home is a last resort and we only intervene in the most desperate cases.  After rescuing a child we immediately start the process of family tracing and reuniting them with their biological families.  In cases where the biological family cannot provide the necessary care we reintegrate the child into another family through local adoption, kinship care, or foster care.  While this process is ongoing, the children are safe at Strong Point Children’s Home where they are cared for spiritually, emotionally, physically, and academically.  Lives are saved, and hope is restored!

RESTORE.

Strong Point Children’s Home ministers to the needs of each child under our care on an individual basis.  Many of our children have been through severe physical and emotional trauma that is unimaginable.  Therefore, we take a holistic approach to restoration through proper diet and nutrition, games, chores, Christian counseling, education, rest, and worship.  Restoration can be process that lasts a lifetime for some of the children whom we rescue.  However, we begin the process as they enter the door at Strong Point Children’s Home.  Many children’s lives are changed through the love of Christ while under our care and much healing takes place in their little bodies and spirits.  Our home functions as a temporary, safe haven while permanent solutions are being sought.

REUNITE.

Through decades of research by various international relief organizations it has been proven that an institution is no place for a child to live permanently. Strong Point Children’s Home is a Temporary Rescue Center, not an orphanage. Orphanages keep children for the entirety of their childhood and even into adulthood. However, we focus on reuniting children with their families and communities where they belong.  Even the greatest orphanage can never replace a loving family.  Therefore, at Strong Point Children’s Home we believe that every child can and should be successfully reunited with the local community to live with a family.  Some are reunited with their biological parents, others are adopted, or receive foster care.  We monitor, educate, and equip the families into which children are placed to ensure that proper, lasting care is administered.  Our primary goal is to Rescue, Restore, and Reunite…  Because every child deserves a family!

Psalm 68:6 says “God sets the solitary (lonely) in families”…  We co-labor with Him to make this scripture a reality in the lives of as many vulnerable children as possible in Kenya.  From the first day that we rescue a child the final goal is always reintegration into a loving family.  We partner with the Kenyan government, county children’s department, local pastors, and registered adoption societies in order to assist each child to have their very own family.  The best interest of the children under our care is the primary consideration in everything that we do at Strong Point Children’s Home.

Strong Point Children’s Home is a member of the Association of Charitable Children’s Institutions in Kenya, and is registered in compliance with all Kenyan government requirements for Charitable Children’s Institutions.  Our policies and practices are based on biblical principles, and the “National Standards for Best Practices in Charitable Children’s Institutions” (UNICEF/Republic of Kenya, 2013).  

Strong Point Children’s Home believes strongly in empowering the Kenyan people at the community level.  We rely heavily on the wisdom of our Kenyan management committee in order to minister to the children in culturally relevant ways.  We employ a full Kenyan staff of a manager, social workers, security guards, cooks, care-givers, accountants, nurses, early childhood development teachers, and Christian counsellors.  Our primary care-givers are Kenyan widows, to whom we provide housing and meaningful jobs.  Psalm 68:5 says God is “A father to the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in His holy habitation.”  Therefore we strive to utilize the resources that God has given us in order to assist widows to feel accepted and loved.