Koinonia Community in its mission of assisting street children, orphans and other vulnerable youth in Kenya follows the 3R’s approach: Rescue, Rehabilitate and Reintegrate.
Rescue and Rehabilitation
Vulnerable children from the streets and difficult family environments are identified by our social workers, the government or community members and are refeered to our rescue centres located in Kibera and Riruta. Some children are reunited with their families and assisted to join formal school, always accompanied by Koinonia social workers. Those who need more care and cannot be reintegrated to the family are reffered to either Kivuli Center (started in 1997, in Riruta), Anita Home (started in 1999 in Ngong) or Tone la Maji (established in 2005 in Ongata Rongai). In homes, the vulnerable children receive loving care and are provided with all their basic needs in terms of educational, medical and psycho-social support. The social workers also assist to reconcile the children with their family relations. The children are offered opportunities to develop their sel-esteem and talents. In coordination with the homes RIruta Health project operates a medical dispensary located in Kivuli for health needs of the children and the ssurrounding community, while Paolo’s Home in Kibera offers physiotherapy and rehabilitation services for children with disabilities.
Social Reintegration
Koinonia Community aims at reintegrating a child since the moment it establishes contact with him or her. This is pursued by enabling the child to be a protagonist within a participatory process. Through the Families to Families project (F2F), the social workers engage the wider community in developing support groups that eventually assist in the reintegration process. Family empoerment is a key dimension in the process that focuses on building both preventive and curative capacities to safeguard the human development of children. The re-integration framework accompanies families through a gradual process of discovering and developing resources that can be employed to uplift themselves from a state of hopelessness, like capacity for dialogue, basic management skills and sharing in times of suffering and grieving.