Community Child Sponsorship

For many people, mentioning child sponsorship means a situation where a child is directly given support in the form of school fees, basic needs met, bought for school uniforms; meeting their health care needs as well as given food rations. As much as this may be true, there is the community child sponsorship where the benefits are not directed to individual children but to the entire community. The aim here is to improve the living environment of the child by supporting development activities that empowers communities to meet the challenges they face on their own and with resources locally available.

This concept of community sponsorship has been adopted by the church in three areas namely Kivaa (Seven forks area), Nairragie Enkare in Narok and Tangulbei in east Pokot to bring about community development and thereby guaranteeing that children will live and grow in a better environment. In these areas, children who are part of the development process have been brought together through children clubs and they meet weekly.

During such meetings, children have opportunity to play together, share and give emotional support to one another. They are taught life skills such as importance of discipline, respect, patriotism in addition to being guided to grow up in the knowledge of God fearing manner. They are taught the importance of caring for the Mother Nature, food security and livelihood as well as standing up for their rights. Altogether, there are currently over 400 children participating in these meetings.

Community sponsorship has ensured that as these communities are impacted to improve their food security, take better care of the environment, utilize the natural resources such as harvesting rain water, children are part and parcel of such a transformation; they have opportunity to go to school and have their voices heard on issues affecting them and their community.