Below, you can learn about the kids we are currently caring for.
Not everyone living in our compound or undergoing rehab will have a profile here for their security. We hope those whom you can read about will stir and encourage you, that you will realize that investing in these kids is a worthwhile effort
Please pray for all those God has placed in our care!
Sarah's Story:
Sarah Naiserian, from Lodwar
Sarah was born on the first of January 2002. She is the last born out of five girls but cannot recall any memory of her mother. The older sisters told her that she had died when Sarah was a toddler. The only person they had to take care of them was their grandmother. She later joined Lodwar nursery School and then went on to Lodwar primary school, hoping for a good future. Life at home was difficult, but her grandmother was hard working and ensured they had meals and clothes to wear. When Sarah was in class 3, tragedy struck; her grandmother was working when she slipped and injured her spine, she could no longer work. The family's sole provider could not support them. Due to continued late rent payments, they were locked out of their house and forced to move in with Sarah's Aunt; this was a forced move, and the Aunt was not happy about it. She began being abusive in a move to get them to leave. Sarah, being the youngest, bore the brunt of the abuse. She began spending more and more time outside and hung out in the streets every day after school. One day Sarah came home an hour later than expected and the Aunt beat her with a pipe, chasing her out and leaving bruises on her legs. She also had bruised eyes and lips from being slapped and pinched. Sarah spent the night in the streets with the girls she had met outside of school. One of them suggested they go to Eldoret, that she had a kind and loving Aunt who would take them in. Knowing that she would be beaten again if she went back, she followed her friend to Eldoret. They begged until they had enough to travel, and as soon as they arrived in Eldoret, Sarah realized that there was no Aunt, the story had been made up.
They were stranded in the streets. They begged for food, dug in trash bins for anything discarded by restaurants, went to the market to collect half-rotten fruit; anything to survive. They were new in town, and most of the boys made advances. The ones whom they rejected would beat them and abuse them. Some would even rape the girls. For a good spot to sleep, food, and protection, the girls were forced to sleep with the boys. Not all boys were mean, but the majority would only help in trade for sex. An older girl who had a small house in Langas (just outside of Eldoret) took her and her friend in, and the two girls would come to town daily to beg for money and go back home in the evenings, the older girl expected them to provide. One day Sarah came back from town with no money and was immediately kicked out. She went back to town as it was the only place she knew. Life had become too complicated, so it was at this point that she turned to drugs. She began sniffing glue (contact adhesive) but was soon hooked on to harder drugs: Marijuana and 'jet fuel' (a canned engine fuel treatment like 'Seafoam' that is inhaled by many living in the streets). She said out of 50 shillings she got from begging, only ten would be used for food, the rest she would use on drugs.
One day Sarah met a young man named Tony in town who had a house and was housing four other girls, two of them with children. Tony didn't have room for her, but he told her about a church in King'ong'o headed by Pastor Wilson and a Missionary family that gave food, clothes, and preached to street families. Sarah came for her first feeding program, and her life has since changed.
When she first met with us, she asked if there was any way we could take her away from the streets. We began by furnishing a small apartment near the church for her and one of her friends, counseling, and helping to overcome drug addiction. Once the rehab center was finally opened, she and her friend were our first residents (her friend has since completed rehab and returned to family). She has opened up so much, has put on healthy weight from finally having a consistent diet, and once again has high hopes for her future. All thanks to the saving grace of Jesus Christ!
Kevin's Story
Family name redacted for privacy
Kevin was born on the thirty-first of May, 2002. He has two younger siblings, Sharon and Victor. His father was married to two different women, was a heavy drinker, and very abusive to both the women and his children. Kevin's Mom was frequently beaten in front of the kids and their neighbors. No longer wanting to live under such circumstances, she left her family and ran to Nairobi, Kevin was nine at the time.
Life at home got more stringent for the kids. The step Mom beat them as well, starved them, and frequently told them to leave, just as their Mom had done. Kevin began doing small jobs to earn a living for himself and his siblings, but when the step Mom discovered what he was doing, she began to beat him more, claiming that he was undermining her, embarrassing her in front of their neighbors. Kevin finally decided to leave home, even though this meant leaving his younger siblings. He went first to his Grandmother's house in Tigoi, pleading for assistance, but she was unable to help. He resigned from there to make the journey to Eldoret to work as a cattle herder. For a long time, Kevin worked herding cattle for farmers without pay. They would give him one meal per day in the evenings and a place to sleep. Under these conditions, he found it best to look elsewhere, so he entered Eldoret town and soon found himself amongst the street families. It was wasn't long before he began sniffing glue and jet fuel, drinking alcohol, and smoking marijuana. Addiction had gotten hold of him.
During this time, the city council was performing raids amongst the street families, and the Police picked up Kevin. They arrested and charged him, placing him in the Eldoret Children's Remand Home (Juvenile Detention Center). He spent four months there. On the day of his release, he decided to return to his home. Upon arrival, instead of welcoming him home, his dad was gone, and his step Mom, furious. He discovered Sharon and Victor had also left home. He waited nearby for the return of his father, but when he arrived, the dad refused to recognize him, merely telling him to leave. Kevin was broken and only knew of one place to go: back to the streets of Eldoret.
Life in town was again tough as he looked for ways to survive. He found employment selling illegal moonshine and used the money he made to rent a house in Langas, which he shared with four other boys. The five of them also became peddlers of marijuana and glue, adding to their moonshine running venture. They also began to break into garages and homes, stealing anything they could sell in town, to use the money for their drug addiction. During another police raid, Kevin and one of his friends were arrested, taken to court, and prosecuted. He would spend another three months incarcerated, this time in the Eldoret Men's Prison. There, he was abused and molested.
Released from prison, he decided again to try returning home, only to meet the same hostility he had always known. Back to the streets, he went and found his comfort again in drugs and alcohol. He was arrested a third time but, for some reason, not charged. This was a turning point in Kevin's mind. He stopped selling drugs and began collecting items from trash bins that he could sell to recyclers. He left the street gang and began to look for some way to change his life honestly when someone told him about a feeding program for street families led by a Missionary; they said to look for Jeremy, Bilita, and Thomas, to find out how he could go. Through Gerard and Pastor Wilson, he found help getting to the Missionary's feeding program; that feeding program would forever change the course of his life.
Kevin is now dry and sober, learning to read and do basic maths, which he had never been taught before. He also works as a helper to a dog trainer for the Police. He is a leader in the Second Chance Rehabilitation Center, helping others in the community learn how to overcome difficult circumstances.
Linda's Story
Family name redacted for privacy
Linda Muhadla was born on the 25th of December, 2002. There were four girls cared for by a single Mom. The father had left when she was small. The mother separated her daughters, sending Linda and her sister Anita to stay with their Grandmother. The other two went to work as house helps. Linda has never seen or heard from them since.
Linda and her sister were abandoned by their Mom when Linda was just four years old. Their Grandmother worked at a neighbors farm every day and left the girls alone, which caused them to search for other ways to occupy their minds and care for themselves. As they grew, others in the community noticed that their guardian was not around most of the time. A man in the village began to lock himself in the house with them while he forced himself upon them, threatening harm to them if they should tell anyone.
Others knew what he was doing and notified the Grandmother, who reported the matter to authorities. The girls were taken to the local hospital for tests and treatment; the perpetrator was arrested. A social worker at the hospital deemed Linda's Grandmother unfit to care for them, and the girls were taken to a Juvenile home in Matunda. Linda still says that she loved her Grandmother and did not want to be separated.
Life at the detention center was hard, so they attempted to escape. Anita was arrested during the escape and taken to Baharini Police Station. Linda made it to Maili Nne, just off of the Eldoret/Kitale Highway, where she was picked up by a passerby who convinced her to get into his car. She was taken to Matunda Police Station, then transferred to the Eldoret Rescue Center. Fortunately, both girls were sent to the Eldoret Detention Center, where they received medical checks and treatment. The Police were notified of their past and began to follow up on their rape case. They were taken to Eldoret law courts and had to face their assailant, who at first denied everything. Eventually, the truth came out, and he was put in prison.
The girls were returned to the detention center. In 2018 Anita attempted to escape again, this time succeeding, but with nowhere to go, ended up living in the streets of Eldoret. Linda escaped in 2019. She went to town but found that Anita had now moved into the village of King'ong'o. Linda moved in with a woman who made illicit brew (moonshine) and worked as her 'house help' for a place to sleep. The woman's rowdy customers would often hit her, and make passes at her.
Linda finally found Anita, who, at just 16, had been married and now had a baby boy. She moved in with her sister and her husband, but he was abusive. He came one day with a friend, then left with Anita, leaving only Linda and his friend in the home. The man told Linda that he wanted to marry her and live a life together free of struggle, in a way to force himself on her. When she discovered that she was expecting, he was nowhere around, then Anita's husband chased her away, leaving her with nowhere to go.
The next few weeks became the worst of her life. She had nowhere to stay and no food to eat. She would sleep wherever she could find a place, often exchanging a room for sex. She would eat whatever could be found, or offered as she begged. Several times she was thrown out of a house in the middle of the night as the men didn't want her, only what they could take from her.
When the government announced curfew due to Covid-19, she felt stranded, but someone in the village mentioned a new center being built that offered help to the less fortunate. She came to the Second Chance Rehabilitation Home, pleading for help. There she found a home, the saving grace of Jesus Christ, and a family that cares for her.
She had a hard time forgiving her sister, but through God's grace, the relationship has been repaired. Her sister has since left her abusive husband to live alone with her child and frequently comes to visit Linda, amazed by the change God has made in her life.
We are actively working to reunite Linda with her grandmother and caring for all the medical necessities required for her at this time.
Rowlings’ Story
Rowlings Odhiambo from Siaya County
Rowlings was born in the year 2006 though he does not recall the date or the month. We are currently working with the local officials to find his family and acquire a birth certificate so that he can at least know his birthday.
His native home is in Siaya County, where he was born into a family of five and raised by a single Mom.
Raising this family was difficult for her, and she often sought assistance from relatives, but they were not able to help much. After a time, she divided the family, giving her two eldest to an aunt and the two youngest to their Grandmother. Rowlings and his younger brother left their home and prepared to live a life of struggle since the Grandmother was incapable of giving proper care. The two boys also had an illness inherited at birth that required a special diet and medication which was hard to get in the rural village where they were living, due to that the Grandmother decided she could not care for them. Hence, she must move them to Langas, Eldoret, where their Mother was now living.
When they arrived, Rowlings was enrolled in Jesset Nursery School and later joined St. Michael Primary School. The Mother mostly left the kids to their own devices even though she was unemployed and the only caregiver for them. Rowlings remembers a time when they would only have one bowl of porridge in the morning, which would have to last them until late in the evening. The boys began to look for ways to survive, often begging in the streets and stealing shoes and clothes left outside by neighbors. They would sell these items in town to get food, which often caused fights with the same neighbors. Rowlings tried to defend his brother in one of these fights by using a stone against the man who was trying to stop them. The police were called, and Rowlings fled. He came to live in the streets of Eldoret town for about three months. He began working in the market, helping to load the stall vendor’s shops and clean up for them. He began using glue, marijuana, and alcohol. He says that he only used these drugs to fit in with other street families and so that he would not be bullied.
After three months of living in the streets, he got ill and decided to return home. He found that his family had moved, and no one knew where to direct him. He was referred to a foundation that cared for street kids’ medical demands and gave him the medication that he needed, but he still had nowhere to live. He met a younger boy in town named Alex (whom we have since reconnected with family through our feeding program). Alex was more cleanly dressed and did not use drugs. Rowlings saw this, and it put a desire in him to change so that he could be more like Alex. He liked how Alex conducted himself and how happy he was even though he had also come from a hard situation, and was living in the streets. Alex brought Rowlings with him to the King’ ong’ o church for Sunday Service, and then again to a feeding program. Rowlings asked if we could help him and give him a place at the Second Chance Rehabilitation Home. Once entering the home, there was no turning back. He is happy and settled.
We still are trying to reach family and reconnect him with his Mother.
Dan Otieno
Dan is the first 'street kid' that we helped to get out of the streets. We met him last year at one of our feeding programs, and then he decided that he would walk to church the following Sunday and get any help we could offer. From then until now, Dan has been a great young man and an incredible asset to the ministry. He currently works as our interpreter, teaches community kids English and Math basics, and has a great desire for the work of the Lord! Dan has started a singing group in King'ong'o to share the Gospel! He came from a home where both parents had died, and his brother was murdered. He lived in the streets for six months before coming into our care. These are the raw details that may seem rough, but this is a story of how God can take what may seem hopeless, and turn it into great beauty! We praise the Lord for Dan!