Saidia First opened its doors in 2001 with just five children in a disused and near derelict college building. Today we have our own building and land, which is home to about fifty children.

Our needs aren't great. A diet of 'ugali' (a porridge of white maize) and beans supplemented by our own produce keeps the weekly food bill to £4 per head (one burger and chips in the UK!). But there are always other costs: staffing, clothes and medical treatment, and particularly education. It's no good just feeding and housing children, we have to make sure they will be able to make their way in the world once they leave the home. So we are committed to providing each child with the best and most appropraiate education and training available.

Self help is the principle underlying our whole philosophy: a determination not to rely on outside aid, but to strive to attain self sufficiency, with support from the local community. The children are taught from the start to do as much as possible for themselves, before looking for handouts. They have a vegetable plot which everyone helps tend, and a recent project has been the erection and stocking of rabbit hutches, providing meat for the pot, and a little income. Again, most of the work is done by the children themselves. Recently some of the older children have been learning to make traditional bead-work necklaces and braclets, which they sell to make a few shillings.