At Saidia 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 £3 per head (one burger and chips in the UK!). But there are other costs: Secondary schooling in Kenya isn't free, and fees of £40 per term will have to be found for each child; The wages bill for Social Worker, Teacher, and House Mother comes to about £110 per month, and about £140 per month is needed for other bills.

Local support for the project is growing steadily, but as yet is not sufficient to sustain us. In recent years the rains have been unpredictable with devastating effects on local agriculture. Recent terrorist activity has hit the Kenyan tourist trade hard and this has had a serious knock on effect through the whole economy. Spare cash is a very limited resource in Kenya! Despite this, people are coming forward with contributions of food, firewood, school clothing etc. Given the level of poverty in the community as a whole, this is a tremendous achievement, which should be an inspiration to us in the West. But even when we achieve our goal and become 100% locally funded, outside aid will still be needed to help us to expand and give hope to more of the ever growing street kid population.

One thing That has worried us from the start was the permanency of the home - the original building was only rented, and thus not secure for the long term. Over the last couple of years we have been raising money to erect a building of our own. Work finally started on the new building in June 2007, and we hope it will be ready for the children to move into by December 2007.

We hope you have enjoyed your visit to the House of Hope. If you feel you would like to make a donation, however large or small, please click on the arrow below to be taken to our donations page. Remember that the organisation is run on an entirely voluntary basis, so every penny you give goes directly to the children, with no 'administration charges'.