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	<title>Reproductive Health and Welfare &#8211; Kenya Children Centres</title>
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	<title>Reproductive Health and Welfare &#8211; Kenya Children Centres</title>
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		<title>“I Belong”: How Kenya is Re-Shaping Children’s Services</title>
		<link>https://kenyachildrencentres.com/2025/09/10/i-belong-how-kenya-is-re-shaping-childrens-services/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=i-belong-how-kenya-is-re-shaping-childrens-services</link>
					<comments>https://kenyachildrencentres.com/2025/09/10/i-belong-how-kenya-is-re-shaping-childrens-services/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[ianfaulkner]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 10 Sep 2025 10:27:13 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Abandoned Baby Unit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Feeding Programmes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reintegration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reproductive Health and Welfare]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Short-Term Residential Care]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://kenyachildrencentres.com/?p=5509</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[When Amina was 8, she had never known what it meant to eat dinner with a family. She grew up in a large children’s home outside Nairobi, with dozens of other children cared for by a rotating staff. She was safe but not seen. Last year, thanks to Kenya’s new care reform programme, social workers traced her aunt in Kisumu. With counselling and small financial support, her aunt welcomed Amina home. Today, she walks to school with cousins, helps fetch water in the evenings, and has someone to tuck her in at night. Amina’s smile says it all: she belongs. Amina’s journey is part of a much bigger story. Kenya is changing how it cares for children. The aim is simple but profound: no child should grow up in an institution if a safe, loving family is possible. Kenya is in the middle of a major child welfare transformation. For decades, children’s homes (“orphanages”) were the default safety net. Today, the law and the strategy are clear: the future is family-based care. “The best place for a child to grow is in a safe and loving family. Institutions are a last resort.” — National Council for Children’s Services (NCCS). This transformation is underpinned by two key policies/strategies: Children Act, 2022: Enshrines the best interests of the child and makes family-based care the priority. National Care Reform Strategy (2022–2032): A ten-year roadmap to transition thousands of children from institutions into families and communities. This is not just an aspiration – real change has already happened: ✅   Foster care is growing – Over 1,600 foster parents are already registered. ✅   Families are being supported: financial support, disability services, and the new Positive Parenting Guidelines help prevent separation before it happens. ✅   Helpline 116 – Toll-free, 24/7, linking children and families to county protection services. ✅   Institutions are shifting: many homes are now planning to re-purpose as short-stay rescue centres or family support hubs. ✅   Child Protection Information Management System (CPIMS) – A digital case management system, now used across Kenya. And more is in the pipeline: Now–2026: Licensing, compliance checks, and stronger support to prevent family breakdown. 2027: Target year to have 70% of children from institutions placed with families. 2028: All institutions must submit approved transition plans. 2032: Reform complete — institutions operate only as short-term, therapeutic facilities; the norm is family care. KCC delivers all of its services in Kenya through a Charitable Children’s Institution (CCI) called Kujali.  Kujali has been transitioning its services from its roots as an orphanage to align with the Kenyan Government’s strategy of prevention, alternative care and reintegration. We run three types of outreach programmes: Feeding programmes in slum schools, to encourage attendance and give children the energy to learn Counselling services to provide generic support to the children in school, and specific support to families Education support, to enable the most disadvantaged children to attend school In addition, at our centre near Thika, we have four further programmes: A baby unit to care and nurture for abandoned babies Short-term residential care, for displaced children and A unit to support teenage mothers and their babies, and give them the skills that they need for the future. These three are all underpinned by our reintegration service, which tries to reconnect the babies and children in our care with their families and communities. Where this is not possible, we seek to have them adopted by a loving family or placed in foster care. National Council for Children’s Services strategy for children These reforms are ambitious and evidence-based. Transitioning care safely requires: Training for social workers and caregivers. Financial support for vulnerable families. Specialist services for children with disabilities. Monitoring and accountability systems. But transforming children’s services isn’t free. It takes trained social workers, community support, and funds to strengthen struggling families. Unfortunately, these reforms are also underfunded, which is why the Kenyan Government is partnering with organisations like Kujali, funded by Kenya Children Centres in the UK. Your donation helps ensure: Vulnerable families don’t break apart for lack of food, school fees, or medical care. Children who ‘drop out’ of the system are supported and nurtured by our trained and caring staff Children are reunited safely with their families and communities, or found loving adoptive parents Your support will help Kenyan children grow up in safe families, not institutions.  Your donations support our family-strengthening programmes. Your advocacy can spread the word that children belong in families. Because children need families, not facilities.  Because every child deserves to say “I belong”.]]></description>
		
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		<title>KCCs Reproductive Health Programme</title>
		<link>https://kenyachildrencentres.com/2024/04/09/kccs-reproductive-health-programme/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=kccs-reproductive-health-programme</link>
					<comments>https://kenyachildrencentres.com/2024/04/09/kccs-reproductive-health-programme/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[ianfaulkner]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Apr 2024 08:18:47 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Reproductive Health and Welfare]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://kenyachildrencentres.com/?p=3226</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[KCCs Reproductive Health Programme was set up to tackle the root causes of unwanted babies and their abandonment.  Most young people in the poorer areas of Kenya receive no guidance on sexual matters or support for their adolescent concerns due to absent parents and overworked teachers.  KCC aims to fill that gap. We want to help girls and boys avoid being stigmatised and rejected, discontinuing school, suffering poverty and ill health, and risking further abuse. The first stage of the Programme, kindly funded by a grant from the Geoff Herrington Foundation, employed three counsellors to engage with children through their schools. Our primary goal is to reduce sexual abuse of teenage girls and unwanted pregnancies and it is aimed at children aged 10-14 years. After running the initial sessions, it became clear that the girls and boys had many other emotional issues that were caused by domestic circumstances, dysfunctional family relationships, and a lack of adult guidance. We responded by expanding the scope of group sessions to provide a range of life skills and deal with peer pressures, puberty, menstrual health, self-discipline and drug abuse. The program includes both girls and boys and gives a rare opportunity for discussion in a child-friendly, safe environment, in both individual and group sessions. The issues addressed include reproductive health knowledge, which includes their understanding and appreciation of their body changes, (adolescence and puberty), and menstrual health, especially with the girls going through with the demonstration of use, handling, and disposal of disposable and reusable sanitary towels. Other topics include drug and substance abuse i.e. the cause, effects, and reasons why people get into drug and substance abuse.  Life skills are also discussed at length.  These include assertiveness training, decision-making, non-chemical addiction, stress management and relationships in general. The challenges associated with the running of the programme include: Limited time for the group sessions. Big student numbers asking for help. Little parental involvement. Working closely with the schools we have been able to overcome these issues and bring tangib;e benefits to the children involved. Whilst measuring the specific benefits of the programme is not straightforward, after two years the counsellors, children and school staff involved in the programme have reported that it has already: Reduced teenage pregnancy. Improved school attendance. Reduced number of school dropouts. Positive behaviour change. Improved academic performance. We have just completed the first stage of our Reproductive Health Programme and have secured funding to continue for another two years.  The funding has allowed us to double the number of counsellors that we use, meaning that the number of children helped can grow and the number of unwanted pregnancies can continue to fall.]]></description>
		
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		<item>
		<title>Women&#8217;s Health in Kenya</title>
		<link>https://kenyachildrencentres.com/2024/03/19/womens-health-in-kenya/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=womens-health-in-kenya</link>
					<comments>https://kenyachildrencentres.com/2024/03/19/womens-health-in-kenya/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[ianfaulkner]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Mar 2024 17:25:22 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Reproductive Health and Welfare]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://kenyachildrencentres.com/?p=3158</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Rape, misogyny, period shame.  These are all factors that contribute to the hardship of women in Kenya.
In this blog we give some more detail about these issues and their impact on women, and discuss how reproductive health education is at the heart of their resolution.]]></description>
		
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			<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		
		
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