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The
Need
The Isaiah Trust was begun in 2001, when the two founders,
Tim Broughton and Nicky Etherington visited Kisumu at the invitation
of a Kenyan Minister, who was in the UK to raise awareness of
the problems with street children in his home town.
On this trip they visited some of the
rural towns and villages where many of the street children
come from, realising the poverty that many people were
experiencing and the hardships of life for many.
But one moment was to resonate in both of their hearts.
When they stepped onto the City rubbish dump and saw the
numbers of children who had made it their home. Jumping
on to the trucks as they arrived, scavenging through the
remains looking for food or for things they could recycle
for some small money, bottles, cans and plastic bags.
 
 
In that moment, talking with some of these children about
their lives, Tim and Nicky resolved to help in whatever
way they could. On returning to England, they set up the
Isaiah Trust as a registered charity and began a program
of work in Kenya that would begin to change the lives
of some of the most desperate of children. |
Today, five “Hope Centres”
are located around Kisumu, providing outreach, education and
training, counselling and support for street children.
A rehabilitation centre at Kibos, 5
miles from the city centre provides a safe environment for children
to leave the streets, leave the glue and alcohol abuse behind,
get some remedial education and find hope. A similar street
outreach and rehabilitation centre operates in Kitale, some
3 hours drive to the North.
Our orphanage at Mamboleo is a small,
family environment, providing a home from which the children
go back to school and grow into responsible adults.
A foster programplaces children who
have just been orphaned into safe families, preventing them
from ever reaching the streets.
A farm provides all of the maize
required to run the program as well as opportunities to teach
some of the children farming skills.
"The
Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed
me
to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted to proclaim freedom for captives.." Isaiah
61:1 |
