The Lela Children’s Home at Kamukuywa, Western Kenya, was opened in April 2009. It is now home to 40 girls and 30 boys aged between 5 and 15. Lela means ‘caring’ in Swahili and care is certainly what the home provides for these children. Most faced desperate circumstances before they arrived here. Many are orphans as a result of the HIV / AIDS epidemic. Others come from desperately poor families who cannot support their children. Some have been the subject of neglect and abuse.

Since 2009 there have been a number of improvements to the project, funded through Meal a Day, costing around £30,000. These include the provision of a water storage tower and electric pump, shelter for activities in the shade, extensions to the site compound, new latrines, a private consultation room, office and store.

The directors of the project are Justus and Annette Mabuka, who had provided a safe haven for these children at their shamba (smallholding) before the Home was built. This approach had increasingly become unsustainable, so in 2008 around £85,000 was raised jointly through Christadelphian Bible Mission Project Aid and Meal a Day, which resulted in the construction of two dormitories, a dining hall, kitchen, and borehole.