The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA)
has initiated a two-year project--the Helping Hands Partnership--to support
orphans, vulnerable children, and young adults aged 10 to 24 years in Nyanza
province, on Lake Victoria in southwestern Kenya.

In addition to interventions that will directly benefit children, the
project will strengthen the support children receive in the community by
building the capacity of 25 school management committees throughout the
province. Adults, chosen from among local faith-based congregations and
professional counselors of partner organizations, will be trained as mentors
to provide additional support and guidance for the children.

An estimated 250,000 children live on the streets and beaches of Kenya, a
nation of more than 30 million. Kenya's National AIDS and STD Control
Programme (NASCOP) reports that at six percent, Nyanza province has the
highest rate of "double orphans" in the country. Many of the region's
children have lost their parents to AIDS-related diseases.

"The communities in Nyanza live below the poverty line. With an increasing
number of orphans the traditional extended family care for children is
overburdened and unable to cope," explains George Baiden, country director
for ADRA Kenya.

The Helping Hands Partnership encompasses several projects that will benefit
a total of 800 children and young adults.

To help keep vulnerable children safe and off the streets, the project will
meet the basic needs of 20 children in child-headed or other vulnerable
households in five provincial districts. ADRA will provide each of the 100
children with shelter, beds and linens, food, cooking utensils, school fees,
uniforms, and books. In addition, the children will receive assistance in
establishing and developing livelihoods.
Adult mentors will be trained to support the children.

Another 160 students in eight secondary schools will receive much-needed
textbooks.

ADRA will also provide farming tools for 350 young heads of households to
use in growing food for their families. Aiding in the success of the
children's efforts, adult mentors will be trained in child involvement and
food production, while others will learn to support child-managed
agricultural initiatives such as the production of vegetables, chickens, and
rabbits. Another group of mentors and guardians will be trained in
entrepreneurship, how to manage a revolving fund, and set up a system of
mobilized labor to support child-headed households.

Children will participate in guidance and counseling sessions, which will
include HIV and AIDS awareness and prevention education. Project leaders
will liaise with those of the ADRA Kenya's Child Education Support and
Development project to help vulnerable children enter the Manga Juvenile
Remand Home, a facility designed to help street children reintegrate into a
home setting. ADRA will also work with the Manga Juvenile Remand Home to
rescue, rehabilitate, and reintegrate children into stable, caring homes.

In partnership with the Kajiado Girls School and Maasai Development Project,
the Helping Hands project is working to protect 200 young girls from the
practice of female genital mutilation (FGM). The project will support the
Maasai Development Project's efforts to promote alternative rites of passage
to FGM in Kajiado and Narok districts in the bordering province of Rift
Valley.

"We have no idea how much hope this project will give to orphaned children,
especially girls, and how much the destiny of even whole communities hang on
this modest investment in their future," says Baiden.

The Helping Hands Partnership project is funded by ADRA International and is
scheduled to run through January 31, 2009.

ADRA is present in 125 countries, providing community development and
emergency management without regard to political or religious association,
age, gender, or ethnicity.