Outreach Program
What happens when a child leaves Rafiki Mwema – and our work in the community
Life Beyond Doyle Farm
What is the Outreach Program?
The Outreach Program is what connects Rafiki Mwema to the world outside that our children return to, away from the sanctuary of Doyle Farm.
The program is about continuity – of family bonding, of connection – and making sure a relationship that was once broken is rebuilt on a solid foundation of care and safety.
Our Outreach Program is critical to ensuring our children’s safety and wellbeing until adulthood. Our team achieves this by:
- Regularly visiting our children who have returned home
- Reconnecting our children with their families
- Advocating for our children’s right to loving care and safety
Aims of the Outreach Program
Children’s Rights
Children’s rights are at the forefront of the Outreach Program. We don’t want our children to lose their identity with their parents, their relatives or their guardians. We want their community involved in welcoming them back. The time at Rafiki Mwema is for healing and we always want the children to return to their communities – whenever it’s safe for them to do so.
Beyond the children directly in our care, our outreach team also goes into the wider community: schools, villages, police departments and the children’s department – to build understanding of Kenya’s Children Act and to keep child safety and care front of mind.
The journey home
How the Step Down Program works
Once a child has spent time with us, attended to their therapy, and been through regular home visits, we start preparing for their return. Visits happen monthly to begin with, more or less often depending on how far away the child’s home is, and continue until the Outreach Team feels the child is ready.
That’s when the Step Down Program begins – a structured 12-week process. During this period, children attend home visits regularly. A useful tool used during this stage is a step-down chart divided into twelve segments, helping prepare the child for each stage of the journey home.
At the same time, our outreach team works closely with parents and family members, training them in therapeutic parenting and engaging schools, churches and village elders so they understand the child’s situation and are equipped to talk about the impact of sexual abuse.
Rafiki Kings
Why it’s different for boys
Reuniting girls with their families is, in some ways, a more straightforward process – after all, they came to us from those same families. For boys, it’s a far more complex picture.
Many of the boys in our care come from backgrounds of serious poverty, or from parents who are abusive, who drink heavily, or who were violent enough that the boys were forced out of home. Given what these boys have lived through before choosing life on the streets, taking them back takes real courage and sustained work – not just from the boys, but from the team as well. Even so, these families remain the people our boys identify with, so our Outreach Team works to support parents as well as children, helping them reconnect and build a future together.
A Rafiki child is for life
We repair broken minds and hearts by reconnecting families and offering support as they learn to re-build healthy relationships
Wider work
Other Outreach Projects
Education
Community
We work with the community to raise awareness and educate on social issues. One of our proudest achievements is installing video links in courts in Kenya, so children can testify without facing their abuser.
Rafiki Mwema outreach staff regularly visit schools and communities to make sure students, parents and teachers know their rights and what to do if they notice red flags or suspected abuse. It’s uncomfortable work but incredibly rewarding and effective.
Breaking the cycle
Rafiki Social
Family reunification only works long-term if that family can provide for their child. Rafiki Social is a social enterprise program that helps outreach families build sustainable income, easing the poverty that so often puts children at risk in the first place.
When parents can earn a stable living, they spend less time searching for money to survive and more time caring for their children – directly reducing the risk of children ending up back on the streets.
Read more
Nutrition & Support
Rafiki Mtaani
We are incredibly proud of our Mtaani program which started as an initiative by the children on the farm wanting to make sure their peers living on the street in Nakuru got fed during the Covid pandemic.
It’s grown to be so much more than a meal. It’s a lifeline for many boys and their families where they can access showers, support with injuries and illness, engage in community building activities such as soccer and classes in various subjects.
