Why did we think of founding the project?

It is an insight based on experience and desire on praxis for many years.

Main reason, it is not enough to feed, cloth and educate the children who have been rehabilitated based on our experience much more is needed which sometimes is not attended to eg. in many projects the core healing of the inner person of the child (past trauma) which can only be realized if not 100% but 80% to 90% through the basic human touch.


How would this be realized?

By keeping a small group of children in cottage form with an image of foster parents or aunties but bearing family atmosphere approach. Wajibu Wetu fundamental approach and intends to be a pilot unique set-up from many. Accepting every child he/she the way they are as well as the staff and tapping the talents to enhance betterment of the family atmosphere. Wajibu wetu children project is the visible burning candle which has come to reality.

short history of project and trust

When in April 2005 Barbara Hansen got an email from Kenya telling her that her friends Jane Nyambura and George K. Kilonzo intended to found a children´s home together with John G. Kinuthia, we didn´t think that this idea would be put into action by the middle of July. But in and around Nairobi, many helpful volunteers and families worked for many hours to create a home for ten children who had already suffered terribly in their short lives. This purely Kenyan initiative very soon reached its limits–ten children need more than just a house to live in. That´s why in August 2005 our registered society "Wajibu wetu – Hand in Hand für Kenia" was founded in Edling, Germany, and since then we have been trying to help our friends and the children.

Early October 2005, Robert Suske set up this website which has been growing slowly together with this society. In 2007, Birgit and Stefan Walk in Stockholm, Sweden, took over, and now Ralf Walk is giving the website a professional look.

Since February 2006 we have been able to pay small salaries to our friends Jane and George and to the project staff. Meanwhile 12 children play, eat, sleep and learn in the project.

In August 2006 a group of people flew to Kenia to visit the project. They gave testimony of their utterly positive experiences there in our first plenary meeting just one month later.

Two of our active members, Alexandra Pongratz and Julia Sedlmeier, stayed in the project for two weeks in March 2007. They also visited children in our outreach project in different slums.

Jane and George visited Germany in September 2007 and shared photos and experiences with the trustees in the second plenary meeting and at various events.

Alexandra Pongratz and Barbara Krohne, visited the project in August 2008. They lived with the kids – meanwhile around 25 - in the orphanage and enjoyed Kenyan hospitality. Once again, their positive impressions and their report about the trip have fascinated us here in Germany.

In 2009 an English version was added to the German homepage. A Kenyan homepage started to be online www.wajibuwetu.org.

the German trust

The German trust was founded in August 2005 by Lisa Böning, Barbara and Jürgen Hansen, Alexandra Pongratz, Johannes Schittler, Robert Suske and Birgit and Stefan Walk to support the “Wajibu Wetu” project. Most of the founding members have been to Kenya and have actually met Jane and George Kilonzo, who run the children's home. The small group of founding members has grown fast. They meet every two or three months, discussing what needs to be done for the children in Kenya and planning activities to attract people's attention and raise money for the project.

We try to introduce the project to as many people as we can. What we aim at is helping the children's home by giving moral support and raising money. But of course we respect our Kenyan friends' wish for deciding on their own responsibility, which is also reflected in the trust's name “Wajibu Wetu” meaning “our own responsibility”. Therefore we do not act according to the motto "Who pays the piper calls the tune".

The committee are: