Emmanuel Children's Home was started in February, 2000 by Pastor Theo and Esher Kisavi. However, the history began the year before. In 1999 a couple, who were friends of Pastor Theo and Esther succumbed to HIV/AIDS Viral infection leaving two pr***en children under the care of their very elderly and poor grandmother. In the same year a second couple, also friends of Pastor Theo and Esther passed a
way leaving another pair of pr***en children under the care of their paternal uncle who was financially strapped. Aware of the children’s plight, Pastor Theo and Esther would occasionally buy groceries and water for the families. One afternoon Esther went to deliver groceries to the grandmother only to find the children weren’t home. Esther enquired the whereabouts of the children and the grandmother broke down in tears and revealed that the children had left in the morning for the local market to beg for food otherwise they all faced starvation. The children were yet to return and the grandmother’s health did not allow her to walk to the market and search for the children. Esther set out to find the children and learned that they went into a store and attempted to steal some food but they were caught and taken to the nearest police station. Esther went to the police station and took the children to her home. After a few days, Pastor Theo and Esther managed to track down their grandmother’s living relatives and reunited them so that she could be attended to and her basic needs met. From this experience, Pastor Theo and Esther's eyes were opened to the damage HIV Aids had brought to the community and the plight of the many innocent children that were now left either in broken homes or just homeless without any hopes and dreams for the future. For many months, Pastor Theo and Esther prayed, discussed the possibility of starting a much needed and long overdue refuge for the orphaned children. With the help of some churches in the United States and the Prayer Baptist Missions Board International, their prayers were answered. In February, 2000 Emmanuel Children’s Home was officially opened with six children (4 girls and 2 boys) in the same compound with Mbitini Independent Ministries which comprises of a church and a skills school. Soon word spread throughout the community and surrounding areas of the orphanage. Interest, applications and intakes would soon overwhelm the facilities at the home. This demand was driven by the lack of any home within 100-mile radius, high HIV aids infection rate within the male population who happen to be the primary family breadwinners and the absence of any form of government social services. Some of the children at the home were literally taken into the home from the streets; homeless and sleeping in alleys at the local shopping center. Within 2 years the number of children at the home grew from 6 to 33 children. The home provides all around Christian centered care until the age of 18yrs (legal adult age in Kenya) or upon completion of 12th grade after which they are released back to their families equipped with a high school education and taught to be responsible Christian citizens of the community. If the means and ways allow, the home will put those with excellent academic achievements through a four-year university. Today the orphanage has grown exponentially and has 60 children under the care of 13 staff members.
