Heaven's Nest serves as an emergency Child and Youth Care Facility for children who have been subjected to abuse, neglect or affected or infected by the HIV/AIDS. The Confidentiality Clause in our Constitution, protects children from having their HIV status revealed, therefore we generally provide care to all "Children in Need"
Since inception, more than 10000 children have passed through our doo
rs with many of them being placed in improved conditions with family members, foster or adoptive parents. The facility accommodates approximately 10-15 children at any time. We sometimes exceeds this limited to accommodate siblings. Children who are accommodated range from the age of 6 months to 8 years of age. Children placed with us have been legally declared to be in need of care and protection and they are waiting designated social workers to further investigate their circumstances of need. Children are placed with us for 3 months up to a year while waiting to be placed with appointed adoptive or foster parents and the process takes 6 weeks. Alternatively they are waiting for adoptive parents to be appointed this process is indeterminate. Many of the children however stay here for much longer than a year. Our mission is to try to alleviate the plight of such children, by providing nurturing care and building self-confidence so that they can be reintegrated into the wider community, free from stigmatization. To break the cycle of abandonment, abuse and neglect by empowering them to become healthy, happy and well-adjusted adults. The programmes undertaken in these session help in the upliftment of self-esteem, confidence and ensure that these children are able to become active, mature, productive adolescence. In our 17 years of experience we have discovered that many of the children placed at the home have not been exposed to the most basic form of education with many experiencing difficulties. Their mind have been deprived of the right to basic education with which to stimulate their minds. We therefore have an ECD class onsite and school going children are placed in surrounding schools in Ottery. With great success Heaven’s Nest has been able to be in the service of aiding children for the past six years having been established in 2004.
