Tumaini Kwa Watoto (Children of Hope)

Heddwyn and Lydiah Williams are the founders of Tumaini Kwa Watoto (Children of Hope). Heddwyn is Welsh, a Chartered Accountant by profession. Lydiah is Kenyan and a Secretary by profession. They live in Nairobi with two of their children – John and Josiah. They also have two other children, Esther and Tony, who are currently living and working in London. Their calling is to a family based outreach program to children on the streets of Nairobi.

The Williams family, together with the able team, seek to rescue children from the street, reunite and reconcile them with their families or to place them in a foster family and to be involved in the process of restoring the child and his/her family to their potential. There, they believe, is a feasible solution for the problem of homeless and orphaned children.

It may be the only feasible solution since the problem of homeless and orphaned children is so great that the building of Children’s Homes would not be feasible. Neither does it give children the parental love and care which they were created for nor the parental model that they need for when they become parents themselves.

They regularly have children from the streets as part of their family. The objective is to give them a taste of a functional family until they are ready to take that love back home to their own family or to place them in a foster family. They currently have a team of ten (10) including themselves. The team carries out street work four times a week, which includes two days of informal school in a City Council Rehab Center, take children home (when they are ready) to various parts of Kenya and follow up each child every three months.