Over many years, Maryann and Janet have supported different children homes in Kenya and provided meals for some less privileged. The situation during their upbringing was bad and eventually turned miserable after the post-election violence in 2007/2008 which rocked their country and made international headlines. People were murdered and displaced and children weren’t spared either.
The sisters made efforts to mobilize and coordinate family members, friends and the church community to make contributions and visited the victims in camps. The living conditions in the camps were unbearable for the displaced persons. The lack of basic needs was so evident and after listening to them as they shared their different encounters, it just showed how traumatic the situation was with no exception to the children. Some of these children had lost one or both parents and their needs were just overwhelming. They then decided to provide shelter to desperate needy and orphaned children who later lived with their mother.
Eventually their mother donated a piece of land in the outskirts of Nairobi (Kiserian) to put up an orphanage to facilitate and provide care and a home to even more needy and destitute children. They then started building an orphanage which they were unable to finish and at that time Frank stepped in. The building was then completed in 2016 and a unanimous decision by the founders was reached to be a boy-only center because of nation-wide focus on girl-child. They felt the boy-child was neglected.The extra-ordinary engagement and commitment of Maryann, Janet and their mother as well as the conclusive concept of this cozy home for abandoned and orphaned boys was a decisive factor for Frank to engage himself in such an extent.
Mama Baraka Children´s Home is more than a home for the kids who live there.