Home visits give our field staff an opportunity to get to understand the needs of the sponsored children better for more effective service. Because in Tumaini we do not put children in orphanages, regular home visits are central to our operations. Apart from visiting sponsored children, we also do regular visits to serve members of community-based organizations (CBOs) and microfinance grantees that we have partnered with. The visits give our staff an opportunity to  ensure the welfare of sponsored children and their guardians, who in many cases are aging grandparents. Just to give you a perspective, the country of Kenya is about the size of the State of Texas and our work coverage is about  a third of the country. We therefore cover long distances on motor bikes and vans to make the home visits.  In the far-flung areas from our offices in Masii,  Machakos county, we partner with local village leaders, often pastors, teachers, and farmers, who function as regional volunteers. Home visits are meant to meet a myriad of needs for the sponsored child, ranging from delivering supplies such as food, school uniforms, and other school supplies. Typically, these home visits occur at least twice a year per household, although follow-up visits may be arranged based on sponsor requests, disciplinary concerns, or emergency family needs.

Sometimes the purpose of the visit is to do counseling sessions for children and/or guardians on identified areas of need; sometimes it is to follow up on a child who has been sick for prayers and further management;  sometimes is to gather data and updates (such as change of guardians); other times the purpose is to build a functional  house for some extreme cases where the family is unable to build a basic house by themselves, and more. Other home visits focus on working with CBOs & microfinance recipients for training in various aspects of mitigation of extreme poverty. When we have vision teams visiting Kenya, our field staff takes the sponsors to see their sponsored children in their home settings as well as the schools where the kids attend school.

A frequent question that many US partners who have been on vision teams before often ask during these home visits is, “How far are we going today” to which the locals respond in at least three different ways.  When it is a shorter distance, maybe 3-5 miles, the answer is “It’s just there”!  But if the answer is, “it is there, there”, it often refers to more than 10 miles one way!).  However, when the response is, “it is there, there, there”,  be ready to travel for a while. It usually means a driver of one to two to reach the destination!