Kibagare Good News Centre in Nairobi, Kenya

The Kibagare Good News Centre is a program for poor and orphaned children in Nairobi, Kenya. Founded in 1980, it is a project of the Assumption Sisters of Nairobi, a local order of Catholic religious women. Each day the Centre feeds, houses and educates over 1,000 underprivileged children and youth from the slum areas surrounding Nairobi. Its programs include: a children's home and feeding program, primary school, secondary school for girls, vocational training assistance, dispensary and church.

The primary school has an enrollment in excess of 1,200 boys and girls. Five hundred of these children live year round in dormitories at the Centre. Most of these children are orphaned or abandoned. The other 700 hundred children attend the primary school as "day scholars". All of the children are fed lunch as part of the feeding program at the Centre. The secondary school at the Centre caters to approximately 200 under-privileged girls. All of the secondary school girls live in dormitories at the Centre.

It is important to keep in mind that education is not free in Kenya and many poor families cannot afford the school fees necessary to educate their children. As a consequence only two-thirds of children attend primary school and just one-third go on to secondary school. The primary and secondary schools at the Centre cater to poor children who might not otherwise have the opportunity to attend school.

There are five Assumption Sisters of Nairobi assigned to the Centre, including the director, Sister Leah Wambui Kimani. Sister Leah was once the mother superior of her order and has a masters degree in social work from the University of Wisconsin. She oversees a staff of 125 employees who do the day to day work of the Centre - teachers, cleaners, cooks, caregivers for the children (called "mamas"), etc. Two Maryknoll lay missionaries also assist the sisters in running the Centre.

The Centre is well-suited to receive visitors. We have modest living quarters for a few volunteers at the Centre itself. Typically these have been younger people from Europe staying for just a few months. We have recently hosted a Maryknoll sponsored mission awareness group for a week-long visit. They have stayed at the Maryknoll Society House, which is just ten minutes away. There are many guest house facilities run by religious in Nairobi. The Maryknoll group enjoyed the opportunity to become acquainted with the children, sisters and staff at the Centre on a one on one basis.

As a project dedicated to serving the poor, the Kibagare Good News Centre is entirely dependent on contributions from donors, both here in Kenya and abroad. The Centre would welcome the opportunity to develop twinning relationships with a school, parish or diocese in the United States.

Please let us know if you have any further questions or would like any additional information. We also have a video that we can send you that serves as a useful tool to introduce people to the operations of the Centre. It is a good quality production that is both informative and entertaining to watch. In just 20 minutes it covers the major programming at the Centre, from the classrooms to the feeding program to Mass in the church at the Centre

Thank you for your interest in the Kibagare Good News Centre.

Russ Brine
Maryknoll Lay Missionary
Kibagare Good News Centre
P.O. Box 68291
Nairobi, Kenya
rbrine@africaonline.co.ke