| The Early Years - 1992 to 1999 |
In the Beginning
Clive and Mary Beckenham (pictured), British Assemblies of God missionaries,
arrived in Kenya in 1989 with two of their teenage children, Wesley
and Rachael. They came initially for a two-year assignment at a Bible
College but with the overall plan to develop a Christian humanitarian
response to the overwhelming needs of Kenya. Through the
fledgling work named "BARNABAS MINISTRIES Africa"
they began to investigate the needs of Kenya amongst the poor, particularly
the children, and within a short time began educational sponsorship
for children of primary school age. Nursery and pre-schools sponsorship
followed in rural areas as well as feeding programmes for AIDS orphans
and nomadic children. |
| In 1992, through reading a Sunday feature in a local
newspaper, Clive and Mary and their daughter Rachael became aware
of the plight of the abandoned and orphaned babies of Kenya, particularly
those born HIV positive. Babies were dying in Kenya's hospitals and
clinics and on the streets, discarded as rubbish amongst the garbage
of the city or drowned in the city's sewers.
They learned that children's homes often refused to accept an infant
if it was thought to be HIV positive lest it pass on the pandemic
to other children. Hence babies were being left in medical facilities,
lying on rubber mattresses two or three to a cot with only a cloth
to cover them to pass the final days of their life with the minimum
of care and compassion. |
| |
| DOES ANYBODY CARE? |
 Top |
| Family life for the Beckenhams was radically changed
in early 1993. Their daughter, who was now giving voluntary time to
a new children’s home, brought to her mother (who is a nurse
and a midwife) a two month old abandoned baby boy weighing just over
two kilograms. The children’s home were unable to give the care
he needed and he would have surely died within a matter of hours.
During the course of the next two months the Beckenhams saw the
little boy (now named Clive) steadily improve. As time passed baby
Clive became a healthy little boy and was adopted in the Beckenham
family. Having seen this miracle, Clive & Mary believed God
wanted to bring this healing to other Kenyan babies and children
in distress. |
| |
| THE TRUST IS BORN |
| In 1994 New Life Home Trust was born with the opening
of the first home in the Loresho suburb of Nairobi. In 1999 the home
moved to the Kilimani suburb on Lenana Road. Now there are five homes
and centres: two in Nairobi, one in Kisumu (in western Kenya, on the
shores of Lake Victoria); and two on the Indian Ocean, Island of Lamu
(off the Kenyan northern coast, near Somalia) |
| |
| INTO THE FUTURE |
| It is the Trusts dream to open further satellite homes
in Kakamega, Kitui, Meru, Mombasa, Nanyuki and Nyeri to link with
main home and offices in Nairobi |
|
