Strategic Plan 2018 – 2028
St. Irene Orthodox Mission Center now assists 160 vulnerable children suffering from spiritual assembly, economic, social and physical poverty. Some live with sick parents and elderly guardians who are physically and sexually abusive, while others are entirely dependent and live with caregivers employed by the mission.
Situation in Kenya
Though Kenya is in a rather good position compared to neighboring countries in Sub Sahara Africa; there are still 2 million orphans and another 2 million children without any chance for schooling, daily healthy food and care. There is no safety network for the poor people resulting in desperate trying for survival like begging, stealing and prostitution with a real risk of incurring HIV/Aids and other sexual transmittable diseases.
Quit often children are the most victimized by these situations. They are often suffering the negative results of their situation through broken families, orphaned because of the passing away of the parents from Aids, living in very dangerous situations with a lack of proper health care, clean water, no access to schooling and employment.
When orphaned these children may have no other family or guardians to support them. They will have to fight for themselves, learning the hard way and shaping their view of life in a negative way.
Background Information
St. Irene Orthodox Mission Center Kenya was founded in May 2010 by Fr Constantinos Eliud Muthiru and his wife Papadhia Teresa. Fr. Constantinos and his wife grew up in extreme poverty and received their educations from Orthodox sponsors. Upon graduation from school, they both decided to give back to society by taking care of the needy.
St. Irene Orthodox Mission Center started in a rented room that served as both a church and a catechetical classroom. Papadhia Teresa was instrumental during the formative years of the mission center, during this time Fr. Constantinos was a student at the Makarios III Seminary in Nairobi. It was during these first three years that St. Irene Mission Center developed into what it is today.
St. Irene Orthodox Mission Center now assists 160 vulnerable children suffering from spiritual assembly, economic, social and physical poverty. Some live with sick parents and elderly guardians who are physically and sexually abusive, while others are entirely dependent and live with caregivers employed by the mission.
Services provided are food, clothing, shelter, child care, education, health care, catechism, and spiritual guidance.
The Strategic Plan Key Outlines
SITUATION ANALYSIS
The school’s physical infrastructure has developed over the years. There are eight (8) temporary classrooms, 1 temporary director’s office, 1 dormitory that houses 15 pupils and a temporary kitchen. All these structures are built on a rented land. There is therefore need to purchase land for the mission center. Much effort has been done As a result of donations and prayers, we managed to purchase 1 1/4 acres of land on which we look forward to building permanent dwellings in order to give the orphan children a forever home. 3 acres will be large enough to house the orphans; enough land so the children have big playing ground, a place to build more dormitories and classrooms to house and teach more children. We look forward to purchasing the remaining 13⁄4 acres.With a population of 46 million, 41 percent of Kenyans still rely on unimproved water sources, such as ponds, shallow wells and rivers, while 59 percent of Kenyans use unimproved sanitation solutions. These challenges are especially evident in the rural areas and the urban slums. Only 9 out of 55 public water service providers in Kenya provide continuous water supply, leaving people to find their own ways of searching for appropriate solutions to these basic needs. 19 million people lack access to safe water and 27 million people lack access to improved sanitation.
At St Irene Orthodox Mission Center community with a population of 160 needy children suffers from a lack of clean water supply. We have undergone unheard human miseries due to constant droughts and unreliable rainfalls. We only rely on fetching water from a river that is located approximately 12 Kms away from the school, an indication that there is no constant water supply. The community relies on water from wells, which run dry if droughts persist. There are also ponds of stagnant water which are used by both human and animal community. Thus people are generally at the mercy of their creator since the cleanliness of such waters is not assured. A 1000 litre water tank was bought through donations in January 18th, 2018 for the mission center.
Drilling a Bore-Hole at the Mission Center
The project idea is to improve access to clean water for St. Irene Orthodox Mission Center and the needy community at neighborhood through sinking of bore-hole. The organization will get the boreholes drilling company and water pump Supply Company; it will also coordinate the entire project while seeking technical advice from the experts. The project estimated cost is USD 20,000.
For the community’s spiritual and educational development, there is need to construct a church/chapel and a school with all necessary infrastructures. Currently, some of the class rooms are converted into church whenever Divine Liturgy has to be conducted. The classrooms are temporary structures that require renovation.
- Classrooms
- Dormitories
- Ablution Blocks
- Church
- Community Health Centre
- Dining Hall
- Offices
- Talent Academy – Labs, Music Center
- Sports Facilities
The distance between the existing public primary school which is overpopulated and the St Irene Mission Center is about 6 kilometers.
Water
There’s no sufficient water in the area surrounding St Irene Mission Center. Residents walk for long distances to get to the nearby river.
Orphanage
The institution has a population of 160 children. Fifty of these children are orphans of orthodox faith and are fully supported by Fr. Constantinos Eliud and other well-wishers.
Income Generating Projects
According to latest statistics poverty levels in the area are high with 5,827 out of 21,709 people who live in Njabini in abject poverty levels. Most families cannot afford a dollar per day hence there is need to capacity building the community for improved standards of living and sustainability.
A school which is on leased piece of land
Since education is key to success in life, children are enrolled in the school and are in different grades ranging from play group to those that are institutions of higher learning. Currently the school has a total population of 160 pupils.
St Irene Orthodox Church
A church which meets spiritual needs of the residents of the area surrounding St Irene Orthodox Mission Center & Orphanage. Children attend catechism classes on orthodox faith twice a week and divine liturgy is conducted every Sunday to ensure that spiritual growth is guaranteed.
- A school: With proper infrastructure to meet education needs of their children.
- Reliable water supply: source preferably a borehole to curb the water shortage problem in the area.
- An orphanage: with all necessary infrastructures to cater for the increasing number of orphans and vulnerable children in the area.
- A hospital/health center: Medical care is limited and or nonexistent in some areas surrounding St. Irene mission Center. The institution has a catchment population of 21,709 people who are served by one health center. Health care workers are invited to the institution to ensure the wellbeing of all the students since some of the children are of low immune status and survive under medication.
The vision (hope) for this mission in the next 10 years is to have an orphanage with proper infrastructure to cater for the needs of the orphans and vulnerable children, to have a fully operational hospital with adequate equipment and staff, to exploit income generating projects arising from the existing bore hole. Some of the income generating projects include a water point in which water will be sold to the catchment population at subsidized prices and a water processing/packaging plant whose products will be sold to the open market.
Step I: Determine Project
- The way to self-sustaining mission is to purchase land on which a school will established, open and run an orphanage, establish a water processing plant that will treat and package water for sale to the open market.
- The project will be located in Kanyawa, Njabini Ward, Kinangop Sub-County of Nyandarua County Kenya.
- The project will produce self -sustainability because there will be income generated from various activities which include:
- Sale of water to the catchment population at subsidized prices
- Sale of bottled water to the open market
- Sale of farm produce grown through irrigation (borehole water will be used for irrigation during dry seasons).
- School fees paid by parents who have no financial constraints
Step 2: Project Funding
Initially the project will be funded by fundraising and in future savings from income generating projects to boost fundraised amount.
Step 3: Wealth Producing Investment
- The project will fund itself by pooling together financial resources obtained from various sources (sale of water at the community level and to the open market, sale of farm produce grown through irrigation, school fees, income from rental houses that would be constructed in the long term).
- The project is expected to fund itself in 20 years.
- At the onset of the project ninety percent of the project will be funded by donations while ten percent will be self-funded. On attaining self –sustainability, ninety percent of the project will be self- funded while ten percent will be donor funded.
MISSION CENTER SWOT ANALYSIS
Strengths
Opportunities
Threats
Weaknesses
Boarding Facility
Way Forward
- Completion of dorm for construction by 2028.
- Construction of two modern ablution blocks consisting of 10 toilets and 10 bathrooms by 2025
Challenges
- Poor structures/semi-permanent
- Overcrowding in dorms
- Poor ablution facilities/ risky/ inadequate.
Dining/ Mission Hall Facility
Way Forward
- Construction of a Dining Hall by 2026 and a redesign of the School Hall by 2027.
Challenges
- Lack of school hall so DH will be used for the purpose sometimes disrupting school duties in the future
- Inadequate space and lack of such facility
Proposed Plans for the Infrastructures
Water
Way Forward
- Sink a borehole to pump water for use at the orphanage
- Repair the water troughs near the classes soonest
- Plan for guttering newly built permanent structures to harvest rain water by 2028.
Challenges
- Inadequate especially during drought
- Non-functional water troughs
- No rainwater harvesting
- Chlorination done but improperly
Construct a Church
Way Forward
- Construction of modern church within the facility by 2027
Challenges
- Currently we use a temporary classroom where we conduct Divine Liturgies in.
Strategic Directions
The school will identify various areas of concern with all stakeholders using the problem analysis matrix and map out various strategies as a way forward. Various stakeholders in the school were identified their duties and responsibilities as well as the strategic obligations to the school.
Strategic Plan 2018 – 2028
Vision and Mission
To contribute to a society where all children have equal chances to a dignified existence and chances to build a future
Mission Statement:
To improve the situation of orphaned children by taking care for housing, food, education and health care in a way that meets the level and the needs of the children. St Irene Orthodox Mission Center will carry out all activities within the framework of an Orthodox Christian approach.
- St Irene Orthodox Mission Center will take in children irrespective their race, tribe and religion;
- To provide for good pre-school education for poor children from the communities
- To assist the poor stand-alone mothers in the communities to take responsibility for their families by advising and training.
Programme Objectives
Based on the results in 2010 – 2017 and adhering the vision and mission, the objectives and related plan of activities 2018-2028 are outlined as follows:
Programme 1: St Irene Orthodox Mission Center
Upholding the quality of the orphanage St Irene Orthodox Mission Center and Project expects to improve and sustain the expertise and quality to take care for the 40 in-house children in a professional way. To provide for the services of good quality it is perceived that the number of in- house Children in St Irene Orthodox Mission will not exceed 100. The goals are set for the maximum capacity.
Beyond the age of 18 years old the children of St Irene Orthodox Mission Center should be part of the adult life in the society where the child originally belongs to. Considering that in Kenya family life is very important we will work on strengthening the re-integration process. By an individual approach of each child we will investigate the possibilities for rejoining the child with relatives. Disengagement from the orphanage should be done in a step by step way. Also the admission by foster parents as a re-integration process shall be considered.
Provision of Education for the in-house children
For all the in-house children, the Mission Center will continue to make efforts to provide at least for primary and secondary education. St Irene Orthodox Mission Center prefers to send the in-house children to boarding high schools.
A child sponsoring program will be able to provide for housing, food, school fees, uniforms and materials for each of the children will be continued in coming years. For education purposes we will work on collecting donations on a continuous base.
For those children who are not able to join secondary school the Mission Center will provide for ‘tailor made’ professional education. In the region there are several well-known technical and industrial trainings institutes where children can be trained as electronically workers, welders, plumbers or tailors, carpenters, tailors, interiors design, dressmaking, etc.
Programme 2: St Irene Orthodox Mission Center Boarding Facility
The St Irene Orthodox Mission Center Boarding Facility aims to offer pupils from the community in order to provide income through school fees paid by parents who have no financial constraints. By offering the “learning by experience” system of learning the child will be challenged to develop itself on the individual level as well on the group level. By a holistic approach the child will be developed both on the intellectual, the emotional, social and physical level.
By 2028 the boarding facility will start its operation and we expect to accommodate approximately 100 increasing to 250 children with able parents in the next years. The School fees raised will be used to sponsor the needy at St Irene Orthodox Mission Center.
We expect that the majority of the needy children will move on to government high schools. These schools are partially sponsored by the Government hence cheap school fees.
Financially the school will be independent of the current donations from the Orthodox Africa by 2038. To admit also the children of the poor parents the mission center will work on the supply of local and foreign donations on specific conditions.
- Building the teaching capacities of the school team
St Irene Orthodox Mission Center nursery school aims to have qualified teachers with a high commitment, ability to bring knowledge into practice, skills and attitudes. Therefore the Mission Center has set the rule that teachers will study ECD diploma courses.
- Diversification curriculum
By integrating playing and learning and adapting to the learning needs of different age groups St Irene Orthodox Mission Center aims to offer a bright underground for a positive development of the children. The step to primary school will not be a difficult one.
- Strengthening the Management of the school according to good quality standards
From 2019 onwards the management of the school will work on shared responsibilities of the team members. A joint strategic planning will be worked out.
- Systematic monitoring of school-and pupils performance will be organized.
- Training and capacity building of teachers will be provided for.
- An effective link with parents and the community has to be organized and planned.
- A pedagogical and deductive vision on education has to be worked out and propagated.
- Enhanced discipline, guidance and counseling services
- Availing adequate and relevant learning and teaching resource
- More involvement of pupils in co- curricular activities
- Enhanced discipline, guidance and counseling services
Programme 3: Community development
A feasibility study will be conducted to identify the opportunities for a realistic and effective empowerment programme in accordance with the needs and desire of the target group being single mothers of St Irene Orthodox Mission Center children joined by the guardians of the children of St Irene Orthodox Mission Center and other community members. In general the main focus themes are:
- Women rights and the Kenyan Constitution
- Improving Family Life
- Spreading the Orthodox Believe among the community
- Human Nutrition
- Food Science
- Hygiene and Healthcare at home
- Family Finances
- Child Education at home
- Home and school relationship
From 2020 empowerment programs will be organized, in later years followed by specific programs for professional development like starting small scale businesses, setting up of money savings systems, etc. An extensive analysis of the needs of community members and a realistic and feasible programming should always be the leading starting point. The mission center will aim for small scale programs only.
Programme 4: Agricultural Activities
St. Irene Orthodox Mission Center & Orphanage plans to start growing crops on the new land which we plan to have fully purchased by the end of the year 2019. We also plan to do dairy farming on the same piece of land. Crops and milk products will be sold to generate income towards achieving “Self Sustaining Goal of the Mission Center & Orphanage by 2038”.
Organizational Development and structure St Irene Orthodox Mission Center and Orphanage
Staff capacities:
In order to be able to offer the intended services the mission center must maintain and develop a professional level of the staff. St Irene Orthodox Mission Center has to be pro-active and anticipating the relevant staff expertise and the sustaining relevant organizational tools and an adequate infrastructure like buildings, equipment, transport, furniture. In 2018-2028 the Mission Center will continue to strengthen the staff capacities through relevant training and courses, especially in the field of management, administration and child development.
Strengthen the ownership and responsibilities for the governance, management and operation of the programmes.