About Us
REGISTRATION DETAILS -Registered with the Laikipia District Social Development Officer as a Community Based Organization on 4th June 2003. -Certificate of registration No. 5646. INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND ‘Toto’ is a Swahili pet word for a child. As the name TOTOCARE suggests, our primary objective is care and support of children, more so the orphaned and the vulnerable. Our organization started in 1995.As happens in situations like ours; it started as loosely-knit groups of Nanyuki Preparatory School parents and teachers association (PTA). These groups offered moral and material support to a number of their members who were terminally ill. They banded together in 1998 after two couples died and the resultant orphans were faced with destitution. Before a lasting solution could be found to this threatening situation, the school management in conjunction with the PTA took full charge of the orphans; the institution cared for the children during school semesters and the parent community subsidized this effort with both material and financial support. As the number of orphans increased, the parents offered holiday homes to some of the children and monitored the progress of the ones staying with guardians – most of who were HIV+ve mates of the dead spouses. Bearing in mind the magnitude of the pandemic, over the years the number of orphans in our area of operation increased alarmingly; thus the focus of the group shifted from primarily taking care of their own, to looking after the less fortunate in the society. As the activities of the group became more and more known in the community, we were inundated with needy cases. By 2003 we were supporting 60 children and had identified many others in dire need of assistance. Prior to this, as a part of community obligation, the school had been sponsoring a number of vulnerable children drawn from various rescue centers and support groups - Nanyuki children’s home, Laikipia street children rehab center, Mfariji etc. With the two programs running concurrently, the financial burden became enormous on both the school and the parents. The PTA was finding it increasingly hard to cope as the main source of funds was from members. As most of them had young families to take care of, donor fatigue was beginning to tell and it became obvious that it would be a matter of time before the project collapsed. To forestall this, an urgent PTA meeting was convened at the beginning of 2003 and a 5 member proactive committee was elected to study the problem. They resolved to integrate the activities of the group from those of the school and registered as a Community Based Organization (CBO) to facilitate resource mobilization activities. This was the birth of Totocare Support Group. VISION Our vision is to give hope and a chance to realize their goal in life to all the marginalized children who are in our program. MISSION Our mission is to create an environment which is conducive for the OVC to rediscover themselves and enable them achieve their full potential. PROGRAM Our target group is school age orphans and other vulnerable children (age 4 - 19). Currently we have a total population of 116 OVC under our care (59 male and 57 female). Of these 76 are in primary school and directly under our care on a day to day basis. 40 are in secondary schools where our role is to take care of their periphery needs, solicit for bursaries and other donors to cater for their school fees. Although the activities of the group were de-linked from those of the school, Nanyuki Preparatory School still remains an integral part of our program. As our key partner, all the children under our care attend this school for their primary education (nursery to class 8). This makes it easy to provide our services in a central location and is also convenient as the school has hostel facilities which cater for the very needy cases. Our daily activities are as follows Feeding program - The core activity in any OVC program is food security. By the time these children come to our attention, all are suffering from mal-nutrition. Therefore we provide all their day care needs and in a few instances subsidize their guardians to cater for the evening meals.
Rose W. Muhoro (Mrs.) P o Box 987, Nanyuki. Tel 062-32771 Mobile 0722-677262 David M. Ngandu P o Box 987, Nanyuki. Tel: 0612301313 Mobile 0722-697308 Email -[email protected] Web site: www.toto-care.org |
Our PriorityWe make the OVC the priority in our lives
Totocare Center (The School)
At the Totocare Center, children enroll in a variety of subjects from Physical Educational, Art and English to Math, Science and Social Studies. Our project helps keep children whose parents would otherwise be unable to afford the tuition off the streets and enrolled from nursery to elementary school. The parents and guardians of low income are also able to attends meeting on school grounds to learn crafts such as bead making and crochet to help them support their families, keep them fed and healthy and ensure that the parents are not endangering themselves by pursuing income from activities which put them in danger. We feed the children during the day and sometimes organize for deliveries of second hand clothes to be distributed at the school. Once they have graduated and obtained the qualification to enroll in high school, we assist students in their applications and will often apply on their behalf for subsidiaries and grants from government bursaries. |