mama zipporah's Page

In 1986 Zipporah relinquished her secretarial job with the Ministry of Livestock Development and began working for a street children feeding program she had founded in 1985 in a shanty village in Ngong town. She was repeatedly moved by needs of the street children having been a destitute child herself and she wanted to be able to do more than merely feed these children.
Later, some of the children approached her and told her they would like to go to school, but the big question they asked her was, where would they stay? This made her realize, even if she gave them food, they needed something more, education and a place to call home at the end of the day. She tried to find a shelter for the children at the existing orphanages but they could not absorb the children. The feeding program operated from 1985 to 1989 under the umbrella of the Ngong Churches Huruma Project, but she had to leave the program because the sponsors were not ready for an orphanage because the boys were being housed temporarily at a room in the project. Faced with the dilemma of giving up the orphans back to the street or keeping them in her home, she decided to take in the children into her family.

She put her faith and trust in God that He will continually provide and kept every child. She wanted to offer these children a loving home, a family, education and a bright future. In 1990, she integrated them with her own family and that was the beginning of Huruma Children's Home, and that's how they live, even today. The government guided her through the process of becoming a full facility. Their first home was a mud and wattle structure with cardboard partitions and mud floor. But since then it has been reconstructed and now the family boasts of a basic kitchen, sitting room and two big bedrooms for the boys and girls. Mama Zipporah (as she's called by just about everyone) and her husband, Pastor Isaac Kamau take care of over 100 children who have been abandoned, abused and orphaned. With the arrival of electricity, telephone, water and transport the daily living has been made easier for the Kamau's and their big family.