Utugi children home is situated in Ngurubani town, Mwea East District, Kirinyaga County, behind the National irrigation Board (NIB) Mwea offices, about 1.5 km off Makutano-Embu Road. It is managed by the Anglican Diocese of Kirinyaga under the social welfare board. The programme started in 1999 as a street children feeding programme in Kerugoya town and then extended to other towns within the jurisdiction of the then diocese of Kirinyaga which covered Kirinyaga, Isiolo and Marsabit.
THE CENTRE HAS THE FOLLOWING ARMS
Home
Utugi children’s home continues to give care and protection to the vulnerable children to help them realize their potential and grow in themselves in confidence and skills.
The Centre also helps in instilling Christian values in children to help them in their life journey by providing shelter, food, and education to the male child from under privileged families, enabling them to face life founded on Christian principles through rehabilitation, character formation, spiritual guidance ,counseling and integration process.
Utugi Education Centre offers education in line with the ministry of Education. The 8-4-4 Curriculum has been going on and the CBC picked quite well because our pupils have been taught by our teachers who have already undertaken the CBC training. We have an enrolment of 179 pupils from preschool up to class 8 in 2020. The Centre offers formal education and is a mixed day school serving the community around with teachers who are qualified with TSC.
Vocational training
Utugi children of God Vocational training Centre train young adults from humble background in carpentry and joinery. They train for two years and are booked for NITA (National Industrial Training Authority) exams. Their tuition fee plus lunch is paid for by the Diocese of Kirinyaga and the well-wishers.
Infrastructure and facilities:
By the grace of God, the following infrastructure is in existence:
- Dormitory with 1st floor capacity of 96 beds.
- Staff houses and one guest house
- 12 classrooms with washrooms
- Dining hall with modern kitchen
- A van (pickup)
- Vocational Training classroom
- This makes Utugi a place to come for seminars, retreats, workshops and weddings.
Population
We have 63 boys in the home; they are distributed as follows;
- Primary school 28
- Secondary school 24
- Form iv leavers 4
- College/University 7
Achievements
- The year 2020, we managed to take 15 boys to secondary schools.
- Two boys are under the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (Kuccps) in the universities
- One of our boys graduated as a clinical officer
- One boy in the secondary school is under government sponsorship through the Children’s department
- Harvested 19 bags of maize each 100kgs
Maintenance of the home/Relevance
- We are rearing one day chick and selling it at one month.
- Maize farming to subsidize the food supply and consumption.
