COMPASSION: Emphatize with community’s socio-economic difficulties by appreciating their little and humble efforts to care & support orphans and other vulnerable children.
CREDIBILITY: Earn meaningful credits as a true community based initiative through transparency & accountability.
CONFIDENTIALITY: Light up the lost hope of communities through educating them to become confident in all their positive efforts to live meaning life.
COMMITMENT: Serve the community & commit to the project activities to attain the desired goals.
Grapesyard Organization (Grapes) is a community project founded in 1999. It started with a school (Grapesyard School) and has expanded to other community programmes to cater for the orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) and the marginalized groups living in Korogocho slums. Korogocho is one of the oldest slums in Kenya. The majority of people living in Korogocho engage in small businesses such as selling charcoal, roasting green maize, selling vegetables, smoking fish and trading in second -hand clothes. It is home to criminals, drug addicts, prostitutes and other anti social activities. Prostitution is the alternative way of survival and due to inadequate information on HIV/AIDS and related diseases, death has taken its share of the community.
The large population is only served by two city council run primary schools, which are overwhelmed by the large pupil population, and therefore many children cannot access primary education. When a vacancy is secured, the learning environment is very hostile for an orphan child and those from poor families.
Grapes has since scales up its activities in 2007, when It met Twins International, an Italy no-profit association, and together began to run Alice for Children projects. In 2008 Grapes made the registration as local NGO in Kenya and the partnership with Twins International (Twins) was established.
Alice for Children projects are located in Korogocho and Kariobangi slum and in Utawalla district around Nairobi. The projects goal is orphans and vulnerable children are:
- The improvement of Grapesyard School, now
- Alice for School, where there are 450 studentAlice Children’s Home, an orphanage for 37 children in Kariobangi
- Alice Village, other orphanage for 56 children in Utawalla