Phone: +254 796374546 Email: info@watotowalwanga.org
Watoto Wa Lwanga (WWL) which simply means Children of Lwanga in Swahili is a Community Based Organization named after St. Charles Lwanga, one of the Ugandan Martyrs who was passionate about teaching the gospel that sadly led to his persecution and eventual death.
The Centre was founded in 1990 by Bro. Peter Moogi a brother of the order of St. Charles Lwanga (Bannakaroli) to meet the feeding needs of homeless children in Nairobi’s East lands, after being challenged by a street boy to give him a shilling. He was disturbed by the growing number of street children in Nairobi mainly arising due to rapid rural-urban migration and was deeply touched by their plight which led to the desire to provide them with comradeship and solidarity.
The Centre was among the 5 feeding centres in Nairobi where social workers mobilized street children to the Centres for feeding and counseling services to address psycho-social needs of the homeless children. He believed that as a result of his interactions with the children, alternative solutions to help them become responsible future citizens would be found.
With time, the children would stay at the Center and later the need for education for the children was identified which led to the formation of ‘Kachuo’ (a small informal school). This has steadily grown to primary school, vocational training institute and junior secondary school.
| Year | Milestone |
| 1990 | Rev. Bro. Peter Moogi, a brother of the order of St. Charles Lwanga (Bannakaroli) founded the project after being challenged by a street boy to give him a shilling |
| 1991 | Watoto wa Lwanga Project began as a project of the Brothers of St. Charles Lwanga (BSCL) on 10th September 1991, registered as a self-help project although even before that, as early as 1990, foundational work had been done which set the WWL Project in later years. |
| 1993-1995 | Five centers (St. Martin Kariobangi, Eastleigh, Boys town Ruai, Gatwikira and Laini Saba) established and operational.
· Ruai Centre provided education, feeding, shelter, counselling, medical and extra curriculum support to the boys. · East Leigh offered skills training. · St. Martin was a drop-in Centre, education and feeding for children under five years (malnourished children). · Gatwikira offered education to children from the Kibera slum community. · Laini Saba was administered under WWL. The Centre was reverted to the local church in 1997 · 1st evaluation by CORAT Africa. |
| 1995 | 2nd evaluation was ordered by Donors, and CORAT Africa again did the job. Evaluation report gives the project clean bill of health and the donors continued to support the project, but the need to scale down was intensified.
With increased funding without proper accountability no trained staff, the project was in a crisis. The whole Board decided to resign, the Director and founder of the project was also forced out at this stage. A new Director was appointed who had who had no experience at all. Fortunately, the good will of the donors continued and some Board members opted to continue supporting the project. This was the most trying period in the history of WWL. |
| 1996 | It became a requirement to hire qualified staff, a Financial Controller was hired from VMM; An Accountant was also hired.
Teachers with P1 certificate came on board and the untrained ones went for in-service during school recess |
| 1997 – 2000 | Emphasis was made on further consolidation and development of the centers through physical upgrading of the various facilities and controlling of enrollment of manageable numbers of street children |
| 2001-2002 | A third evaluation of WWL was undertaken this time by INDEPP – Institute for Development Policy and Practice.
The evaluation focused mainly on the organization’s effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, leadership, management controls and systems strengthening. Evaluation’s main recommendations were termination of the informal schools and not to replace the families where the children come from. Instead, work with the formal school system to accept and retain those children who can make it in that system and at the same time work with the families of these children so that they can do what families of other similar children do i.e. feeding, clothing and shelter them. Other than that the project should devote itself to the creation of a truly informal day school for children who do not have the academic ability to go beyond Std 8 and secondary education. |
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2003 |
The Government of Kenya policy on Free Primary Education is enforced, and the initiative of the local government to rehabilitate street children had a direct impact on WWL programs. Donors kept asking what we needed funding for since the new Government had taken on it responsibilities of caring for its citizens. Therefore, WWL had to change or die. |
| 2004-2005 | Programme Capacity Assessment was considered necessary. DKA support office organized and facilitated WWL Programme Capacity. Assessment with the aim of identifying strengths and defining areas that needed improvement within WWL
The assessment’s main recommendations were that community needs assessment be undertaken and economic empowerment Programme for parents. |
| 2006 | The program had a population of 635 pupils and 32 staff members. WWL started experiencing financial problems because most of her potential donors stopped their funding. This saw the project loose most of teachers to TSC and WWL had to scale down most of its activities for instance, the under-five program, the drop – in unit were closed. |
| 2007 | Ruai Boys town with a population of 160 Pupils and 16 members of staff, which had been funded by the Niermeyer Foundation, was taken and put under the management of the Archdiocese of Nairobi. This was a big blow to WWL. |
| 2007-2008 | A secondary school was established at St. Charles Lwanga Gatwikira to accommodate the children who sat for KCPE from St. Charles Lwanga Primary and those from within Kibera.
Due to lack of funding, the secondary school was closed down in First term 2009. This gave birth to the vocational training Centre in 2010. |
| 2010 | WWL in partnership with AVSI Foundation Kenya, with funding from the European Union started St. Kizito Vocational training with 3 workshops, 3 classrooms and ablution block.
The partnership lasted for three years. After which AVSI and St. Kizito left WWL to run on their own under the St. Charles Lwanga Vocational Training in 2013. |
| 2011 | The St. Charles Lwanga Primary got a face-lift for all the classrooms from temporary structures to permanent classrooms. The basement hosting PP1, PP2 and the baby care unit. |
| 2014 | St. Charles Lwanga Administration block was put up to accommodate offices for the Administration staff. Additional workshop to accommodate Hairdressing department was also constructed. |
| 2015 | With the help of WHH, pilot project gave an upgrade for the Catering department where the Kitchen and incubator unit was put up to support the increased number of students in the Food processing department. |
| 2016 | With funding from WHH, in support of the skill up! Project the funding managed to construct 2 workshops and 2 classrooms the building hosting the MVM, E.I, Driving and Technical Drawing classroom. |
| 2019 | With funding from Caritas Germany, we constructed one storey building that is hosting multipurpose hall, the school kitchen and the WWL administration block. |
| 2020-2021 | Introduced new courses plumbing, welding, and motorcycle.
During the time of Covid 19 moved from teaching to humanitarian work involving distribution of masks, soap, food items to the community |
| 2022 | WWL sold the East Leigh Land that was hosting East Leigh VTI and purchased 26 acres of land in Kajiado County (at Mashuru), the proposed site for the construction of the JSS with the support of funds from a potential donor IKA Company through Caritas Germany. |
| 2023 | WWL registered and is hosting the JSS at St. Charles Lwanga with a population of 41 students.
Development of the first Strategic Plan |
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