Our Mission
At Mattaw, we are focused on empowering vulnerable children through education and giving them a family to belong to.
Family means everything to us. It is where children find their identity as a son or a daughter, no longer labeled orphaned or abandoned.
Our Children’s Home
Our model at Mattaw is not a traditional orphanage. Our vision is to give the children placed in our care a family. Children are placed in our care through local government children’s offices. We have a team of social workers who assess each case and create a plan based on their need. For children who can not return to a safe home with relatives or good samaritans, they are placed in a family on our site. Our model consists of small family units. Each family has their own house with a father, mother, and 10-14 children.
Our Name
Mattaw is the Hebrew word for “planting” found in Isaiah 61:3.
“…that they would be called oaks of righteousness, a planting (MATTAW) of the Lord, for the display of His splendor”
While our main focus is family and education, we know that in order to raise our children into strong trees, they need a strong root system. We believe in order to do this, we aim to raise our children holistically, which means we focus on their physical, psychological, social, cognitive and spiritual wellbeing.
OUR IMPACT
7+
small family homes
We currently have 7 small homes with 10-12 children in each home. Our first home opened in 2008. As funds were raised and house parents trained, we continued to open one house at a time.
15+
Years Serving communities
We’ve been in Kenya since 2005, helping the most vulnerable children. Our children come from the surrounding villages of where we are located. We work closely with the local government children’s department to rescue the most needy.
40+
team members
We have over 40 staff empowered and employed by Mattaw who are all Kenyans. We believe Kenyans will raise Kenyans to rebuild their nation.
Relief Work
Our relief work is focused primarily on the Turkana tribe in Northern Kenya. The Turkana people are nomadic and the region is an arid desert. Almost every year they go through a period of drought and we aim to help bring relief and sustainability. We do medical camps, drill water wells, host kids camps and do food drops to the villages we work in.
GET INVOLVED
Sign Up For our newsletter
We send out monthly newsletters to share updates from on the ground in Kenya. This is the best way to stay up to date with Mattaw.
sponsor a child
Sponsorship is one of the main financial ways we care for our children monthly. Sponsorships helps us to care for each child’s physical, emotional and spiritual needs.
Make a Donation
Any general donation will go directly to the most urgent needs for our children. You can also specify where you’d like for your donation to go.
Visiting Mattaw
Since the start of Mattaw, teams have been visiting to come alongside our Kenyan team on the ground to empower and serve. Mattaw is what it is today because of teams from around the world coming together to join hands in order to see the vision of Mattaw thrive. We welcome teams of all sizes to come and serve alongside our team through building & maintenance projects, ministry, medical, or simply to just visit Mattaw and see how you can partner further with us.
