It includes a school (ca. 200 students), an orphanage (ca. 30 children), a health center and a farm. We strive to meet the needs of the local community by giving them access to education and healthcare. Also, KIVAM is building houses for widows, creates seasonal jobs for more than 40 people at the farm and takes care of prisoners by visiting, counselling and providing them with supplies like medicine, shoes and clothing.
KIVAM was founded by pastor John Shiundu Mukuye, also known as "Big John", in 2000. Since then, the project has grown to become an important part of the community, and it keeps expanding. Currently, KIVAM is trying to build new classrooms to educate even more students. KIVAM was established on John’s passion for helping children because he sees the potential in building his community through education of the younger generation.
Kidron Valley Ministries has many projects you can volunteer in:
The School
The school provides education for 200 children, encluding the children who live in th orphanage. As a volunteer, you can help the teachers by preparing and teaching classes yourself. You can support children who have trouvle understanding or learning a certain topic by helping them individually and encouraging them to study. Also, your own ideas of teaching and your own proposals on how to improve the teaching system will be welcomed.
The Orphanage
The orphanage creates a home for more than 30 children who have lost their parents or have been abandoned. They get a place to sleep, a loving environment, healthcare, education, clean water and three warm meals a day. Also, they profit from growing up with the other children and they are taught how to do chores and other things they will need later in life. As a volunteer, you get the chance to support the caretakers throughout the day by helping them with cooking, washing, cleaning and playing with the children.
The Health Center
The heath center contributes a lot to the community since it provides low-priced or free healthcare to the local people. There is at least one doctor or nurse on watch night and day. The health center includes a delivery room, two patient rooms with a total of 10 beds and two doctor's offices as well as a pharmacy. The volunteers will help with weighing and vaccinating babies, treat patients by giving them medication, support the workers and patients during deliveries and medical examinations and log patient data.
The Farm
The farm provides food and milk to the students and orphans. By using the traditional farming techniques, we grow and sell flowers, vegetables like artichokes, rhubarb, mushrooms and tomatoes and staple food such as potatoes and maize. As well, our farm includes a herd of cows which are milked daily. The milk provides additional nutrition to the children and is sold to the community. A forest is part of our farm, we cultivate mature trees, sell the wood and plant new trees. The farm creates seasonal jobs for over 40 people. Volunteers can support the farmers by helping with the daily tasks and bringing in new ideas on how to make the farming more efficient.
Volunteers are expected to:
• support the project in general so it can develop
• handle children and babies and help to take care of them
• help in the health center
• encourage the children to be educated and live together as a community
• help in class by supporting the teachers and playing educational games with the children
• think of ways to expand the projects (raising money to build new classrooms, treatment rooms etc.)
• help the farmers and improve the farm by finding new, more efficient ways of farming
• help in PR work, especially online/social media
The volunteers will live either at the house of Big John or in a volunteer apartment on the KIVAM property. Either way, there are two rooms, a bathroom and a living space. The volunteers get the chance to eat the local food (which is provided by Big John or KIVAM) and to introduce their own foods to the Ugandans.
