Glad's House Kenya

Our Story Glad's House was founded in 2006 by a group of Kenyan Social Workers and a group of people from the UK in response to the lack of services for the most marginalised and hard to reach children and young people living on the streets of Mombasa. These children and young people had been deemed 'too challenging' due to their behaviours and life choices. Where others saw a child or young person as too challenging, we saw, and continue to see, a child or young person who is entrepreneurial, resilient and talented and wanted to create opportunities for them to not only survive, but more importantly, to thrive. We would hold a weekly football session on Thursday mornings with young people living on the streets of Mombasa. These older children and young people profoundly moved our Founders, they had lost hope as there was no one to support them. From humble beginnings of a weekly kickabout, Glad's House is now an organisation that meets the needs of 1000s of children and young people deemed too challenging by others! Who we are Our Vision, Mission and Values were created by all the staff team at Glad's House on 7th and 8th April 2016 through a collaborative and participatory workshop. Our Vision Glad's House is committed to empowering homeless children and young people to take responsibility for their own lives, to realise their full potential and to protect them. We work with those who society forgets, to give them hope and a positive future. Our Mission We will facilitate opportunities for these children and young people to create positive change in their lives by being a leading organisation in sports, education, child rights and child protection. Our Goal Is to ensure that the children and young people we support will not be criminalised for being on the streets and that there will no longer be unlawful round ups. To this end, Glad's House is advocating for changes in systems and policies that are currently failing children and young people in Mombasa County, Kenya and globally. We work with a variety of partners in both the private and third sectors to develop and implement entrepreneurial strategies to help us to achieve our goal of generating a significant percentage of our income in country.