River of Life Schools help to provide an education for children who are orphans, refugees or from extremely poor backgrounds.
Gannavaram, India
The first River of Life School was opened in 1997 near the town of Gannavaram as a joint effort between River of Life and local Pastor Paul Raju in an attempt to provide for a few of the thousands of street children in the nearby city of Vijayawada.
The orphanage and school, which came to be known as Life Orphanage, is now a three story stone building which can house and educate about 150 children.
Jaggempeta, India
The River of Life Orphanage at Jaggempeta was birthed out of the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunamis. The orphanage originally took in the children found wandering the beaches searching for parents and homes that where no longer there.
The Jaggempeta Orphanage currently houses about 30 children who attend a local school.
Slums of Mathare, Nairobi, Kenya
The first River of Life Orphanage in Africa was started in a slum area of the Kenyan capital. Growing out of a work started by Fred Obonyo, this Orphanage and school was originally started in Kibera, the largest urban slum in Africa, before being moved to the smaller nearby slum, Mathare.
The school and orphanage currently house almost 130 children in two floors of a rented building.
Busia, Uganda
Through the collaborative effort of Bishop Sampson Obonyo and local pastors, River of Life was able to open an Orphanage in the Ugandan town of Busia. The Orphanage at Busia currently houses approximately 40 children who attend a local school.
Migori, Kenya
River of Life has been blessed with land in Migori, Kenya. There is currently a small orphanage and school on the property, housing about 20 children.
The hope for the Migori sight is to be able to build a larger permanent facility on the property and be able to move all of the children from the rented facility in the Slums of Mathare to facilities at Migori and Kitengela. The property at Migori is in a far safer area than is available in Mathare. A foundation has been laid at Migori for a large enough facility to relocate the orphans currently in the Mathare school however, funds are still needed to complete the facility.
Kitengela, Kenya — A future work
In 2002 Paul Brown, then age 14, bicycled over 900 miles to raise the money to purchase a piece of land at Kitengela. The hope for the property, which is about 30 km from the capital, Nairobi, was for it to become the home base for the River of Life in Kenya. A church, orphanage, school, and a conference center were to be built on the site, with the first building being a tin church.
Unfortunately, the area is extremely poor, and the tin and beams of the church where repeatedly stolen. After several attempts, the building projects on the site had to be abandoned until money can be raised for a stone or concrete building, which cannot be so easily dissembled.
It would cost $30,000 to $35,000 (USD) to build and equip a single story orphanage and school on either the Migori or Kitengela sites. As soon as a large enough facility can be completed on either site, the children from the Mathare orphanage will be relocated.
