Wema Centre Trust — Love Never Fails

Programme pillar · Wema Centre Trust

Safety, Protection & Care Support

Family-based, community-rooted protection — for as long as it takes.

Rescue, safe shelter and reintegration into stable families and communities — aligned with Kenya's National Reform Care Strategy.

Why this matters

The need we're responding to.

The hardest part of this work isn't bringing a child off the street — it's keeping them off it for good. Long-stay institutions can keep children safe in the short term, but the research is clear: children thrive in families and communities.

Kenya's National Reform Care Strategy is shifting the country from institutional to family-based care, and Wema is part of that shift. We rescue, we shelter when no other option is safe, and then we work with families, neighbours and local government to make family-based protection real.

Children reunited with families and caregivers at a community event
A child on the streets of Mombasa — the situation our protection programme responds to
The streetWith Wema
Drag the handle to compare. The street as we find it, and the community as we help build it back. Shared with consent, with care.

What we do

The work, in four parts.

  • Rescue & first response

    Trained outreach workers on call across Mombasa, coordinating with police, county officers and partner organisations.

  • Safe temporary shelter

    A welcoming, child-friendly space for children who can't go home tonight — never a long-stay institution by default.

  • Family tracing & reintegration

    Patient casework to find, assess and prepare biological or kinship families. Children only go home when home is safe.

  • Legal & child-protection advocacy

    Court representation, birth registration, guardianship orders and policy advocacy at county and national level.

How we work

Principles we hold.

  • Family first

    Reintegration is the default. Long-stay institutional care is the exception, only when family and kinship pathways are unsafe.

  • Months, not minutes

    Reintegration is a 12–24 month process — assessment, gradual reconnection, in-home support, and a year of follow-up after placement.

  • Children as partners

    Children have a voice in where they live and with whom — appropriate to age and circumstance. We listen, not just process.

Impact

What we're working toward.

Numbers pending Wema confirmation before launch.

Children reunited with families
850+

Children reunited with families

Standard follow-up period after placement
12mo

Standard follow-up period after placement

Of placements stable after one year (target)
92%

Of placements stable after one year (target)

Support this work

Help us keep going.

Donations, volunteers and partnerships keep Protection & Carerunning every day of every year.

DonateVolunteer or partner

The other three pillars

Programmes work together.