New Life Home

(add photo of home)

New Life Home was started  by Clive and Mary Beckenham, British Assemblies of God missionaries, in Kenya in 1994. The home was created as a Christian response to the need for loving homes for HIV+ abandoned babies. At that time it was common for children's homes to turn away babies that tested HIV+ at birth. These children were then left to languish in hospitals and medical centers. Therefore, the New Life Home Trust was born and these abandoned babies who were being turned away from other homes were taken in. Many of these babies who came in testing positive for HIV sero-converted (which means they are now HIV-).

Babies born to HIV+ mothers will test positive for HIV antibodies at birth. About 70% of the time these babies do not in fact have HIV. They are simply testing positive because they have their mothers HIV antibodies still in them. Retesting once a child is a few months old can reveal their true status. There are other HIV tests available that can be given earlier to determine a child's true HIV status however these tests are expensive and are not common procedure in most of the children's homes in Africa.

New Life Home Trust now has five childrens homes and centers: two in Nairobi, one in Kisumu (in western Kenya, on the shores of Lake Victoria); and two on the Indian Ocean, Island of Lamu (off the Kenyan northern coast, near Somalia)