What we Do

The Rainbow House is a day centre for children from very deprived backgrounds; many have lived through trauma and face daily adversities. Seeing children without the love and care they so desperately need spurred us on to create a safe haven for them. The Rainbow House offers vital respite to children of all ages.

Olga, our Rainbow House manager, explains its function like this: ‘For us the Rainbow House is not a nursery or kindergarten. It is not a school either. For us the Rainbow House is family'.

The aim of The Rainbow House is to break generational circles of poverty by offering the children education, guidance, love and care. We want the children to understand that if they learn and apply their skills a different, more promising future can be realised.

To achieve this we:

• Create a safe & warm environment for children to play and explore

• Give children healthy meals and social time around a table

• Wash, change and teach the children about hygiene

• Support their health (e.g. doctor visits, hospital stays, diagnosis, medication)

• Catch up on their lost learning

• Meet with kindergartens and schools to integrate children in the education system

• Provide children with shoes and clothing to enable them to go to kindergarten & school

• Teach children skills for life, e.g.: gardening & growing food

• Education through workshops

Achievements:

After an initial settling in period the children have found a good routine by coming and participating in the group activities. Through patient teaching their style of play has ceased to be destructive, instead the children play kindly by sharing and looking out for each other. Children who were scared and withdrawn at first now communicate and play freely and their feelings are shared in small social groups.

New skills are developed through daily activities such as reading, writing, maths, crafts, singing and play. Now all the children are enrolled in education. The young ones go to kindergarten and the older ones attend school. As the children are able to wash and change their clothes at the project, they now have an understanding of cleanliness and the wish to be clean. Regular meal times around the table ensure that the children do not go hungry and engage in vital social time. This has a positive impact on their overall health and well-being. The children have grown to love The Rainbow House, they enjoy eating nutritious meals, learning for school, playing in a safe place and celebrating their birthdays.

Open Hands Family Support Program:

The Rainbow House project is not an isolated project; it is linked in with our Family Support project. This means that all our children are visited regularly at home also. Open Hands supports 85 children through the Program, 25 of which also attend The Rainbow House groups.

Giving:

Please enable us to sustain this wonderful project by giving a monthly or one off donation. Thank you!