All three locations · Fortnightly visits · Born 2004
Community outreach — keeping families together before they reach crisis.
Every child kept at home through outreach is one who never needs a shelter place. BG’s outreach programme was born before the Malindi shelter even opened — because BG discovered that many children could stay at home with the right support. That insight has shaped the entire BG model ever since.
1
Locations — Ruiru, Malindi, Nyamira
2-weekly
Fortnightly home visits
2004
Programme born — before the shelter opened
Family
First — residential care is always the last resort
What the outreach programme does
A fortnightly visit. Food, medicine, and school fees. And a child who stays home.
The BG outreach programme runs across all three Kenya locations — Ruiru, Malindi, and Nyamira. Every two weeks, outreach workers visit vulnerable families: grandparents raising grandchildren alone, single parents without income, caregivers whose own health prevents them from working. The visit brings food packages, medical care access, and school fee support.
The programme was born before the Malindi shelter opened. BG surveyed 15,000 affected families along the coast and discovered that many children could stay at home if their family received targeted practical support. The outreach programme was the response — and it has been BG’s most cost-effective intervention ever since.
A sick grandparent who cannot access medical treatment is one who cannot raise grandchildren safely. So the outreach programme extends healthcare to caregivers as well as children — because the sustainability of a family home depends on the health of the adults who run it.
Every child kept at home through outreach is one who never needs a residential place. That outcome saves money. More importantly, it preserves something no residential programme can replicate: the child’s own family, community, and sense of belonging.
What one visit looks like
Every fortnight. Every family. Every time.
Step 01
Assessment — what does this family need today?
Every visit begins with a structured assessment. Has the situation changed since the last visit? Is a child at new risk? Does a caregiver need medical attention? Is a school fee coming due? The answers shape what happens next — every time, for every family.
Step 02
Food package — a fortnight of basics, delivered directly
Every outreach family receives a food package on each visit. Not a voucher. Not a transfer. A physical package of staples delivered to the home. For many families, the BG food package is the most reliable food security they have.
Step 03
Medical care — for the child and the caregiver
Outreach workers identify medical needs and facilitate access to care — for children and caregivers. A sick grandparent who cannot access treatment is one who cannot raise grandchildren safely. The outreach programme treats that as an operational fact, not a philosophical position.
Step 04
School fee support — keeping children in school
When a school fee is due, the outreach programme covers it. A child removed from school because of an unpaid fee is a child at accelerating risk. Keeping children in school is the single highest-leverage intervention BG makes in outreach families.
Step 05
Relationship — the thing the food cannot replace
The outreach worker who visits a family consistently, over years, becomes a trusted figure in that family’s life. That relationship is what makes the other interventions sustainable. It is also what makes early warning possible — because a family that trusts its outreach worker will tell them when something is wrong.
Step 06
Escalation — when a child needs more than outreach can provide
When an outreach visit reveals that a child can no longer safely remain at home, the outreach worker initiates the process for residential placement — in coordination with Kenya’s official child protection services. Outreach is the first response. Residential care is always the last resort.
Who the outreach programme serves
The families outreach reaches — and why they need it.
Outreach targets the families most likely to lose children to poverty, illness, or family breakdown — and intervenes before that loss becomes irreversible.
Grandparent caregivers
Elderly caregivers raising grandchildren alone
Often the last remaining relative of children orphaned by illness or early parental death. Grandparent caregivers are among the most vulnerable outreach families — because their own declining health directly threatens the stability of the children in their care. BG extends medical care to them specifically because of that dynamic.
Single-income families
Parents one crisis away from losing their children's schooling
A single parent with one income and multiple school-age children faces a school fees crisis every term. BG outreach fills that gap — not as a permanent subsidy, but as a bridge during the periods when the family cannot manage. That bridge is often the difference between a child staying in school and leaving it permanently.
Families identified at risk
Families referred by child protection services or BG staff
Some outreach families are identified through Kenya’s official child protection services. Others are flagged by BG staff, teachers, or community members. In every case, the outreach programme reaches families before crisis — because reaching them after is always more expensive and less effective.
Former BG residential families
Children reunified with families who need continued support
When a child leaves BG’s residential programme to return to their family, the outreach programme follows them — supporting the reunion and ensuring it is sustainable. That follow-through is what makes reunification a genuine outcome rather than a premature discharge.
Explore each location
Support the outreach programme
The outreach programme is BG’s most cost-effective intervention — and the one that keeps the most children in their own families.
A donation to BG’s general fund directly supports the outreach programme across all three locations. Alternatively, sponsor a child who is currently in BG’s care because the outreach programme could not prevent their family from breaking down — and help fund the programme that keeps the next child at home.
