Important Update | Valley Light Home

NOTICE OF CHILDREN'S ACT AND SCHOOL EXPANSION

Dear Friends and Supporters,

Thank you so much for your interest, your giving and your impactful prayers for Valley Light Home and Pisgah Heights School. We want to share about some important developments affecting our ministry and the children we serve.

In July 2022, the Kenyan parliament passed the Children’s Act, a law which includes a requirement that orphanages in the country close by 2032. The result is that all of these Kenyan children, regardless of current wellbeing, must move to foster care-styled placements. For several years we have prayed and worked toward a reasonable pathway for vulnerable children to remain in safe institutions like ours. Sadly, government entities remain focused on closing all private children’s institutions, and even many homes run by the government itself. Given the current conditions in our district, Valley Light Home cannot apply for renewal of our operating license as a Charitable Children’s Institution.

In light of these changes impacting child-welfare, we have carefully examined courses of action which comply with the law, but also prioritize the safety, care and stability of our own children. First, Valley Light is proactively determining guardianship placements for our children with known, trustworthy adults in our community who share our Christian values. Second, we have reviewed and modified our ministry structures to protect the continued flow of donations from those of you who financially support our work. Third, we are pursuing the option of converting Valley Light into a boarding home for our children, and other vulnerable children enrolled at Pisgah Heights School. Fourth, we are envisioning ways to provide Christ-centered care and quality programs at Pisgah Heights School. We are able to allocate our Outreach and Mercy budget in such ways as to ensure that each of our children receives care, including food and counseling visits, while they live in required guardianship homes. *If parliament passes an amendment allowing us to resume former operations, which we are optimistically hopeful will happen, we will reapply for Charitable Children’s Institution registration.

In order to realize these steps, we need you to continue standing with us in prayer (see below), connection and giving. We see these changes and challenges as God-given opportunities to further steward our assets, expand our education ministry and increase our impact in the community with capacity to serve a greater number of children, all for God’s glory.

Time for Action! Pisgah Heights will be our primary means to fully equip and holistically educate children age 3 through grade 12, so that they may seize the promise of a hopeful and purposeful future!

- Currently, thanks to your generosity, fundraising for Phase 1 of our Pisgah Heights School expansion is complete!! (See www.pisgahheights.org for more.) Twelve new classrooms, a science lab, offices, a renovated kitchen, an expanded lunchroom, a new Playgroup space for our 3 yr olds and modifications to existing classrooms should be ready for students by early Fall. We also look forward to the addition of our first class of 10th graders in January of 2026!

- Next, we press forward to Phase 2 fundraising this August through October! Our goal: Raise $400,000 to make modifications to Valley Light Home for boarding, to purchase as much as 10 acres of land in Maai Mahiu, and to develop the essential infrastructure at that future Pisgah Heights’ Upper School location. Let’s boldly move forward on behalf of the children we serve!!

- Then in early 2026 we’ll share plans for our Phase 3: fundraising for construction of the school buildings needed to realize the dream of a fully operational Upper School Campus!

Our Phase 2 fundraising is far more than a school expansion project. It is about pointing our children towards God’s faithfulness during a very challenging transition. You can be part of the story they will tell of His provisions for them to overcome interruptions to their growing up at Valley Light Home. This is yet another way to preserve their solid educational, spiritual and relational foundations. Together, we are determined to accept this unforeseen opportunity to serve even more children, so please consider making a gift toward Phase 2 today! Come alongside as we continue the impactful work of Christ-centered care, education and transformational solutions.

With great gratitude,

The Valley Light Team

For more information about Pisgah Heights visit our website by clicking the link below! Please be sure to include Pisgah Heights School when donating by check or online to this critical fundraising project.

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PRAISES AND PRAYER

Praises:

For Pisgah Heights Schools’ excellent standing and place of high regard in greater Maai Mahiu.
For near completion of Phase 1 expansion construction on current PHS campus.
For successful launch of 9th grade at PHS in January 2025.
For excellent teachers, counselors and staff serving at Valley Light and Pisgah Heights.
For older Valley Light children who have completed college or are now in college or training.
For continued healing in the community one year after the flood crisis devastation.

Prayer:

Move any Member of Parliament quickly to lead support and passage of an amendment to the Children’s Act with thoughtful protections of good children’s homes and focused attention on the crisis of Kenya’s homeless street children.
Comfort the tender hearts of all our VL children who know and hear daily about orphanage closures.
Prepare Valley Light family and friends for the day if and when our home must transition children into guardianships.
God’s timing and way for possible conversion of Valley Light Home to a boarding home for our children and a few others from the community to live while attending Pisgah Heights School.
God’s choice of land and price on which to expand into Upper Campus for Pisgah Heights School.
Valley Light to conduct wise, careful and thorough strategic planning to include all people and steps involved in Pisgah Heights school expansion.
Compassion and caution for government leaders responsible for implementing the Children’s Act closures.
VL Directors and staff to be alert in their care of Valley Light children.
Preparation of new and valued guardian families.
Productive communication with known relatives who are not currently equipped to receive Valley Light children back into their lives as guardians