Agape Hope Children’s Center
What began as one small home touched by God’s broken heart for street kids has grown into a bustling orphanage, school, and church.
The HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s never really died down for Kenya. This African nation continues to be one of the most HIV affected countries in the world. Over 1.6 million people are believed to be living with the disease, and with it comes a heavy stigma. When a child’s parents die related to AIDS, their extended families are often reluctant to take this child in, for fear that they might bring the disease with them.
When Pastor Oliver and Margaret Chiraba began taking in orphaned children, they found that many of these ‘street kids’ had lost their parents to HIV and were shunned by their relatives.
Oliver and Margaret founded Agape Hope Children’s Center in 2002. They had been heartbroken by the sight of starving street children and begun offering food to those they regularly saw near their home.
The number of children who came to these little offerings of breakfast or lunch quickly swelled, and Oliver and Margaret began taking kind donations from friends and well-wishers to afford more food for the children. Talking to these kids, they learned about the pantheon of sorrows that had driven these little ones to the streets: broken homes, abandonment, abuse, early pregnancy, infection with HIV, post-election violence that had destroyed their home. Some had been forced into physical labor and others had been sold by desperately poor family members.
Many came from the nearby Kibera slum, one of the largest in the entire African continent.
An estimated 60 percent of Nairobi’s population occupy only 6 percent of the land, and conditions are appalling in the depths of this labyrinth. Oliver and Margaret began taking children, especially those coming out of the slums, to medical check-ups, trying to address HIV before secondary infections or other diseases took root. They quickly became known in the local medical community as the guardians for many of these once-homeless children. Word spread, and soon even social care workers and police began bringing children in need to Oliver and Margaret.
As their work with the community’s children grew, they found that some had parents or family who were too poor to support them. Agape Hope Center expanded to include a school so that they could offer free education and meals at school to struggling families in the area.
Now their school contains more than 350 students, and many children walk from miles away to attend school at Agape because it is one of the only free education centers in the area.
Today, the Agape Hope Center contains 19 buildings that make up dormitories, classrooms, a chapel, living facilities, and a greenhouse. That last building provides the children with fresh kale, tomatoes, peppers, and a host of other vegetables to boost their lunchtime nutrition. This is key for many of the children who arrive at Agape severely malnourished or sick from abuse and neglect.
At the heart of the center, though, is the chapel. Oliver and Margaret host Sunday worship services, and the children participate in small Bible study groups led by the older children every evening before bed.
Oliver and Margaret's small home was touched by God’s broken heart for street kids, and it has grown into a bustling orphanage, school, and church filled with the laughter and merry voices of Kenya’s next generation. They are building trust and faithful connections in the community among law enforcement and social workers, always aiming to bring God’s love and light to every child’s family situation and personal care.
As of 2025, they are ready to expand once more in order to protect more children in need of a stable home. They are working closely with World Challenge to plan out an additional floor on their orphanage that will give 100 more children rooms and living space.