News & Stories
What we are doing, and what we are learning
Updates from Lift A Life Foundation. Where a story involves a family or a child, it is published with their permission or not at all.
Care
Registering a Death and Getting the Certificate
The certificate is easy to put off after a funeral. It is also the document a widow, an orphan or an estate will need for years afterwards.
13 November 2026 · 6 min read
Children
Getting a First National ID Card
Turning eighteen opens the door to a phone line, a bank account, a job and a vote, but only with an ID. Most delays come from a missing birth certificate.
11 November 2026 · 6 min read
Care
Legal Guardianship for a Grandchild
A grandmother raising orphaned grandchildren is recognised by the law. When money, land or a family dispute is involved, a court order protects the child.
9 November 2026 · 6 min read
Older people
Older People and the Short Rains
The short rains bring cold rooms, slippery paths and dirty water. For an older person living alone, a little planning before the next storm goes a long way.
6 November 2026 · 6 min read
Children
Late Birth Registration, Step by Step
A birth not registered within six months can still be registered at any age. It takes more paperwork, and an independent witness can fill the gaps.
4 November 2026 · 6 min read
Children
Keeping Children Safe in the School Holidays
More than two months at home, often with every adult out at work. A named adult for each day and a few checks around the house close most of the gap.
2 November 2026 · 6 min read
Giving
Giving by M-PESA Paybill, Safely
A gift by M-PESA takes seconds. A few checks make sure it reaches the people it was meant for.
30 October 2026 · 5 min read
Community
What a Chama Can and Cannot Do in a Family Crisis
A chama is often the fastest help a family has. It lasts longer when it knows its limits.
28 October 2026 · 6 min read
Education
University Funding for the First in the Family
A university place brings no money by itself. The student has to apply, every year, on time.
26 October 2026 · 6 min read
Older people
Replacing an Older Person's Lost ID Card
Without an ID card, an older person can quietly lose access to cash transfers, health cover and their own money.
23 October 2026 · 6 min read
Disability
Getting a Child with a Disability Assessed at an EARC
An assessment report follows a child for years. It is worth getting early, and getting right.
21 October 2026 · 6 min read
Children
Moving a Child to a New School Without Losing Term Time
A school move made in a hurry can leave a child at home for weeks. Most of the delay is avoidable.
19 October 2026 · 6 min read
Children
Keeping Children Safe Online with One Shared Phone
Handing a child the family phone is handing them the internet. A few habits make it much safer.
16 October 2026 · 5 min read
Children
School Bursaries for Needy Students in Kiambu
Bursaries are public money with rules and deadlines. The families who get them usually prepared early.
14 October 2026 · 5 min read
Older people
Registering an Older Relative with SHA
The time to find out about SHA is before the hospital desk asks for the number.
12 October 2026 · 6 min read
Older people
Preventing Falls for Older People at Home
Many falls happen on ground the person has walked for years. That is the hopeful part.
9 October 2026 · 6 min read
Disability
Registering a Person with Disability with NCPWD
The card has become a certificate. The assessment still comes first.
7 October 2026 · 6 min read
Older people
Inua Jamii for Older People: Who Qualifies and How It Pays
Many older people are entitled to a regular government payment and are not receiving it.
5 October 2026 · 6 min read
Giving
How a Small Foundation Makes a Donation Go Further
What really happens to a shilling given to a small, community-rooted foundation, and why proximity and low overhead can make giving go further.
22 September 2026 · 9 min read
Education
The Hidden Cost of the School Day for a Child in Poverty
Tuition is free, but uniforms, books, a meal and exam fees are not. A small barrier at the wrong moment is what actually ends a schooling.
21 September 2026 · 9 min read
Accountability
Why We Refuse to Publish Impact Numbers We Have Not Counted
Many charities open with big impact numbers. Here is why we will not publish one until it has been counted, and what a registered charity should show you instead.
20 September 2026 · 9 min read
Governance
What a Community Based Organisation Actually Is, and Why It Matters Who Runs It
A community based organisation is not a smaller NGO. It is registered at county level and answerable to its own members, and who runs it matters far more than any brochure.
19 September 2026 · 9 min read
Accountability
How to Check a Kenyan Charity Is Real Before You Give
Before you give to any Kenyan charity, you can check that it is real, find out who runs it and see whether its accounts are audited. Here is exactly how, and the warning signs worth walking away from.
18 September 2026 · 10 min read
Get Involved
Ways to Get Involved That Actually Help
The most valuable thing a person can do for us costs nothing, and most people never think to do it.
17 September 2026 · 5 min read
Accountability
Where Your Donation Goes, Step by Step
Where your money went is only half the question. Why it went there is the other half, and it is the half most charities never answer.
16 September 2026 · 5 min read
Care
More Than a Meal: Why Food Comes First, and What Follows
The first thing you notice in a hungry household is not hunger. It is quiet.
15 September 2026 · 5 min read
Child Welfare
Education Changes Everything, One Specific Purchase at a Time
A sponsorship that pays a school fee and stops there has solved the easiest part of the problem and left the rest exactly where it was.
14 September 2026 · 5 min read
Accountability
Why Clean Water Is the First Step Out of Poverty
It is easy to think of poverty as a shortage of money. On the ground it often begins as a shortage of something more basic, and the fix has a year three that most appeals never mention.
13 September 2026 · 5 min read
Accountability
How to Read a CBO's Quarterly Return
A quarterly return is one of the few documents a small organisation produces that an outsider is entitled to see. Here is what it records, what it leaves out, and how to check it.
12 September 2026 · 6 min read
Disability
Disability and School: What Inclusion Needs
Being enrolled is not being included. Most of what keeps a child with a disability out of the classroom is small, physical and cheap to fix, once somebody walks to the school with the family and asks.
12 September 2026 · 6 min read
Community
The Neighbour Is the First Responder
Before any organisation arrives, somebody two gates down has already noticed. A neighbour who looks, asks and tells somebody is the only early-warning system a small community organisation has.
12 September 2026 · 6 min read
Accountability
What We Learned From Saying No
A narrow mandate means most requests get a no. The work is in making sure nobody leaves with only that.
11 September 2026 · 6 min read
Advocacy
Birth Certificates, and Why a Child Needs One
A piece of paper a child will never hold decides school registration, exams, an identity card, inheritance and a hospital record. The children most likely to be without it are the ones already in our care.
11 September 2026 · 6 min read
Older people
The Older Person Who Will Not Ask for Help
Pride, fear of being a burden and fear of being moved out are why a visitor hears that everything is fine. The way past that is not better help. It is help the person can say yes to.
11 September 2026 · 6 min read
Accountability
How a Small Donation Is Actually Spent
Some of what you give is consumed by the act of delivering the rest. Here is what that covers, who signs before money moves, and how to ask to see the diary and receipts.
10 September 2026 · 6 min read
Care
Grief in a Household With Children
The funeral fills the house for a week. The year that follows is decided by routine, plain truth, the relative who stays, and who holds the documents and the money.
10 September 2026 · 6 min read
Disability
Assistive Devices Beyond the Wheelchair
The wheelchair is the symbol, but most of what changes a disabled person's day is smaller, cheaper and useless without an assessment, a fit and somebody coming back.
10 September 2026 · 6 min read
Networking
Referral Is Not Abandonment
A hand-off is a sentence: go to the office. A referral is work with three parts: we go along, we follow up, and we record the outcome.
9 September 2026 · 6 min read
Care
Children Who Care for Their Parents
In some houses the person running things is eleven. These households are hard to see, the child pays for it in school and childhood, and the answer is to support the parent, not remove the child.
9 September 2026 · 6 min read
Accountability
Why We Keep a Diary
A community based organisation is required to keep a written record of what it does. We would keep one anyway: it is the cheapest way for a small foundation to earn trust it has not yet built.
9 September 2026 · 6 min read
Community
How to Volunteer Without Making Work for Us
Help has a cost on the receiving end. Here is what a volunteer can do that genuinely lightens the load for a small CBO, and what quietly adds to it.
8 September 2026 · 6 min read
Disability
A Ramp Costs Less Than You Think
Ask what keeps a person with a disability indoors and the answer is rarely the disability. It is the step, and a fundi can often fix it in a morning.
8 September 2026 · 6 min read
Older people
When an Older Person Stops Eating
Nobody announces that they have stopped eating. The signs are in the kitchen, and the most useful response is a shared meal, not a delivered one.
8 September 2026 · 6 min read
Advocacy
What a Caregiver Can Ask the County For
The county social services office, the children's officer, the sub-county and the assistant chief exist to be asked. Most caregivers have never been told which door, what to bring, or what a fair answer looks like.
7 September 2026 · 6 min read
Care
Keeping a Child in School After a Parent Dies
A child rarely leaves school after a parent dies. They stop going, and nobody decides it.
7 September 2026 · 6 min read
Accountability
How We Decide Who We Help
A small organisation says no more often than yes, so the way we choose deserves to be written down and shown.
7 September 2026 · 6 min read
Accountability
What a Year of a Small CBO Actually Costs
Transport, airtime, renewal fees and a bank charge. Nobody funds these.
6 September 2026 · 6 min read
Older people
Loneliness Is a Health Problem
It gets treated as sad rather than as dangerous.
6 September 2026 · 6 min read
Disability
The Disability Card and What It Unlocks
A registration that many eligible families have never been told about.
6 September 2026 · 6 min read
Community
Giving in Kind: What Helps and What Does Not
Donated goods are generous, and sometimes expensive to receive.
5 September 2026 · 6 min read
Networking
Why Small Organisations Should Compare Notes
Two groups serving the same ward often do not know the other exists.
5 September 2026 · 6 min read
Disability
Respite: What Carers Need and Rarely Get
The carer is the part of the arrangement with no backup.
5 September 2026 · 6 min read
Networking
Working With the Chief and the County
Networking is a registered activity, not a nicety.
4 September 2026 · 6 min read
Advocacy
What an Accessible Ruiru Would Look Like
Accessibility is usually treated as a favour rather than a requirement.
4 September 2026 · 6 min read
Older people
The Grandmother Raising Grandchildren
Two of our registered activities meet in one household more often than anywhere else.
4 September 2026 · 6 min read
Accountability
What We Cannot Do, and Why We Say So
An organisation that claims to do everything is telling you something.
3 September 2026 · 6 min read
Care
How to Refer a Child Who Needs Help
Most people who notice something do nothing, because they do not know who to tell.
3 September 2026 · 6 min read
Older people
Caring for a Parent Who Is Forgetting
Families notice the memory going. They rarely get told what comes after it.
3 September 2026 · 6 min read
Care
Why We Do Not Run an Orphanage
The evidence on institutional care for children is not ambiguous.
2 September 2026 · 6 min read
Advocacy
What Advocacy Means for a Small CBO
Advocacy is one of our three registered activities. It is also the least understood.
2 September 2026 · 6 min read
Disability
A Wheelchair Is Not the Whole Answer
Equipment is the easiest part of the problem to photograph and the smaller part to solve.
2 September 2026 · 6 min read
Accountability
Quarterly Returns, and Why We File Them
Our certificate carries conditions. Most people never read that part.
1 September 2026 · 6 min read
Care
The School Costs That Are Not Fees
Fees are the number everyone quotes. They are rarely the reason a child stops going.
1 September 2026 · 6 min read
Care
What a Home Visit Actually Involves
Sitting in somebody else's house changes what you understand about their situation.
1 September 2026 · 6 min read
Community
Starting a Community Group: What We Learned Registering a CBO
How a handful of neighbours who want to help can become an organisation that can hold funds, be trusted and last.
31 August 2026 · 6 min read
Accountability
Why We Ask for Consent Before Telling Anyone's Story
The most effective fundraising image is a child in visible distress. We have decided not to do it.
31 August 2026 · 6 min read
Accountability
Understanding CBOs in Kenya: What They Are and How They Are Governed
The certificate does not merely permit a CBO to exist. It defines what it may do.
31 August 2026 · 6 min read
Advocacy
Disability and Dignity: Changing How Communities See Children with Disabilities
Names written on bibs is a small thing. It is also the whole argument.
30 August 2026 · 6 min read
Accountability
How to Choose a Charity to Give To in Kenya, and What to Ask
This article is against our own short-term interest, and we are publishing it anyway.
30 August 2026 · 6 min read
Child Welfare
What Orphans and Vulnerable Children Actually Need
The common thread is not the absence of adults. It is the absence of an adult with the capacity to protect them.
30 August 2026 · 6 min read
Family Support
Ageing Alone: What Older People Need Beyond Food
When people picture an older person in difficulty they picture hunger. Food matters, and it is often not the hardest part.
29 August 2026 · 6 min read
Family Support
Caring for a Child with a Disability in Kenya: Practical Support for Families
Ask a parent what is hardest and the answer is rarely the medical care. It is the accumulation of everything around it.
29 August 2026 · 6 min read
About the Foundation
Our Journey Begins: Building a Future Where Lives Are Lifted
An unusual foundation for a launch: no impact figures, because nobody has counted them yet.
29 August 2026 · 5 min read
Support Us
How Your Support Can Help Create Real Impact
People want to know what will actually happen to this. Here is the answer, without the language charities normally use to avoid it.
28 August 2026 · 5 min read
Accountability
What Transparency Means to Lift A Life Foundation
Every organisation says it is transparent. Rather than claim it, here is what we actually do, and what we deliberately do not.
28 August 2026 · 6 min read
Health Awareness
Understanding Children's Heart Conditions: An Awareness Guide for Families
The early signs are easy to mistake for ordinary infant difficulties. This is general awareness information, not medical advice.
28 August 2026 · 7 min read
Partnership
How Businesses Can Partner With Lift A Life Foundation
Most approaches to businesses ask for a cheque. It is the easiest thing to ask for and often the least useful thing a business can give.
27 August 2026 · 5 min read
Get Involved
How Volunteers Can Make a Lasting Difference
Turning up when you said you would is the volunteering skill that matters most. Everything else is secondary.
27 August 2026 · 5 min read
Our Thinking
The Power of Hope: Why Small Acts of Kindness Can Create Lasting Change
Small acts do not solve poverty. What they do is narrower, and in the moment more important.
27 August 2026 · 5 min read
Community
How Communities Can Transform Lives Together
In almost every community there is more capacity to help than is being used, and the reason is rarely selfishness.
26 August 2026 · 6 min read
Our Thinking
Why Every Life Matters: The Heart Behind Lift A Life Foundation
There is an arithmetic that development work encourages, and it quietly abandons the people who are expensive to help.
26 August 2026 · 6 min read
About the Foundation
Welcome to Lift A Life Foundation: Our Story and Why We Exist
Who we are, what we are registered to do, and why we would rather have a smaller website that is entirely true.
25 August 2026 · 6 min read
More stories are on the way. Ask us what we are working on.