Our association
history – purpose – development concept
Our project “Pamoja” has its origins in 1995, when development aid worker Petra Allmendinger became aware of the Machiuka Children’s Home in Isiolo, Kenya and supported it for many years.
In order to provide better financial support for the home, she and some friends from Witzenhausen founded our association in 2010 under the name “Help for Kenya’s Children e.V.”. Most of the founding members have remained loyal to the association to this day!
This still small group quickly grew to over 80 members in the following years.
The purpose of the association is to ensure financial support for the children’s home Pamoja Machiuka (which means “Rising – Together!”). The goal is to provide long-term support and assistance to the home so that children who would otherwise not have a safe and protected upbringing or access to education can live in safety, be well cared for and go on to live self-determined lives full of opportunities.
For legal reasons, a registered association was also founded in Kenya: It is called Pamoja-Machiuka C.B.O.. It has a first and second chairperson, a treasurer and is audited by the Kenyan tax authorities as well as supervised by the Nyeri social services.
In 2023, we launched an association development concept to make the association sustainable for the future, secure its work and set it up in a transparent manner for the next generations of volunteers. In 2024 and 2025, we therefore revised and updated the constitution of the association, redesigned the website and flyer and changed the association’s name to “Pamoja – Hilfe für Kenias Kinder e.V.” (Pamoja – Help for Kenya’s children e.V.) in order to name our children’s home more precisely and to avoid confusion with other aid organizations.
Today, the association counts a number of members, sponsors and individual donors who together secure funding and actively help to ensure that the project succeeds and has a future.
Since May 2025, we have expanded our sphere of activity in accordance with the new constitution of the association. The purpose of the association now also includes the promotion of child and youth welfare, education and development cooperation, as well as charitable actions.
This means that in individual cases we provide funds for financial assistance to former children of the home, for education and training at school and/or university, as well as for children/young people or families in Kenya who are in need. This includes financial support for individuals who are dependent on the help of others, due to their physical, mental, or emotional condition or economic situation.
Nevertheless, we need your help!
We want to take in even more children, and costs are rising in Kenya too. The older children attend schools with higher tuition fees and in our new constitution we have also committed ourselves to providing individual support for children in difficult circumstances in Kenya. We can only do this if we receive enough regular and individual donations!
Thank you very much if you would like to help us!
