Foundation PIP is a non-profit CBO (Community Based Organization) that was founded in 2011 in Kisumu, Kenya. The founder, who had a family counselling career that spanned over 30 years in the Netherlands, came to Kisumu, Kenya. As a volunteer within a street- connected organization, she was able to have a clear overview of the policies and operations governing other street-connected organizations and Charity Homes that rescued children from the streets, or where street-connected children were brought.
A fundamental issue with these children was that, in as much as all was done to mitigate their “current” situation, and ensure they were taken back home to be reunified with their families, in most cases the situation at home had not been addressed adequately in order to establish what caused the separation in the first place.
The reintegration procedure at that time missed out on the integral approach which encompasses the psychosocial support which is crucial to finding solutions for all the affected parties that the child is related to, thus enabling structural changes to be made possible with a clear view of a better future.
PIP Methodology:
In the course of the first few years (2007-2011), PIP's founder set up an office with experienced, local trained counsellors, developing a unique counselling interview technique for practitioners that can act both as a gatekeeping mechanism and a curative measure to counsel the psychosocial needs of those stigmatized, traumatized children with the aim not only to identify the issues but to come up with a treatment plan and strengthening guidelines with a holistic solution-focused approach for further counselling and care.
Where they operate
Organization Size
Headquarters Location
Kenya Assemblies of God Ring road, P.O. Box 1933
Kisumu
40100
Kenya
Organization Type
Main Areas of Work
What They Do
PIP's Core Program is to train all practitioners and frontline workers who work with vulnerable children and their families to upgrade their expertise in psychosocial guidance with a systemic-contextual approach supported by a tool called puppets. This tool is used as an aid in child assessment, and enables the child to picture and tell his/her true life story in the shortest time possible by revealing how life events have affected the child and their immediate surroundings.
The aim of the training is for the practitioner to get a better understanding of, and insight into, the relationships, (dys) functional communication patterns, interactions and dynamics of the diverse systems the child belongs to. This will help the practitioner to come up with a treatment plan which involves the child in the decision-making for a better future and the steps that need to be taken to achieve the desired goals.
Target groups:
- Street-child-connected organizations; Rescues centres that counsel children and reintegrate them back into the community.
- Institutions that counsel the affected children within their communities.
- Schools: To understand the underlying meaning of children’s problems and hence prevent learners from dropping out of school.
Based on the rich experience gained over the years, Foundation PIP has come up with a Training Manual and Handbook, as a way of sharing their experiences with practitioners and Trainers of Trainers (TOTs) to train colleagues in this unique counseling technique.