Nairobi, Kenya · Est. 2001

A place for all.

Situated on the edge of three of Nairobi's largest slum communities — Kibera, Kawangware, and Kangemi — Children's Garden Home & School is not set apart from where the children came from. It is rooted there, deliberately. Because these children must remain connected to their community — and one day, return to transform it.

Daddy Moses Ndung'u — Founder, Children's Garden Home

The Founder

He knows what it is to grow up with nothing.

Moses Ndung'u grew up in the slums of Nairobi. At the age of six, he walked barefoot and in tatters to a nearby school — curious about what happened inside. The children surrounded him and mocked him. He had never before been aware of his poverty. From that moment, something shifted in him.

Moses made a decision that day: he would work to uplift himself and every child around him who had been denied what education promises.

In 2001, he left his matatu business and started Children's Garden Home with five children, a rented one-room tin-roofed shanty near the Kawangware slum, and his wife Sylvia beside him. A Swedish donor — their very first — paid the rent. Today, over 400 children call CGH home.

"Our vision is to help these children from the slums to grow up with an empowered mindset, with a positive attitude and with good knowledge and skills to make a difference not only to their own lives, but also that of the community where they come from."
Mum Sylvia Ndung'u — Co-founder, Children's Garden Home

The Heart of the Home

She sees every child as her own.

Sylvia Ndung'u has been mother to hundreds of children since the day she and Moses opened their home to the first five children in 2001. She has been there through every arrival — through the fear and trauma in newly rescued children's eyes, and through the slow blossoming that follows unconditional love.

For over 25 years, Sylvia has been the steady warmth at the centre of CGH — available to every child, at any hour, in any need.

"We started with 5–6 children in a one-room tin-roofed shanty near the Kawangware slum. The rent was kindly sponsored by a Swedish lady, our first donor in 2001. All the homeless children lived together with my family. I see all the children as the same as my own and always make myself available for them to come to me. With love, all of them can become mighty oaks in their own way."

Daily Life

The children run this home.

CGH operates like a family, not an institution. Moses and Sylvia are the parents. The staff are the aunts and uncles. The older children take responsibility for the younger ones — each older child is assigned a younger sibling to bathe, clothe, feed, and care for.

Every morning, the children complete household duties in teams led by the older students. They prepare meals together, eat together in the dining hall, study together, and play together. The older ones set the tone. The younger ones learn by watching.

This is not a programme. It is a home.
5:30amWake up and morning self-study
6:30amCleaning duties and bath
7:30amBreakfast
8:00amSchool begins
12:45pmLunch break
2:00pmClasses resume
3:45pmLessons end; children clean classrooms and compound
4:00pmGames, music and drama
5:00pmFree time for boarders
6:30pmDevotion — prayer and worship led by a student
7:30pmDinner
8:00pmEvening study and homework
10:00pmBedtime

Education

Knowledge is the most sustainable thing we can give a child.

CGH's school provides free education to all 250 home children — and to over 170 day scholars from the surrounding slum communities who come each day for lessons and a hot lunch. For many of these day scholars, the meal at CGH is the most reliable food they will receive.

Academic excellence is taken seriously here. In 2008, the pioneer KCPE class saw one student score 426 marks out of 500, with nine others scoring above 300. The school has continued to produce students who go on to secondary school, college, and university.

But education at CGH goes beyond the classroom. Traditional dance, music, football, farming, and animal husbandry are all part of what a CGH education means. Because a child's potential is never found in one subject alone.

Children studying at CGH — Nairobi, Kenya

A New Chapter · 2023

A school designed for every child — including those the system leaves behind.

Not every child at CGH learns the same way. For years, children with special needs received care within the home — but there was no dedicated space designed around their specific requirements. In 2022, that began to change.

Special Education School Block launch day — November 2023

Architects Patrick Edison and Alyssa Lim — a couple based in Dubai — volunteered their expertise and time to design a Special Education School Block from the ground up. Over a year of planning, collaboration, and fundraising, donors from Singapore, the USA, and beyond contributed to bring the vision to life.

In November 2023, Daddy Alvin returned to Nairobi to officially launch the Special Education School — a dedicated two-storey block with purpose-built classrooms and a fully equipped baking kitchen.

It was rubble two years before. Now it is a school. And inside it, a social business was born.

Daddy Alvin and Daddy Moses at the completed Special Education School Block

Daddy Alvin and Daddy Moses at the completed Special Education School Block — November 2023.

Social Enterprise

Pineapple tarts, baked in Nairobi —
by the hands of those the world overlooked.

Tartfully Yours is a social business born inside the walls of CGH. A recipe from Singapore. Hands in Nairobi. A future being baked, one tart at a time.

Victor, Precious and Dorene — the Tartfully Yours team

A pathway to self-reliance

Tartfully Yours provides meaningful vocational training for CGH's youth with special needs. Victor Kibe and teacher Snaida Barasa lead the venture, coaching Dorene and Samuel to become skilled bakers. Youth volunteer Precious and others support daily operations.

The recipe was created by Singapore pastry chef Angelena Chan — adapted for the CGH kitchen. The Tartfully Yours kitchen sits inside the Special Education School Block, a space funded by donors and designed by volunteer architects.

A recipe from Singapore. Hands in Nairobi. A future being baked, one tart at a time.
Samuel cutting pineapples for Tartfully Yours

More Than Education

The garden grows in many directions.

Mount Longonot graduation trek — CGH Form 4 students, November 2022

Graduation Trek · 2022

Standing on top of their own country.

In November 2022, 32 Form 4 students — completing their secondary education — were taken on a graduation climb up Mount Longonot, an active volcano in the Rift Valley, two hours from Nairobi. Moses and Mum Sylvia climbed alongside them. Daddy Alvin climbed too.

At 2,776 metres above sea level, they stood at the summit together — children who had grown up in the slums of Nairobi, breathing the thin air of what is possible. After the climb, the group visited CGH's farm in Naivasha, where they harvested vegetables for the children back home.

Children harvesting vegetables at the CGH Naivasha farm

The Naivasha Farm

Growing food. Growing futures.

CGH's farmland in Naivasha — funded by volunteer Jens and his donors from the USA — provides the home with a source of fresh produce grown by the children themselves. Farming and animal husbandry are part of the CGH school curriculum, giving children practical skills alongside academic learning.

The farm primarily feeds the 400+ children at CGH, with surplus produce sold to the local community — generating small but meaningful income that feeds back into the home's sustainability.

The CGH Café — a youth-run social business under revamp

Social Business · In Growth

The CGH Café — a business with momentum.

Right at the entrance of CGH is a café — a youth-run social business that generates income for the home while giving young people real experience in the hospitality industry. Tables, a covered terrace, a proper kitchen, and a menu written by the youth themselves.

The café is currently undergoing a major revamp, generously supported by volunteer Jens and his donors from the USA — the same community that funded the purchase of CGH's Naivasha farmland. It is a business with momentum, and with a community of gardeners firmly behind it.

Solar panels installed at CGH — Phase 1, 2026

Sustainability · 2026

Powering the home — with the sun above Nairobi.

🌿 Green Initiative · In Progress

CGH draws water from a borehole on its compound — but running the pump from the national grid is costly and unreliable. In 2026, Daddy Alvin and Singapore donors Mr Arthur Teo and Mr John Ong began a phased solar electrification project to address this for the long term.

Phase 1 ✓ Solar system connected to the borehole pump — installed and undergoing testing. Clean, sustainable water, independent of the national grid.
Phase 2 Solar power extended to lighting across the entire home — reducing electricity bills significantly.
Phase 3 Hot water for babies and young children, and all remaining appliances — bringing grid electricity costs to near zero.

A long-term investment in sustainability — aligned with the global green movement, and funded entirely by the CGH gardener community.

Wellbeing · Since 2016

Meridian 101 — a gift from Singapore to Nairobi.

Since 2016, Daddy Alvin has brought a new gift to CGH — training in Meridian 101 acupressure and guasha, a traditional Chinese self-healing practice. In 2023, a new batch of students and teachers received coaching in these skills, along with a donated stock of Avita TCM herbal essential oils from Singapore donors.

The knowledge is now being shared within the CGH community — teachers passing on to students what they have learned. The garden growing in an unexpected direction. Teacher Joyce shares what this has meant to her in this video.

Become a Gardener

Every brick, every meal, every classroom — built by gardeners like you.

Monthly giving is the lifeblood of Children's Garden Home. It allows Moses and Sylvia to plan ahead — to know that next month, and the month after, the gate will stay open for every child who has nowhere else to go.

Become a Monthly Gardener