KIDS Orphan Support

We support people in need in Kitui, Kenya.

We work to provide the marginalised with clean water and access to education, and to empower them by boosting their economic independence.

Groups Twinned with Kitui

Urgent Appeal to Renew Your Support
To all those who are currently supporting an AIDS orphan through school, we offer our sincere thanks. Your generosity has made a really significant difference to the life of the child you have sponsored. We now ask you to continue this support for a further year.	To keep this programme running and expanding, we need a continuous flow of funds. The cost of supporting an AIDS orphan through one year's education at secondary boarding school, including tuition, accommodation and food, is just €500.
Please send your contribution to Aidan Corless as soon as possible. You can also use the Donation form on this website and send your donation direct to Trocaire-Friends of Kitui	All donations for Friends of Kitui projects are handled by Trocaire, the development arm of the Catholic Church in Ireland. If you are a PAYE payer, your donation will increase in value by the amount of the tax you have paid. For non-PAYE donors, your donation will qualify as an allowable expense. A receipt will be issued by Trocaire for each donation.

School Fees Programme

Sponsoring the Education of AIDS Orphans

This programme was founded by Aidan Corless, a Dublin businessman who wanted to take positive action to ease the plight of children and other young dependent adults orphaned directly or indirectly as the result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Aidan visited Kitui to assess the situation on the ground. He met with Fr. Paul Healy, Diocesan Administrator for the Kitui Diocese, and visited a number of centres where the Diocese was working on behalf of the people of Kitui.

He identified education as one of the key elements in a programme for support of AIDS orphans, recognising that providing these children with a sound education would give them a better headstart for the future.

Aidan initially undertook to support 90 AIDS orphans and pledged to raise funds to support this number through secondary education. Sponsors are asked to pay €500 towards the educational expenses for each student. This sum covers the annual cost of providing tuition, uniform, personal expenses such as school clothing and bedding, food and accommodation in a boarding school, and transport to and from school at end of term. The sponsorship fee is paid through the Trocaire-Friends of Kitui account directly to the Education Department of the Catholic Diocedse of Kitui, which monitors and administers the programme. Any surplus is applied to addiitonal needy students.

As discussed elsewhere on this site, education is seen by the people of Kitui as essential in helping them to improve their own economic status- just as it was in Ireland in decades past.

This is an ongoing programme, and your support is earnestly requested. Contact Aidan at:

(Please type the above into your e-mail programme)

Read more about the situation facing children orphaned due to AIDS here.

Click on image to enlarge

Pictured left during a visit to Kitui April 2007: (L to R) Aidan Corless, Ndiko, Richard, and Pat Torpey. Ndiko has just qualified with a P1 primary teaching qiualification, and Richard is in his first year at University studying engineering. Both were sponsored through secondary school by Friends of Kitui. Richard is now being sponsored by a Dalkey parishioner.

			Shown here are the faces of just a few of the children who have benefited from your support. Without your help, these children would not have had the opportunity to gain the education which is the first step on the way to a better future.