Programs and projects

The trunk in our work

We use the image of a tree when presenting Noracta's work in Kenya. The trunk of the tree is a network of leaders and pastors from small, poor churches across large parts of Kenya. It has gradually grown into over 26 counties in Kenya and consists of over 150 groups with nearly 2,000 participants.
We organize our work into 4 main programs. These are presented below. Within these programs we have several projects of varying duration.

Program: The Haugian Network

Daraja La Tumaini, Bridge of Hope.
The groups usually consist of 10 to 15 participants. They come from different small churches both in the slums and in the countryside. It started with a group of pastors who came from both Kibera and Mathares slums. They needed training and knowledge and this first group became the prototype of the groups that have later joined a Network of Hauge groups. They meet one Saturday a month. They study the Bible according to the Manuscript method, share challenges and receive training in many topics such as hygiene, how to run churches, how to start economic businesses, politics, democracy, etc.

Each group has a facilitator who leads the groups through both Bible studies and a review of various teaching topics. The main goal of the Haugianske Network was discussed and adopted at our first national conference in 2017. The participants, who then came from 70 groups, unanimously decided that Bridge of Hope should work to include orphans and other vulnerable children in the small churches. This created a greater identity for the Hauge values and in 2021 the network decided to call the training groups Hauge Groups.

Read more about the Hauge network in this newsletter (Norwegian, opens in new window)

Program: CreaKids Learning and Sports Center

The first major branch of the tree is the CreaKids Learning and Sports Center. Noracta needed a clear sign that our most important group was children and youth. We saw the need for a center for children in the Kibera slum.Read more: "CreaKids Learning and Sports Centre" (Norwegian, new window)

Through support from local forces and children from Læringsverkstedet and the company Cemo in Norway, we have built a clear sign of who we want to help Children and youth. You can read more about the creation of this program inHistorien om Noracta og DarajaNia (Norwegian, new window)

Program: Manga Bible Club Sunday Schools

I had an important question that I spent 10 years trying to find an answer to: Is there a way to reach orphans and other vulnerable children that we can use everywhere where we have churches that are part of the Hauge Network?

The answer came in the middle of a speech I was giving in a small church at the bottom of the Kibera slum. A man interrupted me and told me how his little daughter, about 4 to 5 years old, had stopped a street boy she knew outside the small church and invited him to Sunday school. It was one of the very few small churches that had Sunday school for children at that time. He joined and later he joined us for dinner and ended up staying the night there and by that time he had been adopted into the family. That's when I realized: children in the small churches that are located on the streets know other children in the area, including orphans and other vulnerable children who are wandering around on their own. That's when this program started, where the vision is that children will invite other children to Manga Bible Club Sunday Schools. You can read more about this important program in the story of Noracta and DarjaNia.

Read more: "Manga Bible Clubs Sunday Schools" (Norwegian, new window)

Program: New Business Start Ups

Entrepreneurship for youth.

In our plans, it has been very clear that at the time we know how to get in touch with orphans and other vulnerable children, we should start by helping the families associated with the Haugian network to start their own business. We have already done a lot of course work through Hauge seminars for over 10,000 members of the small churches and a Plan Your Future course, an intensive course for the entire extended family, which helps everyone understand the impact that society's economy and personal finances can have on families. We also know that many have been helped to start their own business. Again, we got help from leaders, county coordinators and group leaders in the Hauge network to nominate young people they knew and then we started a new major program that you can read more about in the story.

The third major branch of the family, the Hauge Network of Small Groups, the program with training to start a business was launched in the spring of 2023.

Read more: "New Business Start Ups for ungdom" (Norwegian, new window)