Helping Hilltop is a small charity started in December 2023 following 3 years of private fundraising and donations by Vivienne Hannah along with family and friends, to help support Hilltop Christian Centre, which is home to 81 orphans, aged 5-18 in Godako, Homabay County in Kenya. It is run by Fabian Olouch and his wife Vivien with the support of the local community. Fabian has a small farm which is being developed to feed the children and produce excess for sale for other needs. The aim is self-sufficiency.

In 2021 the buildings that the children slept in were subject to an arson attack and became uninhabitable. The children were all taken in by Fabian and many local widows. Fabian does really well in supporting the children and the widows. They get together at weekends and remain a big family. The charity has been working hard to repair the building and adhere to local regulations – the building was repaired, bunk beds were bought, and a perimeter fence put up. We thought we were vey nearly ready to welcome the children back but received very difficult news from Government officials whilst visiting Hilltop in June 2024. Due to a new law, they would no longer allow the children to return to Hilltop as the site is too small. They insist on a newbuild on a bigger piece of land, a huge mountain for us to climb. This is still our long- term aim. The priority meantime is to develop the farm to help support the children and the widows while also fundraising for the new orphanage.

Much has been done already to help the children with food, water, clothing, education and health but there is still a long way to go.

Our strength lies not only in the words we stand by, but more importantly in action. From the moment we started our work with Fabian in 2020, we understood that by working together we could help overcome their challenges much more efficiently and that is why we ultimately decided to launch Helping Hilltop. We strive to make a positive change in all our pursuits.