Safety, Shelter & Food - Vulnerable Kids in Kibera

This month, St. Vincent's launched a new microproject on Global Giving to raise funds for a holiday camp for the children we support. During the months of December and January, both children from our rescue center and children receiving scholarship support will be invited to participate in this camp, where they will learn about life skills and financial literacy. Children will discuss among their peers topics such as HIV prevention, health promotion, peer pressure, communication skills and have the chance to ask questions, and practice skills through activities like role plays and dramas. Children will be empowered with information on child protection and opportunities to practice difficult communication skills, for example, saying 'no' to sex. Financial literacy sessions will start to prepare children around topics like savings and budgeting to help prepare them for the future. 

The camp is designed to equip children with the information and skills to make healthy life decisions. This is not so easy for children in Kibera who face difficult conditions that limit their ability to lead safe and healthy lives: high rates of poverty and orphanhood, HIV prevalence estimated at 17% (compared to 4% prevalence in Kenya), and soaring rates of violence against children, including alarming rates of sexual violence. With little information availed in schools and topics of HIV and reproductive health still being taboo, children often lack critical knowledge and skills that enable them to make informed decisions.

Check out the project here.

The rescue centre was established 12 years ago to provide emergency care to children who have experienced abuse, neglect or abandonment. The goal of the centre is to create a safe space for children where they receive care and protection in the short term, while we work with government social services, other community partners and families to identify long term care options for children.

Our approach is grounded in the African custom of extended families caring for children who have lost parents. Yet, the reality on the ground particularly in Kibera makes this difficult to achieve. Extremely hard hit by poverty and HIV, which has affected extended families ability to care for children, Kibera is also unique as people have come from rural homelands to find work -- moving far away from family. This makes it difficult to find family members that actually know the child and are willing and able to care for him/her. As a result, St. Vincent's has often found itself unable to find viable, safe, long term care options for children that come under our care.

Despite this challenge, St. Vincent's still prioritizes family reunification through a more gradual process. We work to identify family members (immediate or extended) and help to build bonds between them and the child. We do this by talking with families about their ability to provide care, arranging for the child to make visits with family members during school breaks and by inviting family members to visit the child at our centre. Sometimes this leads to a child going to live with their family, with continued support from St. Vincent's (e.g., paying school fees). Most often though, the children stay living in our centre and we aim to build relationships so that when the child comes of age and leaves our care, he/she will have in place a network of support. Each step of the way, we prioritize the wellbeing of the children by doing our due diligence to assess the safety of the child during visits and by giving children a voice about visits and about their care situation.