Educating street children in the Mathare slums

The first quarter of the year will come to an end soon, bringing normalcy to the flurry of activities that marked the beginning of the New Year. Your support enabled us to ensure that 100 children in the program reported to school without delay, having met all their academic costs. We have 6 new recruits; the youngest aged 4 years and the oldest aged 14 years. The new recruits have been absorbed into the program following a rigorous process of individual case assessment. The process of assessment takes approximately 3 months, this is because it requires numerous home visits and meetings with possible partners to verify information given. As such, we review applications throughout the year in readiness for intake at the beginning of the year.

We receive numerous applications for academic support from residents in Mathare and surrounding environs, it is always difficult to turn anyone away. We have come to appreciate that, however much we try, we will never accommodate everybody. This gives us courage to face parents, guardians or children whose applications are unsuccessful. We have been able to refer a number of them for various services to our partners within the Child Protection network where they have received assistance.

We are thankful for the support offered by our friends and partners who make it possible to take a child through school, from kindergarten to college or university. Walking this path with the children is fulfilling and challenging; there are countless joyous moments for example when we see new confidence and attitude in a child after joining the program, good school performance, improved grades and finally graduation and employment. We have four students graduating from college this year, and we are excited about the new journey they’re about to undertake.

It is difficult to watch a child struggle to stay in school, a child’s early life experience and home environment plays a big role in their overall behaviour. To mitigate this, we design interventions that will address and meet the needs of the children holistically.

In order to realize the children’s dreams and meet our targets; our goals for this year are:

1. Towards Improved Academic Outcomes: Each holiday, Project Staff will be guided by school report forms in identifying strong and weak subjects and using that as a basis of mobilising beneficiaries into study groups. Capacities of students who perform well will be built as peer mentors/educators to enable them to take charge of study groups. Well-stocked libraries, computer rooms and tutors will enable beneficiaries to work towards improved academic outcomes.
2. Towards Improved Beneficiary Welfare: Nutritional supplements, psychosocial support, an annual health camp, enhanced capacity to provide emotional support and adoption of strategies that will enhance parent-child relations are some aspects of the project that are geared towards improved beneficiary welfare.
3. Participatory Workshops and Other Interactive Forums: The workshops will be facilitated for respective age cohorts: 6-9 year olds; 10-14 year olds; and 15+ year olds. The peer mentors in charge of study groups will also act as group leaders during focused discussions. After the series of workshops, an interactive forum will be facilitated for group leaders from all the age cohorts for the purpose of collation of issues arising from the workshops, and to identify common areas of interest
4. Commitment of Parents to Supporting Children in the Programme: Parenting education and other capacity-building forums {support groups} will enhance the capacity of parents to provide emotional and moral support to children in the programme.