Support 250 children imprisoned in Mombasa, Kenya

It has been a busy start to the year for us at Glad's House, particularly with our Advocacy Team. This quarter we want to share with you a little bit more information about our Repatriation work with children in prison. Thanks to you and your ongoing support of this work we have now been able to support over 50 children and young people ut of prison and back home to their families. 

One of those young people is Erick*. Erick is now 17 years old and comes from the Eastern part of Kenya. Erick's parents separated when he was a child and he was cared for by his father. His father later remarried and Erick was told his mother had gone to Mombasa.

At the age of 15, Erick was desperately unhappy and wanted to find his mother. During the school holidays he found some work and saved his salary to come to Mombasa to find his mother. He arrived in Mombasa and had no where to stay whilst he was looking for his mum so slept in a shop door way in the city centre. Within three days he had been arrested. His crime was sleeping. He was taken to Court and then to the Juvenial Remand Home as he waited for his case to be heard. Once in Court, he was ordered to be released and taken home by an officer from the children’s department back home and handed over to his dad.

However, as the department had no funds to support Erick home he remained in the Juvenile Remand Home almost a year. During that time he was treated as a criminal with no access to education, no time to play and no acccess to basic sanitation. Erick has lost all hope of ever returning home and finishing his education.   

Because of YOU and YOUR generosity Glad's House staff were in the Juvenile Remand Home. Our Social Worker, Mugambe, and Football Coaches, Bufa and Dula, got to know him and built relationships with him. Erick soon shared his situation and his depseration to return home and continue his education. Thanks to YOU we have now been able to support Erick out of the Juvenile Remand Home, back home to his family and back to school so he is able to finish his education and now has a bright future ahead of him! Thanks to you, Erick and 49 other children and young people have bright futures again.

There are still many more children and young people like Erick that need to be supported out of Prison and back home to their families. We hope you'll choose to continue to support our Project that ensures this can happen and that many more children and young people can have bright futures!

Thanks from all of us!

Vicky

*Due to Child Protection Issues names and identities have been protected

"Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are our favourite days as Coach and Mugambe are with us and we have fun, we’re always sad for the rest of the week when they’re not here.” was the response of one of the children in the Remand Home when I asked them if they like Glad's House being there. I have just returned from a trip to Mombasa and during my time I spent the day with our Football Coach, Buffalo and Social Worker, Mugambe visiting both the Remand Home and Approved School. It was my favourite day of my whole trip! Whilst we were there it was a hub of activity as Buffalo managed to coach three different groups (girls, boys 10 – 14 and boys 15 – 18) in a very small space. Each child had the biggest smile on their face. Whilst the coaching was going on Mugambe was also delivering a session on problem solving with a group of 20 young people! It was amazing!

One extra special moment during my visit to the Remand Home and Approved School was watching our new Coach, Dula, in action! Dula is an extra special member of our team. Dula lived on the streets for 12 years, since he was 6 years old, and has spent significant periods of his childhood in the Remand Home. However after six months in Glad's House Boxing Programme, he is now living independently and is now working as a trainee Football Coach. He delivers 3 coaching sessions a week alongside Coach Buffalo in the Approved School. Dula is a true role model for the children and young people we work with and shows just what can be achieved.  We are incredibly proud to have him as part of our team working in the Juvenile Justice system and he has a bright future ahead of him!

December marks a year since we ‘kicked’ off our campaign on Global Giving to deliver this work and it is because of your generosity our success continues! Since last December we have supported 425 children and young people (308 boys and 117 girls) in the Remand Home and 110 boys in the Approved School bringing the total to 525 in Mombasa Juvenile Justice Sytem Supported. This is far more children and young people than we hoped to work with, due to your support we were more than able to double our reach! WOW!

Between them, these children and young people have attended 235 football coaching sessions, received over 1,000 care packs and accessed weekly life skills and counselling sessions. 40 children and young people have also been supported to return home once their sentence had finished. So all in all, thanks to you, it’s been a FANTASTIC first year.

On behalf of all of us at Glad’s House, THANK YOU for your support for the work we do! Because of you all, 2015 has been an inspiring and exciting year for us all!

Wishing you and your families a Very Merry Christmas and the happiest of 2016’s

Vicky and all the team at Glad's House