By Vicky Ferguson | Chief Executive Officer
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
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