Helping street children to be Street Smart

Since covid 19 struck earlier this year, we have not been able to make the progress we would have liked with our project.  Many of our activities have been hampered by a combination of government restrictions, necessary caution and a reduction in donor funding.

Usually, August sees us receiving visitors from overseas, in particular students, who participate as volunteers in our mobile school outreach and, in turn, assist in our fundraising efforts.  This year, we have received no visitors due to covid 19 restrictions and, this has the knock-on effect of also affecting future donations.  And, this was exacerbated by a regular donor, who relies on fundraising through sponsored marathons, concerts etc in Europe, having to stop funding as such events cannot be held.

We were forced to close our street drop-in centre in March when the Kenyan government implemented 'lock-down' and closed all schools and rescue centres.  Schools and rescue centres remain closed and this is likely to stay in effect until at least January.  We put in extra efforts to reintegrate children on the streets in March to reduce numbers living on the streets of Kitale, knowing that we would not have a rescue facility available for the foreseeable future and our outreach work on the streets would be severely hampered by lock-down restrictions.

We concentrated our efforts in assisting the families of children we had reintegrated from the streets in the early part of 2020 and others in need, to avoid any possibility of those children sufferering from deprivation at home or feeling the need to run away again.  This aid took the form of our social workers visiting those families and taking emergency aid packages to them to ensure they could feed their families and also to provide emotional support.  This has been successful and we continue to do this.

When lockdown was lifted a few weeks ago, many families could once again resume some of their economic activiities such as small market stalls and casual jobs and this has helped them considerably, following on from four months of no real income.  Kenya does not have any social welfare support system.  Inability to work or trade means zero financial income.

Unfortunately, lifting of lock-down, and no schools being open, has meant that children have started to drift back to the streets of Kitale.  We are again doing outreach and trying to reintegrate children but this is being made more difficult by not being able to utilise our drop-in centre or mobile school as both facilities remain closed due to government restricitions.  

We continue to need help reintegrating children to keep them off the streets as much as possible.  In order to keep children at home, we still need to be able to provide their families with help to ensure the home remains a place of comfort, safety and enough food on the table until such time as covid 19 is completely under control and people can go back to normal life including school and jobs.  Many families rely on schools and sponsored or subsided schooling and school meals to help out in this regard.  School feeding programmes and regular classes help keep children fed and occupied and reduce the influx to the streets.   We need to step in and do what we can to keep children well fed and happy at home.

Thank you for your support in these trying times.

At the end of every financial year, we sit down and plan our work for the following year.  We work out our budgets and workplans based on projected income and the results we would like to see.  We assess the number of children we can reach on the streets with a view to reintegrating them into safe and loving families and we work out how much support we can give those families to ensure the child can stay at home and the family have their basic needs met.  We look at education for the child that is taken home, and their siblings.  We also look at potential training and assistance in setting up income generation for older siblings or parent.  Taking a child home is a waste of resources unless we can ensure that the home is secure in terms of food and income, that any counselling of family members needed can be undertaken, and that those who should be in school have their needs met to enable that.    This is why we have a good success rate with our reintegrations and we can reduce the numbers of children from a family returning to the streets and prevent younger members of that family taking to the streets.  

Well, this year is a little bit different to our usual!  In the latter part of March, the Kenyan government announced a serious of measures to reduce the impact of Coronavirus in the country.  Being a third world country, we simply do not have the medical resources to cope with a large outbreak, nor do the majority of the population have access to any type of medical insurance or social security to cover medical costs or to compensate for loss of work at this time.  Schools were closed and gatherings banned.  This has not stopped our outreach work but has considerably changed how we work and what we can do.  We are now working well away from our projected plan for 2020.

At one stage, Kitale had a major lockdown.  This has been eased but there are still many restrictions in force.  We have a curfew from 7pm to 5am.  This has meant our outreach workers have not been able to do night time street patrols to check up on those living on the streets.  Our Street Smart drop in centre was closed as it was deemed to be a school or gathering place.  So, we have had to revert to our workers doing daytime street patrols and outreach.  We have not been able to utilise our mobile school.  We have continued to reintegrate children home and to provide aid at home.  As we are trying to reintegrate children at a faster rate than in the past, we are taking them home before we have implemented some of our medium to long term programs such as training, counselling and business set up.  This means we are diverting funds from the Street Smart centre into providing emergency food parcels, blankets etc and our staff are making more home visits than usual.  We are anxious to get as many children off the streets as possible.  We realise that they are going to homes where they are receiving little by way of home schooling and where the main breadwinners have likely had their income affected by coronavirus closures, but they are safer there.  We are going through a very wet rainy season and, if we continue with the curfews and lockdowns, those children are in danger from police patrols and beatings in addition to illness.  

During this trying time, we ask you to imagine what it is like for a household where income has been affected by coronavirus restrictions, there is no social security or unemployment benefit, there are likely no resources for home education, there is no internet or television for entertainment - and it is raining.  Please don't forget these children.  We are trying to make their lives more comfortable until such time as coronavirus can be controlled.  There is hope!