Helping street children to be Street Smart

September is a key month for street work, when CRK social workers walk through the streets of Kitale identifying new arrivals and reminding all children that Street Smart is open and they can come to wash, attend classes and be fed. In this last term there are additional costs of going to school as exam fees are often appied to pay for the printing of the exams. For those sitting for their Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (end of primary school national exams) birth certificates are needed, which many children do not have as they have to be paid for. Therefore there are always a few more children on the streets in September who feel that they cannot go to school because they cannot pay for their examinations.

In addition, as the August holiday is a long one a number of children will work on the street to provide food for themselves and their families during the holidays when there are no feeding programmes running in schools. Sometimes these children choose not to go back to school because of the percieved benefits of working on the streets, or because they have become mixed up in the negative aspects of street life. Therefore, September is about finding these children and trying to get them back to school as soon as possible.

For those children who moved to Birunda Rescue Centre, and then home, from their time at Street Smart, September is about going back to school for the last stretch before the end of year exams, and for those coming to the end of their primary or secondary schooling - national examinations. It will be a turbulent term as the schools will need to close for a couple of weeks if a second election goes ahead (the results of the most recent one were annulled last week). That will mean a delay for the exams. It was lovely however to see the children going off to school, ready, if a little nervous, for the term ahead. 

We have also seen two of the young men CRK have supported through education off to university this month. Abel is now in his second year at Egerton University studying a BSc in Agricultural Ecomonics. Jacob was recently accepted to Meru University to do Computer Security and Forensics. The boys are lucky as they both recieved good enough grades in their Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education to be able to apply for governmental loans to pay fees, but there are registration fees, accommodation and related costs that must be paid for and the boys need to have access to laptops if they are to meet all the requirements of their courses. We have set up a specific appeal for help to support them through Global Giving.

It is great to have these two success stories as the young men are role models for other children completing their journeys away from the streets. It gives them something to aim for and the realisation that it is possible to succeed. Thank you for all of your support for Child Rescue Kenya's work in Kitale. We are grateful for supporters like yourself who enable our support of the children. 

Dear all,

Thank you to everyone who voted for our shortlisted image in the GlobalGiving photo contest. We didn’t win, but we did receive a number of votes and came quite far up the list. We very much appreciate all of your support!

It has been very busy here in Kitale. Last week we hosted Sander Degeling from the organisation Mobile School, a Belgian organisation that develop mobile school carts and train street-based social workers to deliver education. Their motto is 'If a child cannot come to school, we will bring the school to the child'. Their mobile school design is a portable classroom that can be wheeled out to deliver lessons on the streets and dump sites where the children spend their time. As well as delivering education, it is also a means of developing our relationships with the young people we support, and helping them to start the process of leaving the streets.

Sander came for a pre-visit, to find out more about CRK, to visit the projects, and to explore the streets of Kitale and meet the young people we work with. In addition, Sander delivered a number of training workshops for our staff. These were really interesting as they helped the social workers and teachers to reflect on their own individual identities and attitudes, and how they view the children and young people that we work with. This helps them to be more creative and resourceful when delivering the interventions we develop.

We are at the beginning of building a relationship with Mobile School and hope that we will work together more in the future. The picture above is one of Sander’s. It was taken during a night street walk that our social work team took him on during the visit.

We are also working hard to address the problems of food shortages and related increases in food costs in Kenya at the moment. A bag of maize (one of the most important staples in Kenyan cooking) has gone from kshs3500 to kshs6000 in the past 3 months. That is almost a 100% increase in cost. Sugar, cooking oil/fat, and beans have also increased significantly in price. This is having an impact on the number of children that we will be able to support in the coming months – which is especially concerning as the coming election may result in further instability. Such instability is likely to lead to increased numbers of children needing our help but increased food shortages and panic buying are making it difficult to find staple foods in the market place. 

We have been looking at how we can meet the shortfall: we would like to conduct a bulk buying exercise as soon as possible, not only get better prices but to ensure we we have adequate supplies during any crisis caused by the election result. As a supporter of Child Rescue Kenya, would you be able to help us meet these rising costs?

Thank you again for all your support of CRK and our work in Kitale.

Best Wishes,

Su