Helping street children to be Street Smart

Every day, new faces appear on the streets of Kitale town. Children as young as four who, for a multitude of reasons, end up on the streets foraging for food and income. Over the years, we have rescued thousands of children from this lifestyle and reintegrated the majority of them with family. We not only rescue and reintegrate; we find ways to assist the family to care for their children. This might be short term assistance, during an illness for example, or it may be longer term such as training a family member in a trade or business to enable them to support their family. Prevention is vital and empowering the family prevents the child returning to life on the streets and prevents other family members ending up on the streets. We were fortunate to receive a mobile school earlier this year. This has enabled us to attract more children to our social workers and, through the cleverly constructed story telling panel s of the mobile school, children often tell a story through pictures that they might not yet be ready to put into words. This provides the social workers with an opening to discuss the child’s problems and home life faster than might normally be possible. The earlier we meet new arrivals to the streets, the better our chances of getting them off the streets before they fall foul of its many dangers. Reaching them quickly also means we can often reintegrate children home directly without need for temporary rescue centre placement. The longer they have been on the street, the more likely they are to need rehabilitation. Our statistics for direct reintegration are increasing as a result of quicker access to children in need. This is aided by tools such as the mobile school used by our Street Smart outreach workers. It not only helps us to attract the children, it is cleverly designed to help them ‘open up’ about their issues, while also having a fun learning experience which encourages them to want to return to school. We have now been using this amazing new tool for just over six months and there is no doubt that it is helping us to reach children and youths in a fun and fast way. We are also nearing the end of a pilot programme for a new method of vocational training of street youth. All indications are that this is going to be incredibly successful and participants will graduate in November. We will be reporting on this in our next report.