By Theresa Heasman | Development Director
In a few days' time, Kenyan children will return to school, having had a long two month break. For a great many, there will be a struggle to find uniforms and shoes for the new academic year, in addition to all the other costs and necessities for school. What to us in the west seems a small issue, may prove impossible financially to many parents and some children will not join school on time and be tempted to life on the streets.
Some children, having already encountered difficulties in their home lives during the long break, have already come to the streets and spent Christmas away from home and family.
We have been more fortunate this Christmas than in prior years in having a mobile school to enable us to interact with children on the streets and to engage their interest in returning to school life. We successfully reintegrated some of these children and are helping their families to improve their livelihoods and assisting in provision of uniforms. Our mobile school is not only an educational tool that retains interest in learning among children who have been missing out on school, but it attracts children to our social workers who can then glean their individual stories to start on our path of rescue and reintegration. And it provides entertainment and a fun learning environment.
We were extra fortunate this holiday to have a young man from the UK spend some time volunteering with our Street Smart project. He is a trainee teacher and was particularly interested in working with the mobile school outreach. This gave us an extra pair of hands during the holiday period when more children than usual were to be found on the streets.
It is perhaps hard for those of us from the developed world to imagine a world where Christmas to many children is simply another day of the week. They are aware of its religious significance but the commercialism, the mystique, the enchantment are totally alien concepts. For them, it is just another day to survive the dangers, to deal with the hunger.
For those of us working in CRK, Christmas is a time to reflect and to be thankful for what we have. We are thankful for our donors and supporters and we are truly thankful for our wonderful team of employees and volunteers who give of themselves, not just at Christmas, but throughout the year. Thanks to such generosity, we look forward to helping change more young lives for the better in 2019!
From us all, we wish you a very happy new year!
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