Helping street children to be Street Smart

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!