Protect, feed, and educate 114 rescued children

When the Sisters of St. Joseph first got involved with street children, they were very enthusiastic that the children under their care would quickly be rehabilitated and soon begin to live a normal life again. Initially the Sisters found it necessary to rescue, rehabilitate and place the rescued children in public schools. Public schools were cheaper and the Sisters reasoned out that they would give the rescued children an opportunity to mingle with other children and thus grow up as normal children with their peers.

Schools readily took in the street children. However, the joy of the Sisters would be short lived since the rescued children experienced isolation in the public schools and fell into loneliness. Some parents instilled fear in their children by cautioning them against mixing with former street children. The parents claimed these were a bad influence since in the streets they had been exposed to all sorts of unbecoming behavior including drug abuse, sexual exploitation and criminal activities. There was phobia of the street recruits. The children would come back to the centre in the evenings and vow not to return to school. Some returned to the streets thinking they would never be accepted by the ‘normal’ children, given their street experience.

What was the use of rescuing these children if after all the efforts they were not able to live a normal life with other children in the society? This was devastating to Grandsons of Abraham Centre. We had failed big. We had not prepared the schools to accept children rescued from the streets as normal children who needed to be loved and cared for. We then contemplated just tracing the children’s homes and have them reunited with their families and end our role at that point. Given the circumstances this would have been a great achievement.

This would however be falling short of our vision which was to give hope to the young people and an opportunity not only to reintegrate with their communities, but more so to be able to be self dependent and reliable citizens. The children needed at least some basic education upon which to build their lives.

So the Abraham's Education Centre was born. It was a formal education centre within the rehabilitation facility. It would be a safe haven for the children where they would not experience discrimination or isolation as they did in the public schools. We sought funds to build some structures to begin the classes. We hired trained teachers to work alongside the social workers, counselors and volunteers that made up the Grandsons staff.

Initially only the children rescued from the streets or those that lived in the centre attended the school. Again the community around laughed at our efforts. They could not understand how street children could be reformed and formed into responsible citizens. The school was baptized ‘shule ya machokoraa’. Scavengers’ school – following the tendency of many street children to forage especially for food in garbage bins in big towns. It is a name that had a very negative connotation and no one wanted to bwe associated with 'machokoraa'. And the feeling of isolation and worthlessness for our children persisted. We had failed again. Were we to give up on our efforts? Of what good would it have been? No, we were determined to make a difference. What had we learnt?

It was now time for us to think of a way to create awareness on the importance of accepting and showing love towards these rescued children. Our target became the community around the school. The community needed to understand and appreciate the impact of the work of Grandsons of Abraham Centre. They needed to understand that they too had a role in the formation of the former street children and in finding a lasting solution to the problem of street children in the locality. We conducted seminars, we called community meetings. We formed sports teams of the street children and requested that they perform in public functions. Soon schools were competing with our children. They were, after all children like all other children. They formed an art club and performed at public events. They won trophies and accolades from even government entities.

Eventually we opened up the education centre to children from the vicinity. Many of them were from very poor families. They had a lot to learn from their peers and eventually the community accepted the centre in their midst, and more so the children that were being cared for by the centre. Soon groups would organize themselves to pay a visit to the centre and donate much needed materials like food stuff, books, and sports gear. This has been very much appreciated.

This raised the expectations of the street children and their worth as persons. They committed to work hard and prove to the society that they too could be responsible citizens. This September (2016), one of the former street children has secured admission into Moi University, one of the best and most prestigious universities in the Country.  He is already studying information and public relations. This is what he emailed on arrival at the university:

Thank you for reading my email.

Caleb

On our part, we have learnt that learning from failing is important; we should not allow failure to obscure our vision; and that any successful social intervention needs persistence and the involvement of a wide range of actors, as well as believing in the potential of the people to make positive and lasting changes in their own lives.