Providing Safe Spaces for Children & Young People

Meet Peter We met him many years ago, when he was just 7 years old. At the time, we found him in the streets of Mombasa, shortly after the death of his mother. Some of his sisters were already surviving on the streets, but he himself had never lived there. He urgently needed safety, stability, and care. Recognizing this, his sisters brought him to Glad’s House and said, “He is very little to be in the streets.” At such a young age, he placed his trust in us total strangers trusting us with his life, education, and upbringing. We enrolled him in Class one, and began walking the long journey with him. Today, he is 19 years old and in Form three. Life has not been easy. His sisters continue to struggle and survive on the streets, and he has lost contact with one of them. Still, during school holidays, he makes a point of visiting one sister in the streets of Mombasa. They talk. He reconnects. And he reminds himself why he must keep going. These moments strengthen his resolve to work hard, complete his education, and one day support and settle his family. This is just one example of what it means to provide safe spaces for children at critical moments in their lives, meeting them where they are, protecting them when they are most vulnerable, and walking with them for as long as it takes. The journey has not been short. It has been 12 years. At times, the progress feels slow. But stories like his remind us why we do this work.

As practitioners, we are overwhelmed not only by the number of cases but by the deep social issues behind them. Over 80% of the children we supported this month have street-connected parents mostly mothers, as they are the ones present or traceable. One mother told us, “There are so many of us mothers at night; I am not alone.” These women form informal street networks sometimes supportive, but also harmful to their children. This is not simply a parenting failure but a broader social issue: Most mothers have never attended school. They lack family or community support systems. With no safety nets, the streets become their only survival option. As another mother shared: “It pains me to see them not in school, but I didn’t go either. They have to eat. Who will help me government or family? There is no one. If you want to help, go ahead.” This reality complicates reintegration: Where do children exit to if families remain on the streets? Reintegration is unsustainable without addressing the wider family and community context. Civil society can intervene temporarily, but without systemic solutions, children risk returning to the streets. The growing number of mothers and children living on the streets is more than a child protection issueit is a national social concern. Urgent, coordinated action is needed to provide not just temporary relief, but lasting solutions that restore dignity, security, and opportunity for families.