Reintegrate Street-Connected Children in Kitale

This week schools across Kenya closed to enable children in the last form of high school to sit final exams.  All the other students have now been released until the second week in January.  It is a very long holiday and, unfortunately, for those living in poverty it brings many problems.  Food is scarce at home and those living in urban areas have little to entertain them and keep them occupied other than hustling in the streets, begging or indulging in risky and often illegal behaviour.  There are no nice parks or community/sports centres for them.  Teens get involved in relationships that can lead to pregnancies and other risky behaviour, often out of boredom.  

Many more children come to the streets during the school closure hoping to find some way of earning a little money and consequently risk exposure to glue sniffing, drugs, alcohol, bullying and abuse.  

This is a very busy time for street outreach social workers.  It is vital to identify new arrivals on the street and discourage those who are 'just visiting' from doing so.   We desperately need funding to help us go into communities and organise activities there to keep children away from the town streets.  Please help if you can.  

Sadly, Kenya is going through a period of unrest and uncertainty.  A new Finance Bill proposed by the Government met with serious opposition from many of the populace, especially the youth.  Youth in Kenya comprise the majority of the population and they have been dubbed the Gen Z protesters.  Discontent has been building in recent weeks and, with the aid of planning over the internet, most towns and cities in Kenya have seen peaceful protests which have been increasing in frequency and size culminating in major protests yesterday nationwide.  Unfortunately, on this occassion a small mob with violence planned, infiltrated an otherwise peaceful majority and this resulted in damage, looting and shooting outside Parliament in Nairobi resulting in fatalities and injuries.  Also, there were many hurt or killed elsewhere, including issues in our local town of Kitale.

There are more demonstrations planned and no one knows how this will end.  The Government have made some concessions on planned taxation which had includes plans to tax sanitary towels, bread, airtime, vehicles etc.

Right now, our streets are a dangerous place to be for our youths and this, couple with planned taxation effects on costs will make our work more difficult. We have also been subject to issues with no/poor internet connectivity nationwide which affected us over the past couple of days.