Reintegrate Street-Connected Children in Kitale

January is a hot, dry and dusty month in Kitale. It brings respite from cold and wet nights for those living on the streets of Kitale and, perhaps, in doing so, makes new arrivals consider street life is not too onerous.  It is a time of hunger in homes as it is the middle of the dry season and food stores are running low and funds for school supplies are a struggle. It is some months until planting season will start.

January is also CRK’s busiest month. In addition to trying to get to know the new arrivals and convince them that the streets are not the wisest choice, we are very busy getting recently reintegrated children into schools as the academic year commences on the first working day after New Year’s Day. This involves buying new uniforms and shoes, visiting the families and schools to enroll students, paying fees and costs. Our social workers are very much engaged in family work during January and also have to cope with new arrivals to our Street Smart centre, new children reached through early morning street walks, and our mobile school outreach.

In mid 2018, we entered into a working partnership with another organization who follow our model of rescue, rehabilitate and reintegrate. Working together and sharing resources and information on children we work with, has enabled us together to reintegrate well over 250 children in the past 7 months, the majority of whom entered school in January 2019. These are children who otherwise have fallen prey to illness, addiction to sniffing glue or drinking cheap alcohol or other dangers. Some of that number (the younger ones) may have been lucky enough to have avoided those pitfalls by being placed in long term children’s institutions. Although off the streets, they may not necessarily have been taken into a totally safe institution and, in all likelihood, even in a ‘good’ institution, contact with their family and community would cease and a family that had every possibility of being helped and held together, would be broken and the parent-child relationship severed.

We are keen to avoid long-term institutionalization wherever possible and, in cases where a family simply needs a helping hand to care for their child, we believe it is in the best interests of the child to remain in their family. In most cases, poverty is the driving factor for life on the streets and, poverty can be alleviated and means found to help families enter a sustainable improved lifestyle. Our work has impact and our reintegration model works….. and with your help, will continue!

,At CRK, we dread the long school holidays. Kenyan schools close in the last week of October to allow for the exams to take place at the beginning of November.  Children are then off school until the first week in January.  This leaves many children without a safe outlet for over two months, during which time they find trouble or trouble finds them!  Children living in the slum areas on the outskirts of large urban centres, have little to entertain them during this time.  Often, their parents or guardians are out working and not around during the daytime to keep an eye on them. Their rural counterparts are kept busy helping out on smallholdings but, those with no chores to keep them occupied start to drift towards the town centres and street life, both as a way of foraging for food, odd jobs and money and as a way of finding company and entertainment.  This is a dangerous time for many of these youngsters who are easily drawn into the dangers of street life.  During the school holidays, the number of children on the streets swells.  The only good thing is that the majority of this new population at least have a home to return to in the evenings, however, many get caught up in the dangers of cheap drugs, alcohol and glue sniffing or get into trouble with the police.  Our resources are stretched during this time.  

Our mobile school is proving a useful resource.  This is a way of entertaining children and keeping them away from dangerous temptations.  It also encourages children to 'open up' and tell us any problems or issues in their lives.  It enables us to help those who are really living completely on the street as well as enabling early intervention for those who are in danger of ending up on the street full time. 

The weather at this time is warm and dry and that, sadly, is yet another encouragement to children to spend longer than they should on the streets of towns and cities.  As urbanisation continues, the problem increases year on year.  Goverment funding here does not stretch to basketball courts, football pitches, youth centres and these are sorely needed.  Facilities such as this would go a long way to help us reintegrate and keep children in their home communities.  Lack of stimulation and entertainment is one of many factors driving them to the streets.

We continue to look for resources and funding to find alternatives to keep children entertained and engaged through sports or other activities and we ask you to consider a Christmas gift to enable us to help families keep their children at home, in their communities and off the streets.  Please consider us this Christmas.  The extra numbers of children we will encounter in the forthcoming weeks will be needing help with uniforms and school supplies in January and will have brothers, sisters or guardians needing help in training or apprenticeships to become financially self-sufficient to care for those children.  Your gift will help them.  Thank you!