Help 24 Street Children in Kenya Return Home

Retrak and Microsoft are teaming up to make your donation go even further! Tomorrow, Wednesday, April 16, starting at 12:00pm EST, Microsoft will provide a 50% match to any donation that you give to Retrak. If you give $100, Retrak will receive $150. A donation of $50 will become $75. Microsoft will match any gift that you give to any of Retrak's programs.

And if that's not enough, Microsoft will also match 100% of the first three months of any recurring donation that you sign up for.

Your gift to Retrak tomorrow will help street children in Africa like Zergaw, a boy who was found sad, weary and confused  outside of a bus station in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He had been on the streets for three weeks, having left his isolated village to try to find work to help support his sisters and widowed mother. Retrak staff helped reunite him with his mother, who wept tears of joy upon seeing him again. Then they worked with Zergaw's mother to help her establish an income-generating business, and with his school so that he could return to class.

When Retrak returned a few months later, it was clear that the business was doing well. The whole family was better fed and looking healthy, and all the children were back in school. Zergaw's mother said, "I am very happy and so grateful for what Retrak has done for me and for my son!"

Thank you for your past support of Retrak's programs in Africa. Please help us continue to help these children by participating in Microsoft's Bonus Day tomorrow, starting at noon EST. Please be sure to make your donation early, as matching funds will run out quickly.

Links:

• Retrak's Website

Retrak partners in Kitale, Kenya, with the charity Child Rescue Kenya (CRK). We spoke with their Program Oficer, Janet Kariuki, about their work with children on the streets of Kitale.

"Child Rescue Kenya started way back in 1988," Janet tells us, as part of the International Childcare Trust. In 2003 it changed its focus to reintegrating children with families rather than institutionalizing them. When asked what the main reasons are for children being on the streets in Kenya, Janet answers "Family finances. Poverty. Poverty forces children to the street. Poverty levels are high and families struggle. Also,violence in the family and community. Children come to town to try to find work and make money but after two or three weeks it does not work and families are lost."

CRK's biggest challenge, Janet says, is taking children back home. Finding safe homes for children is a constant challenge, as is ensuring that the homes they find are homes where the parents have enough income to send the children to school, provide food and support the children.

Janet says, "These are our children; we facilitate their choices and are there for them when and where needed."

Last year, thanks to the generosity of donors like you, CRK reached out to over 400 children on the streets of Kitale. How many children we can reach this year depends on you. Please make a donation to Retrak and CRK today, and make a real difference in the life of a street child.

Links:

• Retrak's Website