Return 35 street-children from Kibera to school

Today was the first day of term two, this academic year. Our Transition classes were open again after the holidays and the compound was filled with the chatter of school children.

We currently have 22 children studying in Transition, split between our centres in Kianda and Mashimoni villages of Kibera. By the end of last term, they had settled into the daily routine and life back in the classroom environment, some having spent many months out of school. They are progressing well and were happy to be back in class today.

Next week, our social workers and project mamas will be busy selecting 20 more children to be admitted to the classes: 10 to Kianda and 10 to Mashimoni. We never go actively looking for children, instead children find us, either brought by their parents, concerned neighbours or come via word of mouth from their friends on the street. We deliberately stagger admittance to our class to create time for parents/guardians to find ways of  getting children into local primary schools themselves, meaning only the really desperate cases come our way. It also allows time for our teachers and social workers to really get alongside and work with each child individually.

Our centre in Kianda only opened a Transition class in January this year. The first term of the new class has gone well and Mary (project mama) has been excited to have the Kianda compound filled with more children. Teacher Magdalene, who has been with Turning Point for 8 years now and so is very experienced in the format of our classes, transferred from our Mashimoni centre to Kianda to help establish the class over there. It is running smoothly, and children who were coming to Kianda centre for just breakfast last year are happy to now be in class
learning.

So we look forward to the new term, welcome back to children who were with us last term and a new welcome to those who will join us next week.

Links:

• Turning Point website