Day of the African Child 2011

June 16^th marks the annual Day of the African Child. This year, the focus is on raising awareness of street children. Although Vision Africa does not deal specifically with street children, some of the projects we work with have given shelter to children who have been living on the streets.

It’s a sad fact that there are many street children in Kenya. Although you might not see many of them as you walk through the main streets of the CBD in Nairobi, they are there on the outskirts. Travel to a town like Thika and you can’t walk from one end of the main stage to the other without seeing a few, often with a bottle hidden up their sleeve to “hide” the fact that they are sniffing glue. There are a number of great organisations trying to help street children in Kenya. Often these children need a lot of rehabilitation and many find it hard adjusting to a life with rules and authority figures having been fending for themselves for months or even years.

There are many reasons why a child might choose to abscond from home to live on the streets. Some are orphaned and have no family to care for them, others might have found it hard to adjust to a new stepfamily after a parent remarried or there might have been abuse at home that made life on the streets seem more appealing that the life at home. Whatever the reason, these are still children at heart. Children who need care and attention. From organisations such as Tumaini kwa Watoto and Retrak, we know that it is possible to rehabilitate street children, restore them to their families where appropriate and watch them go back in to the education system and make something of their lives.

A young boy who was rescued from the streets was given shelter at the Percy Davies School for children with special needs. Local authorities despaired of this young boy and didn’t know what to do so he was brought to our school in Kambiti as it had boarding facilities that could accommodate him. He was enrolled in the local primary school which is less than a 300m walk away and has been schooling there ever since. No-one knows who or where his parents are but he has adapted well to his new life and is working hard in school. A volunteer who stayed at the school for a few nights not long after he had moved there commented on how caring he was with the children with special needs and how he helped to feed them and make sure they were ok. This was someone who the authorities had given up on...all he needed was a chance at a better life without the distractions of life on the streets.

Projects like Kandara Children’s Home have also given shelter to children who have been living on the streets. These are children who have not been on the streets for too long and don’t require intensive rehabilitation but nevertheless, they still have their stories to tell. Some of them have been incredibly bright young children who have been able to settle down in school and focus their attention on their studies and their future rather than surviving day to day, not knowing where the next meal will come from or what they will be driven to do in order to stay safe.

As the world celebrates The Day of The African Child, please look beyond the child begging on the streets and know there is a story behind every child and every one of them deserves a brighter future.