Working with street kids

May 23 - Monday
Today we visited two centers in Nairobi that take in street children and involve them in rehabilitation strategies that are meant to keep them off the streets, in school, and develop a sense of self-worth.Joy Divine center was started seven years ago by Mary Mwaru and today is managed by her son, Fred. The center is home to 14 boys ages 6 to 19. Ten other boys are enrolled in nearby boarding schools. The children are picked up off the street by the police and initially taken to city centers which are similar to our juvinile detention homes. They are often beaten by the staff or by older boys. Whenever they can, the boys run away back to the streets.
They come from unstable families or families that have been devastated by HIV-AIDs. Many are orphaned or have parents that are drug addicts. Sometimes, when the mother dies, the father will remarry and the new wife will kick the child out of the house. Most are addicted to glue and marijuana; many have HIV-AIDS because of prostitution or rape. They have been on the street for months or years and do not want to leave. They beg, steal, or prostitute themselves for money and drugs.
Fred is doing an amazing job with the boys. They call him "grandmother" because he is so supportive and caring. The rehabilitation process involves getting them off glue-sniffing, pscyhological counseling, schooling, and discipline. The boys do their own cooking, cleaning, they wash their clothes, and given a certain amount of independence--they go to school and return on their own and are sometimes given money to go purchase something for the center. Occasionally, boys will run away, back to the streets for a few weeks or a month, but most return to the center. A few have been there five years and a couple have graduated high school and have gone out on their own.
Fred's goal is to reunite families. It is difficult but he has been successful. After working with a child and getting him to a more stable place, he travels around Kenya looking for their families or next of kin. He spends time talking with those families and, if he feels they are stable enough, he will bring the boy to meet with them. Eventually, some go back to live with families or relatives. A few years ago he took in 35 IDP children, displaced by the post-election violence of 2008. He was able to find the families of many of these children. Joy Divine used to receive government funding from Street Families Rehabilitation Trust Funds, Now, he must find his own funding for everything including food, medical treatment, secondary school fees.