Articles about street children in Kenya

Read various articles about the "Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children" in Kenya.

http://www.gvnet.com/streetchildren/Kenya.htm

Tom Mboya School for Cerebral Palsy

One of the most moving experiences I had in Kenya was visiting the Tom Mboya School for Cerebral Palsy which is located in the port city of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean. Their motto is "Disability Is Not Inability." The school was started in 1995 by parents of kids with CP with the help of the Kenyan Ministry of Education. In an area with a population of about 3 million people, Tom Mboya is the only school that specifically serves these children--and it does this on a shoe-string budget. At the moment, it can only accommodate 90 children!

Many of the children have multiple disabilities in addition to CP such as autism and developmental disabilities. Some are bright but because of their CP cannot talk or control their movements. Yet, they are learning to read, do arithmetic, and articulate their needs, thoughts, and desires with the help of dedicated teachers and staff. The school also provides physical and occupational therapy and feeds all the children lunch. Their aim to make each child as self-reliant as she or he can be, to develop their mobility and speech and language skills and to provide them with an education. The school receives some funding from the national and municipal governments (Kenya does have free primary education) but it is not enough to address the needs of the school so parents are requested to contribute 2000 KSH per term (about $25). Most families cannot afford this but the school never discharges a student if the parents can't pay.

The teachers and staff are incredibly dedicated. In addition to teaching and therapy, they provide emotional support and help the kids with feeding and getting from one room to another. The school also provides transportation since most families have no way of getting their kids to school.

Moving the goalposts

May 26

Today we visited an organization called “Moving the Goal Posts,” (MTG) located in Kilifi near the port city of Mombasa, that uses football (soccer) as a tool to help young girls empower themselves and take control of their lives. The coastal area near Mombasa is very conservative and girls rarely attend school beyond the primary level (up to 8^h grade; students must pass a rigorous test to attend secondary school and it is not publicly funded and most parents in the coastal area cannot afford to pay the fees). The Kilifi area is very poor and many families have no working adults. As in other areas in Kenya, there are high rates of HIV-AIDs and other STDs, drug and alcohol abuse, and incidents of violence against girls and women.

From a very young age girls are expected to help with domestic chores which include cleaning, cooking, working on the family's farm plot, washing clothes as well as selling items to supplement the family's income such as charcoal, corn, and chapatis. Since families cannot afford to buy sanitary pads, girls stay home from school during their menses out of embarrassment Most girls are pregnant or married by the time they are fifteen or sixteen. The options for pregnancy prevention and family planning are abstinence and abortion. Since abortion is illegal in Kenya except in the case of rape or the health of the mother, the majority of abortions are self-induced with the help of older women using traditional methods.

MTG works with about 3000 girls and young women managing football teams and organizing tournaments; but it does much more than this. The organization has developed a number of peer-led programmes around issues of reproductive health, menstruation, sexuality, HIV and AIDS, education, and the development of self-esteem. The footballers are trained to counsel and educate their peers; they begin as volunteers but some are now working as staff members for MTG. Others have gone on to secondary school while still playing football. Some are planning to go to university; others are enrolled in vocational programmes and hope to eventually set up their own business in tailoring, dressmaking, or hairdressing. The girls we interviewed are absolutely amazing. They are very self-assured, self-aware, realistic about their options and opportunities, and are working to develop a plan for their lives so that they can establish healthy relationships and contribute to their families' well-being. And they are also working to be the best football player they can be!