Charities
Cycle Africa is working with local street children projects in Africa and some of the leading street children charities. During the journey we’re hoping to better understand the issues that street children are facing and raise the profile of the work that these great projects are doing on shoestring budgets. The Cycle Africa team will be visiting these and other projects along the route and bringing the stories of these children directly back to you.
Street Action
Street Action is Cycle Africa’s lead charity partner and supports three local partners in Kenya (Action for Children in Conflict), Burundi (New Generation) and South Africa (Umthombo). Street Action is also committed to academic research. They are taking the issues faced by street children and advocating for change in government and donor policies here in the UK that will transform children’s lives across Africa.
Action for Children in Conflict (AfCiC)
Action for Children in Conflict (or AfCiC) is based in Thika, Kenya (just north of Nairobi). Through providing tailored psychosocial, educational, legal and economic support, AfCiC has helped to empower street children and their families to break out of the cycle of poverty, deprivation, family disintegration and emotional distress. Local staff conduct extensive outreach work and holistic residential rehabilitation services, in addition to other programmes, to help them lead personally meaningful and successful lives.
New Generation, Bujumbura (Burundi)
New Generation is one of the only charities working with street children (predominantly boys but an increasing number of girls in the past few years) in Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi and in more remote areas of the country. The organisation is staffed by Burundians, some of whom are former street children, and they recently acquired some land to start building a centre that will provide support for vulnerable street children.
Umthombo, Durban (South Africa)
Umthombo (which means ‘well-spring’ in the Nguni language) is a well-established and creative project in Durban, South Africa that is run by a former street child and her husband. They use surfing to engage with the hard to reach children living on the city’s streets. The project also runs an outreach team in the city, a fully equipped ambulance, a halfway house and a mentoring programme. Umthombo is working to change the way that society perceives and treats street children.
Retrak
Retrak was established in Uganda in 1994 as a football club for street children. It now operates in Uganda (Kampala), Ethiopia (Addis Ababa) and Kenya (Kitale) and works with more than 2,000 street children each year. It provides them with food, temporary shelter and accommodation, catch up education and vocational training, medical treatment and a route back to family and community life.
Meseret’s Story
Elfaged told Retrak outreach workers that 3 weeks previously he had been sleeping in the middle of the road on the central reservation when a car had run over his foot. The driver didn’t stop so he was left there in agony and with a bad injury (a deep, infected wound about 10 cm long and 5 cm across) and no prospect of medical help. The outreach workers encouraged him to come to the Retrak drop-in centre for medical care, but he was very hesitant. Finally, after much cajoling, he agreed, but then whispered: “but there’s a problem!” staff asked what the problem was, and the reply came: “well, actually, I’m a girl!”
Elfaged was actually called Meseret and had been disguising herself as a boy for the past 3 years to stay safe. She told Retrak that her strategy to protect herself on the street was to shave off her hair, dress as a boy, wear a big old overcoat to cover her body, and hang around younger kids who wouldn’t ask so many questions or realise her gender!
Meseret came to the clinic at the Retrak drop-in centre and after a course of antibiotics and daily dressings the wound healed. Meseret started to attend the education catch-up classes with the other street children. One quiet afternoon when most of the other children were not around, she began talking with one of the social workers and for the first time confessed that she had a mother and father, although they were separated. She said she really wanted to return home to her mum and that she was sick of street life and the pretence of living as a boy.
The social workers are now working intensively with Meseret to help her achieve her dream of returning home and are slowly helping restore her self-confidence which has been eaten away by years of suffering and living on the street.
AMREF Dagoretti Child in Need Project, Nairobi (Kenya)
AMREF operates a centre in Dagoretti, which caters for 180 children. It assists the children in re-joining the Kenyan school system or to begin vocational training programmes. The children visit the centre on a daily basis and are given food, health care and counselling. They are also helped to find and reunite with their families. Where this is not possible, AMREF searches for suitable guardians within the local community. Thanks to the project more than 500 children have been given a second chance.
“At AMREF’s Dagoretti project, I met eight-year-old Peter Mwangi, a cheeky-looking boy, with a permanent grin who had just had a cast removed from his broken arm. The children explained, through an interpreter, the ordeals of their families hiding at night in their maize fields for two weeks, while they watched rioters burn down their home and attack friends and family. It would have been a terrible experience for anyone, let alone children as young as this and Peter had not spoken throughout. We asked what the clinic provided and the children responded with answers such as schooling, food, safety, and health checks. Then Peter sprang into life shouting: “Futa!” (Football in Shen, a mixture of Swahili and English). I asked him his favourite position. “Goalie!” This needed no translation. I had found a new hero.”
Robert Green (England and West Ham Goalkeeper)
Street Child Africa
Street Child Africa was set up on the principle that all African children deserve to be safe, loved and have the opportunity to reach their potential. They support twelve local projects in eight African countries, including Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique and are committed to targeted advocacy in the UK and overseas.
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Friends of the Street Children, Kitwe (Zambia)
Friends of the Street Children works in the Copper-belt town of Kitwe, Zambia. They run several programmes, including two rehabilitation centres for children who want to leave the streets. There are about 400 children on the streets of Kitwe, with an increasing number of girls, who are particularly vulnerable.
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Rainbow Project, Ndola (Zambia)
Since 1998 the Rainbow Project has managed to halve the number of children living on the streets in Ndola, close to Kitwe in Zambia. They run a number of programmes, including a drop in centre and the Umukulamfula Children Centre, which supports vulnerable children back into their families, foster care and communities.
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Streets Ahead, Harare (Zimbabwe)
Street outreach in Harare (Zimbabwe) is at the heart of Streets Ahead’s work. Qualified outreach staff visit the streets during the day and at night to identify new children, form friendships and work out how to get each child off the streets. The street workers carry out family tracing and assess the likelihood of a successful reunion and after intensive counselling, the child is then reunited with their family. The children are supported back into school and receive vocational training to help them make a living for their family.
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Meninos de Mozambique, Maputo (Mozambique)
Meninos de Mozambique, is based in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. The project provides psychological support, a drop in centre where the children can see a nurse, wash, play or attend catch-up school classes. The project is hoping to build a creche in the near future to look after the children of young mothers who have to work on the streets.
Railway Children
Since it began in 1995, Railway Children has helped thousands of children and young people living on the streets. They believe that early intervention is a crucial aspect of preventing children living on the streets coming to harm, and reaching street children before an abuser can is a vital element of their work. Their African projects are based in Kenya and Tanzania.
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Undugu Society, Nairobi (Kenya)
The Undugu Society is based in Kenya’s capital Nairobi. It was set up in the 1970s and is Africa’s oldest street children project, working to rehabilitate street children and help them into supportive families and communities.
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Njia Panda Ya Tumaini, Kitale (Kenya)
Kitale is an agrigultural town in western Kenya that has a large number of children living on the street as a result of past conflict and poverty. Railway Children is working to support these children off the streets.
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Adilisha, Mwanza (Tanzania)
The main goal of Adilisha is to increase the number of families which are stable and responsible, where children have the opportunity to grow in a supportive environment, and their vision is a responsible community with enhanced parenting skills in Tanzania.
Consortium for Street Children
The Consortium for Street Children is the leading international member-based network dedicated to advocating, promoting and campaigning for the rights of street children. The Consortium is launching the first International Day for Street Children this year on April 12th to raise awareness and change negative perceptions of street children across the world.