Street Children

We hear people saying "help the 'street' children", but do we know what that actually means? The name has been given because these children live on the streets, sleep and earn their living on the streets, it is their home.

Street children live alone on the streets, without shelter and some of them have lost contact with their families. Most of these children are orphaned by HIV/Aids, abused and end up with no one and nothing in the streets.

This is a big problem which keeps growing in many African cities, and has been over the last two decades.Of course, poverty is a major cause. Pay a visit to the streets of Mombasa, Kenya and you will see street children begging, wearing dirty clothes, others ill and many others are drugged from sniffing glue. With a profound sadness in their eyes, lost in their own world, these children try desperately to forget about their problems and the hard life they live. If you talk to them and ask them why they live on the streets their answer will often be 'I need to work for my family' or 'I lost my parents'. Ross Kemp's video shows clearly how these children live and how they spend their time while living on the streets.

Unfortunately the problems of street children have not been adequately adressed by the governments mainly because of the poverty that the continent is facing and oftentimes it sadly is being ignored. Therefore it is up to the non-governmental organisations and community based organisations to help out the children.

Grandsons of Abraham rescue center is run by an indigenous congregation (The Sisters of St. Joseph Mombasa) in Kenya with the aim of freeing the children of Mombasa from the streets. Africa Watoto Friends of Grandsons is an independent group of ex volunteers that have been in Mombasa and have experienced the lives of street children at first hand. Its aim is to help the GOA center to continue rescue children from the streets; rehabilitate, educate, offer them a place to live and give them a chance for a better life.

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