1. Street children in the Kagera Region -
Problems and Needs
Many young people in developing countries
have weakened or severed family ties. Some of them have been abandoned by their
families. The AIDS epidemic has turned many into orphans. Psychological and
physical abuse at home may have led many to prefer life on the street. Living
or spending most of their time on the streets, they may beg, hustle, steal, or
sell sex to survive. Others, especially the girls, are domestic workers who
live at their place of employment. Cut off from families and the larger society
in which they live, these youth have little or no system of social protection.
The social support they receive is usually from peers living in similar
circumstances.
The term ‘Children of the Street’ includes those who stay and sleep alone on
the street and have almost no family contact. In an interview the Regional
Social Welfare Officer of Kagera
Region, Anselemi Twende, pointed out that there is no work with street children
conducted by the District Council or by Bukoba Town Council. There is also no
other NGO currently working with street children.
The
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT) has a long experience of
development, health and social work in the region of north western Tanzania.
With the increasing number of street children in the region, ELCT decided to
start a project for rehabilitation and reunification of street children. The
project has been functioning since the end of 2002, but with a limited budget.
2.2. Goals and Objectives
The main objective
of the project is to work with rehabilitation and reunification of street
children in Kagera Region, with main focus on the street children in Bukoba
town. The project is built on the voluntary participation of the child. Another
objective is to increase the awareness in the community about the situation of
the street children and what can be done to prevent further children leaving
their homes to become street children. Measurable outcomes will be how many
children are participating in the project and how many will be reunited with
their families or will be able to set up a home for themselves. ELCT will
through this project increase its knowledge about the most vulnerable children
in the society.
The
project has been functioning since end 2002 and has had 107 children up to now.
68 of them are now reunited with their families or staying with a foster
parent, 4 of them are staying in shelters and 35 are still on the street. The
number of new children receiving care and support from the project is likely to
increase when the project is expanding with a counselling center in Bukoba and a
rehabilitation center in form of a farm that ELCT has bought.
2.3.1
Councelling center
At
the councelling center the staff investigates the child’s situations in terms
of who it is, where it comes from, what family it has, how long it has been in
town, its school experience, health status etc. Once the relationship with the
child has been established, the staff suggests that they should contact the
relatives of the child. The staff conducts home visits even to distant places
in the region or the relatives come to the center. Counselling with the
relative and child together can reveal the reasons for the child’s departure
and how that can be solved so that the child can return.
2.3.2
Rehabilitation center
When
the farm has been established there will also be a screening process of which
children need to be staying at the farm and which children can return to the
village immediately or after a shorter period of counselling at the center.
The
children who will need a longer time of care and counselling will be offered to
stay at the farm. There they will get schooling, counselling (individually and
with the family) and be taught how to take care of a farm. The duration of the
stay will vary, from a couple of weeks up to a year.
2.3.3 Schooling
All
street children have dropped out of school and one aim of the project is to get
them back into the school system. For some of them it’s difficult to start in
an ordinary class so therefore the project has started a preparation class in
one school. The children that re-enter into the school system are given the
necessary school equipment including school uniform.
Children
living on the street don’t have access to health care, and often have a need to
get some medical attention.
The
project will also conduct meetings and seminars in order to increase the
knowledge and awareness of the street children’s situation
2.4 Expected results
- To continue to have a majority of the children
reunited with their families. The percentage that is still on the street
is expected to drop further when the rehabilitation center is functioning.
- Increase the quality of life among the street
children.
- Increase their own abilities and capacities.
- Increased awareness and knowledge in the
community about the street children.
- Increased involvement by the villages to work
with the most vulnerable children and thereby preventing more children to
become street children.
The
project will be ongoing for approximately 10 years, and for that time there
will need to be external funding, even though a greater involvement from the
community for the most vulnerable children is an expected outcome of the
project. The local government is closely connected to the project. Both the
Regional Social Welfare Officer and the Regional Education Officer are members
of the project committee.
