By Isaiah Lucheli
Life for street children is challenging as they are viewed as a soical menace. Little has been done to rehabilitate and integrate these children.
The children survive by rummaging in dumpsites for valuables and food. Some resort to begging, andhardworking ones seek out manual jobs. Others engage in petty crimes, leading to frequent arrests. The unlucky ones have been lynched by mobs for engaging in vices.
The children have for a long time been misunderstood, shunned and treated as outcasts. But the introduction of a programme to rehabilitate them by the African Medical Research Foundation (Amref) has started to make a difference.
Elizabeth Nyawera and Nickoh Kori, who once lived in the streets are testimony of the benefits of the ambitious programme to address the increasing number of street children in urban centres.
Beyond expectation
The programme that was launched almost a decade ago at the Dagoretti Community Empowerment Centre has managed to rescue, rehabilitate, reintegrate and resocialise over 1,700 former street children after equipping them with acting and videography skills.
The rehabilitated children have produced plays, such as Black Pinocchio, adapted from the life of a street boy, Malkia. It is an adaptation of a Russian actor, Mapenzi Tamu about HIV/Aids and Nyumba Hewani. All have won international accolades. Former street children learning to shoot videos. Some make money by recording weddings and other events. {PHOTO: MARTIN MUKANGU/STANDARD}
Nyawera and Koriâs lives have changed beyond their wildest expectations â from glue sniffing street urchins to delegates representing the country during the World Communication Conference on Development held in Italy.
Kori found himself in the streets in 2004 after completing his Kenya Certificate of Primary Examination (KCPE) after his mother, who is single, failed to raise enough money to see him through secondary school.
âI come from a poor family and this is what pushed me to the streets. I ended up being engaged in streetwise behaviours and got influenced into several way ward habits,â explained Kori.
