Ex-street boys helping others reform, find home

Ex-street Children Community Organisation managers Joshua Lubale (right) and Peter Njenga (in black shirt) with some of the children they have enrolled in schools. [PHOTOS: KEVIN TUNOI]

By MICHAEL OLLINGA

Eldoret, Kenya: They found themselves on the streets early in life. They lived quite a number of their formative years on the streets of Eldoret. And now  Joshua Lubale and Peter Njenga are working to make life bearable for street children.

Lubale dropped out of school when he was eight and joined the streets hoping for a better life.

 “I could not stand long learning hours without food so I quit school and joined the neighbouring street boys who told me how easy it was to get food in town,” he said.

Njenga too went to the streets in an attempt to run away from poverty at home. He says he was born into a single-parent family of 12 kids in Kapsuswa slums where his mother traded in illegal liquor to cater for the family’s needs.

He further says the burden became too heavy for his mother after his elder sisters bore children and brought them home.  His mother could no longer provide for all of them.

“I had to leave home because my mother was regularly in and out of prison due to her illegal trade and that is why I went to the streets,” he says.

The harsh street life characterised by police brutality, public rebellion, street fights with traders and innocent killings did not deter the two former street children’s determination to reform and lead a normal life.

The two are the co-founders of Ex-Street Children Community Organisation (ECCO), an NGO that rehabilitates street children and helps them lead a productive life.

Lubale recounts life in the streets before he was rehabilitated by the Eldoret Rescue Centre and taken to Bindura Primary School in Uasin Gishu County. He says he is very lucky to be alive today since many of his colleagues lost their lives on the streets.

Death in waiting

His coproprietor Njenga was rehabilitated from the streets by a philanthropist and taken to Kaptagat Preparatory School during a church crusade in 1992.

 “As a street child, death lay in waiting, you never knew what would happen next. Maybe the police would beat you or the public would lynch you,” he says.

The two met during an inter-primary schools sporting event and became friends, but lost touch, only to reunite eight years later in Eldoret when Lubale was a hawker and Njenga an athlete.

They attribute their turn-around to the most horrible street fight between street children and mechanics, hawkers, matatu touts and blacksmiths in 2006 that left more  than ten street children dead. It is then that they formed a group to cater for the children. It was meant to regularly fund-raise to bury their colleagues decently whenever they died.

The ECCO founders say it was easy for them to mobilise and communicate to the street children because they were living testimonies of reformed street children.

They started engaging the government in addressing street childen’s grievances and luckily, met people from the Netherlands who trained them on child protection.

Gradually, the proprietors found more sponsors like the Save the Children and the United Nations Child Education Fund (UNICEF) who have been very instrumental in funding their rehabilitation projects.

ECCO foundation has adopted a unique approach of rehabilitating street children by forming long term and sustainable plans that address issues of street children like hunger alleviation and education access.

Sufficient funds

The NGO has established feeding programmes for children who had gone to the street due to hunger by establishing kitchens in seven schools in Eldoret where the children resumed learning.

The two believe rehabilitating children in a family setting is a more effective, rather than repatriating them from the streets. They  are already training community child-protection assistants to counter the influx of street children.

Lubale said they have rehabilitated more than 3,000 street children from Eldoret town since 2007.

They currently have more than 200 children under their rehab project in the community while five of them live at their children’s home, which can only accommodate a few children.

Njenga however says their main challenge is lack of sufficient funds to run long-term projects but  they are embracing new funds’ mobilisation techniques to ensure that they remain functional.

The two laud the government for working with them through the Children’s Department.