A growing number of Machakos street children spend most of their lives in institutions. We want to counteract this trend. Therefore, we have started a project in collaboration with our partner Positive Life Kenya, where together we will test new methods to reintegrate street children back into their families.
Street children in Machakos County, Kenya, are driven to the streets out of desperation and the belief that they have nowhere else to go. The reasons children end up on the streets can primarily be seen as a result of poverty and poverty-related issues. This includes violence, abuse, neglect, and exclusion from their families.
A growing number of the children who end up on the streets spend most of their lives in institutions. Several studies have shown that this has significant negative impacts on the children's well-being, rights, and future opportunities. Among the street children who become institutionalized, the majority end up in correctional facilities and orphanages, with no contact with their families and local communities.
The underlying causes
In addition to poverty and poverty-related issues, another important reason why children leave their families and communities is the stigmatization and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS. This can occur if one or both parents are infected, or if the child itself is infected.
A reason why especially young girls abandon their families and communities is the continued use of harmful cultural practices such as female genital mutilation and early marriage. This forces particularly young girls to leave their families to protect themselves.
All these aforementioned reasons contribute to pushing children onto the streets and potentially into institutions. The institutions provide them with the basic necessities they need to survive, but studies have increasingly shown that institutions do more harm than good. A movement towards family-based care has been underway in Kenya and other parts of Africa.
Project Methods
100% for the Children, in collaboration with Positive Life Kenya, has developed a pilot project to test new strategic methods to address the issue of children moving to the streets and then into institutions. One of the project's key goals is to strengthen our partner, Positive Life Kenya's, capacity to address the problem in a sustainable way that also tackles the underlying causes of why children leave in the first place. Our hope is that, by doing so, we will not only treat the symptoms but also address the root of the problem, so that in the future, children can grow up in their families or high-quality alternative care.
The experiences we gain from the pilot project will be incorporated into a co-creation process with other like-minded NGOs in Kenya. The goal is to create a network of organizations capable of implementing sustainable solutions for children who end up on the streets and/or in institutions. In the long term, our hope is that this network will help elevate the issue to a political level and advocate for Kenyan policymakers to work towards abolishing institutionalization in Kenya.
