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UK based African Diaspora fights to save street children

By Sarah Emara
Diaspora (UK & Ireland) 10-year-old Fred has left the streets and is focusing on his education Credit Des Willie  Comic Relief
MAR 28, 2011 LISTEN
10-year-old Fred has left the streets and is focusing on his education Credit Des Willie Comic Relief

African Diaspora organisations in the UK are at the forefront of life-changing developments across sub-Saharan Africa. Widows and Orphans International, an East London based organisation, protects and supports street children, as well as vulnerable women and orphans in Kenya who are affected by HIV and poverty.

Joshua Odongo, Widows and Orphans Internationals' CEO, set up the organisation in 1997 with other likeminded community members, almost 10 years after arriving in London from his native Kenya. The UK organisation works in collaboration with partner organisations in Kenya, Sierra Leone and Zambia to run a wide range of healthcare and education programmes for Africans based in the UK and in Africa. Joshua works in the UK office which manages the fundraising and grant applications needed to run the community based projects.


This programme is particularly close to Joshua's heart. He says: “I wasn't an orphan but I grew up in other relatives houses almost as a street child. My family was very poor and I would go for days without food. Now I go back to Kenya to oversee the programmes and spend time with the street children. They trust me because I understand them and their story.”

He adds that when a child goes out to live on the streets they can find themselves in a gang with other street children who may have been there for several years, sleeping in doorways, eating from rubbish bins and remains from food kiosks and occasionally stealing food and committing petty crimes to survive. Many also become addicted to glue. “I've seen boys as young as four out on the streets and young girls trapped in prostitution. The longer a child is out on the streets, the harder it is to get them back home or re-integrate them back into the society.. They are often involved in petty crime and don't trust anyone outside their gang.”


Widows and Orphans International works very closely with Hope for Victoria Children (HOVIC) who send out specially trained outreach workers, including social workers and teachers, onto the streets in Kisumu, Kenya, to talk to the street children and their leaders. They invite them to a drop in centre where they receive a shower and a hot meal and interact with other children. They can also be seen by a centre nurse when they are unwell. “What street child can say no to that?” asks Joshua. “Once you earn the trust of the leader the other children soon follow. Then we can talk to them about why they're on the streets and explain how we can help them. Our programme provides food and shelter, pays for education and places street children with foster families, which has had a huge amount of success in securing a future for the children. So many street children who we've taken in and looked after have now finished secondary school education, colleges and other vocational training and quite a few have become footballers.”


One street child who was helped by Widows and Orphans International is ten-year-old Fred, who ended up on the street after both his parents died when he was four. Overnight, he was separated from his three older sisters and sent to live with an alcoholic and abusive aunt. At the age of five Fred left for the big city of Kisumu in search of a better life, making the 50km journey on foot and on the back of cars. After three days he arrived and tried to earn enough money to eat by sweeping, clearing dustbins and mopping people's floors.

Life was harsh, insecure and quite often terrifying, with harassment from both older street children, who would steal his food, as well as the Police, who would move him on. He lived like this for five years until he saw an advertisement for the famous Kenyan musician and former street child Mighty King Kong, who was playing at the nearby HOVIC centre. After the concert a project worker explained to Fred that they could help and he started coming to the centre where he was given medical health checks, meals, counselling and education. He is now privately sponsored to go to boarding school and hopes to grow up and become a footballer for the national team.


Widows and Orphans International have a long standing relationship with Comic Relief, who with the support of UK aid (from the Department for International Development) are supporting African Diaspora organisations, enabling them to create a bigger impact and reduce poverty and injustice in Africa.

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