LIFE THROUGH THE LENSES OF STREET CHILDREN

how many of you have interacted with a

street girl

or a street boy as you think about that

when you interacted with that street

child what did you feel

a sense of connection or a sense of

aloofness

i was in the second category well

i felt that the children on the streets

were really not worthy of my time

but this changed at a point in time as i

progressed in my journey

as a as a mental health professional i

got to interact with a group of street

boys

and they helped me to have a totally

different view

about their lives as boys and girls on

the street

generally children are vulnerable and

they require responsible adults

to support them secondly because

they have had the life on the streets

and the street has many challenges

and these challenges they have had to

endure and thirdly

because they had challenges in their

homes

that led them to get out onto the

streets now

what happens when these children

experience this kind of challenges

one they are exposed to

inability to thrive as children that is

really impacted

then those of us out here get to view

them

as lesser beings in many ways and as a

consequence

they have low self-esteem and their

outcomes in life

end up being pretty pretty low the most

common form of help

that is usually available to these

children is in the form of

cash and offers in kind

in the line of basic needs there is

actually so much more that we

can support them with to help to empower

them and to get them to enjoy life

in a better way than they have when they

live on the streets

yeah now i’d like to illustrate

my learnings in those three areas with

three stories

from three different children who have

lived their lives on the streets

the first story is of a young boy called

jay

jay was born to a mother who was a

teenager at the time of his birth

unfortunately for jay he got to

experience

rejection pretty early on the father

chose

not to participate in his upbringing and

hence the mother had to raise him

alone this was not quite comfortable but

what to do the mother tried the best she

could

after a couple of years of raising jay

alone

jay’s mother got to meet a gentleman

with whom

she decided to continue to live her life

as a couple

so jay now had a stepfather the mother

hoped that life would be better

for jay but this was not to happen

because unfortunately for him

the stepfather did not embrace him as

his child

their stepfather did not have positive

things to say about jay

in fact he found wrong in almost

everything

that jay did which was quite unfortunate

in his failure to embrace jay and

even as life continued they got other

children so jay had siblings

he discriminated openly against jay

he would buy things for the other

children and not buy fuji

when jay would go to school he’d get

some provisions

sometimes you didn’t get so life was

really really tricky

when the mother tried to intervene she

would be told you know what go look for

the father

i do not want anything to do with this

so at the point

that jay felt this was too much at the

age of nine years

out he went onto the street seeking a

better life

enters sal now sal

was born in a big family with six

siblings

and as life would have it unfortunately

for her the mother

became terminally ill at six years

she could only but hope and pray that

the mother would get better

and she said prayers she shared with her

friends in school

in sunday school and they prayed but

progressively

the situation got worse so one day when

sal came from school

she came and found the house was really

full with people

and most of them were strangers so she

looked around trying to see if there was

anyone familiar and she saw an auntie

and said

auntie auntie who are these why are they

here

and auntie said sal please go out and

play

so this was not that response that she

was expecting

so what did she do she stepped out but

she didn’t go to play she just sat by

the door

and decided to listen to the

conversation that was going on

in the house as she listened she had

some of the adults say

oh it was really sad it was really sad

that we lost

this lady she was such a good lady life

is not fair

it’s like hey which lady shortly a group

of new visitors came

and they’re calling the mother’s name

and they were crying and they were

saying life is cruel

that she’s dead and it’s at that point

that sal then realized that the mother

had actually

died a very sad way to find out

anyway what to do the preparations for

the burial were completed

they traveled to the village as is

customary in the kenyan context

they buried the mother and came back to

a new life without mom

now this new life was really really

tricky why

because what the dad chose to do is to

empower the

older brother to sal the eldest son in

the family

to be the one responsible for the daily

running of the family because he will be

busy

out there working and trying to bring in

resources for the family

now this older brother happens to be a

14 year old

so really not quite able to take care of

these responsibilities so you can only

but imagine

how things went in that house of seven

children

where sal was one of them so many other

times when

they were not able to get their

breakfast in good time they were not

able to get lunch to carry to school

the provisions in school were not

provided the dad was really not very

progressive

and i would imagine perhaps he was

dealing with issues of grief and loss

in his own way and he assumed that since

he was bringing in the

what he considered to be necessary the

rest was detailed

now this continued and it got to a point

that these siblings were not

really relating very well and sal

figured that she just couldn’t deal with

that situation

and she looked for a way out and out

into the street she went

now the third story is of a boy called

troy troy was born into a family that

had

conflict that was continuous ongoing

the parents were at each other every

other opportunity that they got

they would fight they would shout and

many other times that

troy had to find himself between the

parents trying to separate them at that

age

the child believes that these things are

happening because of them so he really

tried

but of course it was not his battle to

fight

and this you know this disagreements

continued

so what did it end up being at four

years old

troy’s mother decided i’m not going to

continue in this relationship i am out

and she did not live with troy she left

him

so troy’s dad after some time

remarried and now troy had a stepmother

it was hoped that in having a mother

figure in the house

life would be different but this was not

to happen

troy’s father was working out of town so

he was rarely at home

so it was troy and the stepmother

stepmother did not embrace troy

so life was really really really

difficult for troy

so she prioritized everything else

over the needs of troy she would go she

would disallow him to go and play before

all the work that she assigned him

was done and the work was not

age-appropriate

when she got her own children she made

it the business of troy to attend to the

needs of

the siblings whilst troy didn’t mind

because these were his siblings

it was way too much in terms of school

work

he had to prioritize school last

he would come from school he would clean

he’d wash dishes he’d

attend to the younger siblings then do

homework

so many other times that he actually did

not get to finish

the homework or if he did it wasn’t well

done

and when he went to school and the

teachers were concerned they asked for

the parents to come

stepmom no show daddy not present

and hence the situation continued so

as this happened through time

troy found that this was just too much

for him to deal with

and so he decided he needed some peace

and out to the streets he went

now when we look at these stories

which are representative of the

experience of many of the boys and girls

on the streets

you realize that they actually are

victims

of trauma this conflict this

failure to be provided with what is

basic there is

abuse in its different forms physical

emotional

psychological and there’s even being

forced to do things that are not

age-appropriate

and those are things that are not unique

to these boys and girls on the streets

many people out here experience those

things the question is

how do we deal with them these boys

took a step of courage to just get out

of that very uncomfortable situation

and find try to find a way in which

they would actually you know get

themselves some sense of relief

now when this happens the unfortunate

thing for them is

they come to the realization that this

new life out in the streets

is actually not better than the life at

home

it is different but not better one

there is no parent there to take care of

them so they must take care of

themselves

and how do they do this they enter into

begging activities

they engage in manual jobs and some of

them even engage in theft

which is quite unfortunate and they do

this with the

of trying to survive these children

generally love school they actually love

school but when they are on the streets

they’re not able to go to school why

because one they have to take care of

themselves too

they do not have sufficient resources to

keep them in school

and hence they miss out on the learning

opportunities

the other thing that happens is that

children

thrive with play they grow and develop

well when they have an opportunity to

play in a safe and structured way

when these boys and girls are on the

streets that is not a possibility

because one the streets are not designed

for play

and two they will be busy trying to fend

for themselves

and hence no opportunity to play in the

way that helps them to grow

and thrive the other thing for us to

note is that

those experiences that lead these boys

and girls out of their homes

are really stressful experiences and the

experiences that they come and meet on

the streets

are equally stressful so these combined

things

lead to very high levels of stress and

even distress

and they seek to do something to bring

it down

so many of them would engage in

self-medication

you’d find them partaking alcohol you’d

find them smoking cigarettes

smoking cannabis sniffing glue in our

kenyan contacts

they even sniff jet fuel and these are

myriad of other things

that they would interact with with the

view of trying to relieve

the distress that they have we also

realize that on the streets

they do not have appropriate adult

supervision

so even if it wasn’t for the anguish

that they’re experimenting

there is no adult to guide them away

from that kind

of engagement so they find themselves in

that situation

the streets are not safe they’re not

safe

for the fact that they’re not designed

to be homes so as they’re out there

they’re exposed to physical challenges

they’re exposed to

bullying and abuse by other street

children and even adult

perverts so it’s really unfortunate that

these boys and girls

get to experience those sort of things

so then the big question is with that

realization

and being persons that can relate to

them and want to make a significant

difference in their lives

what are some of the things that we

could do i would like to talk about

three of those things one is

assist them to get into a structured

arrangement

to be able to access what is considered

to be basic needs

and basic rights we tend to give them

handouts

you know in terms of cash and even other

things in kind whilst that helps it

doesn’t really

operate in a sustainable model so it is

incumbent upon us to look for ways

in which we can do this in a more

sustainable manner

the other thing that i’d like us to

think about is

how do we help these boys and girls who

are

living their lives on the streets to

connect with a stable family

stability and family relations are key

for children to thrive and even adults

so it is

a responsibility that we have as persons

of interest

to find ways to help these families

listening to the stories that have been

shared we find that some of these

families

have serious challenges so it then means

that if we want to help these children

then we need to look into their family

situation it could be a situation

where we help to empower the families to

be economically stable

it could be a situation where we help

them to access

new skills in the range of parenting

skills so that they’re

better able to parent their children in

more effective ways

it could also be ways of re connecting

them to

rehabilitation services because you find

that some of them

have experienced issues of substance

abuse disorder and are

not able to function very optimally as

caregivers

so those are some of the things that we

could do and perhaps others

to link these children to a stable

family set up

the other thing that we could do is to

act as role models

to these children these boys and girls

like the boys and girls in our homes

desire and thrive on what they see

yeah so if they see things that are not

particularly appropriate

they are more likely to act in those

ways so think about it

this child has grown up in a home where

the behavior that is modeled isn’t the

most appropriate

they have gone into the street and what

they’re exposed to

is really behavior that is not

appropriate as well

and yet we expect them to actually grow

up and become

responsible citizens now that is a

difficult thing for them to achieve

so when we step up and we model for them

the positive ways of behavior then we

actually contribute

to a big difference in their lives

so my question to you is this as we walk

into this new dawn

in africa are you able to see life

through the lenses of the street child

thank you

you