The occasion for initiating this directory is the 2007 World Social Forum to be held in Nairobi during the month of January. It is the hope and the intention of the Authors to regularly update this directory.
About the Survey
The survey was conducted in the second and third weeks of July 2006 with the intention to obtain data that will help in the development of a comprehensive directory of actors involved in street children interventions in Nairobi. It was found very important in the process of this survey to define the roles of the actors very clearly so that other actors looking for partners and networking may find them. In the institutions index the actors are listed as governmental, capacity building and advocacy institutions, children centres, economic and livelihood programmes and educational facilities. The directory only intends to build on previous works such as:
Kenya Alliance for Advancement of Children and SNV – Street Children Programme (2001), Directory of Agencies Working with Street Children in Kenya, Nairobi. KAACR and SNV – Street Children Programme.
Childlife Trust (1997), Database of Homes, Schools and Programmes that Work with Children in Need, Nairobi
The survey to compile this directory covered the following constituencies; Dagoretti, Langata, Kasarani, Embakasi, Westlands, Pumwani, Makadara, Kamukunji, Kajiado North, Juja and Kabete. Data was collected from institutions, self help groups and educational facilities that are interested to the street children problem. The respondents included institutions’ managers, their assistants and other staff. There were a few interviews and focused discussions involving the street children. These discussions provided important information in validating the data collected.
Survey Objectives
The purpose of this project was to collect data that will assist in the development of a comprehensive directory for street children interventions in Nairobi in the light of the following objectives:
Bringing to light several dimensions of street children interventions in Nairobi, highlighting all aspects of service and accompaniment
Developing a narrative description presenting an overall analytical picture of the struggle in addressing the challenges faced by street children and the organizations
Developing a detailed directory pointing out the type of interventions available in Nairobi.
Summary Findings
One hundred and twenty four institutions have responded to the survey. The oldest is Eastleigh Community Centre, which had its beginnings in 1959. The Undugu Society of Kenya, one of the most important players in this field, was established in 1973. The numerical growth was slow, up to 1980 only seven interventions are registered. However, as the number of street children increased due to the increasing poverty and social injustices, also the number of interventions grew dramatically. Not all intervention were genuine, and we did not register those who collapsed or were closed because they did not provide care to the children, but rather served as a fund raising machine for the personal interest of the initiators. The government intervened in the year 2003 with an ambitious plan to eliminate or reduce the big numbers of street children and street families. To date the government runs twelve Community Rehabilitation Centres in and around Nairobi. An unofficial estimate of children who live and work on the streets is 60,000. The official estimates of the children according to a research conducted during 2004 by GTZ and SNV in the streets of Nairobi is 10,424. According to COCESCI the present estimated number of children who are registered with different institutions is 300,000 in Nairobi alone. There were many unique interventions that were observed during the entire research process. These included endeavours that assist the children and street families to become self reliant, e.g. Fremba Scrap Metal in Eastleigh, and Wingu la Mvua in Satellite, a society that has incorporated some former street boys and Mkokoset Self Help. In some areas, former street children have come together to establish a rehabilitation programme for the young ones known as Reformed Youth Centre. It is a fact that foster relationships are very few but gaining popularity slowly. Many members of the public we interacted with in an informal way seemed to support the idea of developing a foster relationship with street children. While there a number of organizations taking care of the rehabilitative component of the street children, several institutions have a dimension of preventive nature. This involves caring for orphans and vulnerable children and for the children under difficult circumstances who would otherwise probably head for the streets. Other important interventions included rescue centres for teenage mothers, rape victims and for children of women finding themselves in the prisons such as the Little Bees Children Self Help Group in Thome. Some centres encourage the youngsters to explore their Hidden Talents and have helped in forming athletes, musicians, and artists, like the Dagoretti Corner Rehabilitation Centre. One most amazing discovery is the fact that most of the institutions are run on self-help basis, with no sure and regular income, and several of these institutions are started the churches or congregations, and are supported by the money collected by the local communities. Several gaps were identified during the research process and these included that there were very few facilities taking care of street children with special needs such as the mentally handicapped, visually impaired, hearing impaired and physically disabled. Teenagers and young adults presented a major challenge to various programmes, and educators wondered what to do with them e.g. The Calvary Youth Hostels has young adults aged from 18 to 23 and it is looking for solutions on how to insert them into society. The teenagers present a formidable challenge as they tend, in the words of social workers, to be “big headed, unfocussed in life, simply looking for instant pleasure and with little appreciation of what it is done for them.” Boys had their own problems; they would go out to steal and then run back to the centres for protection. Girls on the other hand could become pregnant any time. Other gaps that were identified included advocacy on the ground. CLAN, CRADLE and ANNPCAN are engaging the policy level and the legal structures of the country, however there is seemingly no institution supporting this aspect at the grassroots level. The following is a list of other problems and challenges faced by institutions working with street children.
Limited financial resources
Care of abused children undergoing trauma
Limited space for all children activities
Lack of essential resources and facilities e.g. classes, accommodations, stationary, personnel, operating on rented premises, medical care, sanitary towels etc
Family/relative tracing
Develop appropriate responses to evolving needs of each child.
Community involvement and conflict of interest (opposition from the community)
Population pressure; large number of street children in some areas
Poor attendance to some of the projects (street work and outreach)
Teenage pregnancy
Poverty which affects local contribution and leads to dependency mentality. It has been a big challenge to most organizations.
Dealing with children abusers and situations that may lead to child abuse. In most cases it is difficult to identify situations of abuse early enough for prevention purposes. To deal with this situation several organizations have developed a code of conduct that is signed by all their employees.
Illiteracy: Parents don’t see the need of educating their children
Tendency to lose the original vision
Lack of support from the government
General insecurity in the area of operation.
Social problems like drug addiction, prostitution, family breakages
HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Difficulty to reintegrate orphans.
Poor projects/programs management.
Founder syndrome (dependency).
Difficult insertion in the world of work and employment.
When asked about their achievements the care giving institutions shared on the followings:
Promotion of HIV/AIDS Awareness. This helps the children appreciate the value of life and try to avoid irresponsible indulgences that would expose them to HIV/AIDS.
Meeting children’s basic needs and providing psych- social support to children. The basic needs here include adult care, food, shelter and clothing.
Seeing the children pass through the rehabilitation process successfully. In essence the children start changing their behaviour, they respond well to value and spiritual formation and are able to drop negative habits such as addiction to drug, stealing, fighting etc.
Supporting children education: Formal, informal and non-formal. The education programmes are meant to provide opportunities where children can gain life skills, human skills and other skills that would be necessary for their personal development.
Establishing legal aid and advocacy activities. Pursuing advocacy activities entails giving children the knowledge to understand where situations of abuse occur and empowering them to bring them out in the open. It also entails to speak on behalf of children.
Enabling older children gain skills for income generation activities, hence promotion of self reliance.
Rescuing vulnerable children. This entails removing children from the streets to places where they can access care and protection.
Talent nurturing and growth.
Enabling adoption of children by suitable couples.
Accompanying the street children towards becoming responsible and mature adults.
Expanded geographical outreach.
Making contacts with parent and family.
Ensuring successful reintegration process.
Acquiring additional resource facilities for the project (houses, tools, etc).
Community involvement and capacity building.
Forming essential network.
Parents’ empowerment through Micro-finance and other capacity building endeavour.
Enabling children acquire a new perspective in social life and become role models to others.
Most institutions shared their long and short term plans. It is important to note that the durations of these plans are institutional specific. While some of the institutions some plans may seem long term, to others they are short term because of availability of resources.
Intensify resource mobilization activities, locally or internationally.
Buy own land or premises/extend present facilities (building).
Extend geographical outreach.
Establish IGA’s for self sustainability.
Rehabilitation of people addicted to drugs.
Build network beneficial to the program/project.
Offer vocational training.
Community involvement and empowerment.
Monitoring and follow-up and continued support of the rehabilitated children.
Increase/decrease the number of children to be reached.
Working with the youth and young adults.
Establish projects for environmental protection.
Train local people to take over the project.
Start an Early Childhood Development (ECD) facility.
Become self reliant.
Foster the growth of leaders who can become role models in the society.
Executive Summary 
