Street Children Iringa carries out day and night visits to the streets to find children and youths currently on the streets.
The aim is then to re-home these children and youths with relatives where possible, and support them from there. Where this is not possible, the children are welcomed into ‘The Home’.
In October 2018, Samson (aged 12) was found in the dump searching for scraps of metal and plastic to sell in order to get food for his mother and younger brother. After visiting Samson’s mother we found that she had been too ill to work, which is why Samson was searching the dumps for materials to sell, in order to get food for his family. From October 2018 onwards Street Children Iringa supported Samson and his family with monthly food and essential needs so that Samson could stay away from the streets and return to school.
At the end of 2019 Samson received his primary school results. He achieved straight A’s and was accepted into a secondary private boarding school out of town. Samson has a very bright future ahead of him and was over the moon to start boarding school.
Street Children Iringa have also set Samson’s mum up with a small microenterprise in order to become sustainable and support Samson and his younger brother with food and basic needs.
On February 3rd 2019, Letty was visiting some of the older Street Youths that previously lived at the orphanage, when she came across Fred cowered over in the dump, sitting silently. He had not eaten for days and had come from a village over 6 hours away.
The plan at first was to re – home Fred, but after carrying out a home visit with the workers from the social welfare office, due to many reasons home is not currently a safe place for Fred. Instead he is being welcomed into our family at the house, making Fred, who is 11 years old, the 10th member of our family. The left picture is Fred after settling into the house with his new shoes and clothes. The right picture is Fred’s first day at the local primary school.
Eliah was found during one of the night visits to the streets, where Letty and the older boys go around the gutters/dumps in Iringa town, to find current children living on the streets.
After finding them, they are taken for a meal in order to build up trust with them and understand their situation more. Eliah was the smallest of all the boys on the streets and was just dressed in a big t-shirt when it was the equivalent of winter in Tanzania. Eliah’s mum had died two years earlier and his dad was mentally unstable. After following up with relatives of Eliah, again it was deemed not a safe environment for Eliah and he was welcomed into the family home. Later in 2019 his dad also passed away.
Eliah is now very settled in the house, has great behaviour and after getting him enrolled in a local school he is in the top 20 of his year. This is an amazing achievement given all the time he has spent out of school and on the streets. We see a big future ahead for Eliah!