PROGRAMS
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STAWI (SUCCESSFUL) EDUCATION PROGRAM
Every child has a right to free and compulsory education. This is the position of the Kenyan Constitution. However, despite high subsidies in the delivery of education countrywide, poverty levels for a good number of Kenya’s limit their access to ‘free’ education. Whereas tuition fees are waived for public day schools, it costs an average of USD.140 per year, an amount that is beyond reach for over 35 percent of the Kenyan population living below the global poverty line. In some cases, children who attain good grades are admitted into public boarding schools, whose cost averages USD500 per year.
Supporting street-connected children for them to start/resume school is costly. For some children this requires extra tuition for them to catch up with intellectual milestones’ development. Such children also require a conducive learning environment after rescue, during rehabilitation and after reintegration. CFA facilitates the education of street-connected children through payment of school fees, provision of school supplies, monitoring and mentorship.
Presently, our key partner is the Nairobi County Council Government Children Shelters. Education for a child in the program takes an average of 8 years to complete. Although many of such children are eligible for tuition bursaries, related education costs are beyond reach for most. Our execution of this program depends on the support of donors, sponsors and well-wishers.
REJESHA (RESTORE) REHABILITATION PROGRAM
Street-connected children are in three categories: those that frequent the streets to beg or scavenge but do not live on the streets, children of street families and those that get stranded in the city for various reasons. Any child that lives on the street for a period exceeding 3 months requires rehabilitation to recondition them, since they are exposed to various forms of abuse and retrogressive survival habits such as glue-sniffing, begging, scavenging, crime etc.
CFA’s strategic partner in the rehabilitation of street-connected children is the Nairobi County Council Government Children Services (NCCGCS). In this arrangement, CFA offers a facilitative role in rehabilitation activities such as mentorship, general counseling to the children, facility upgrading to child friendly statuses, emergency health care, spiritual nurture, ICT lessons, education support, care planning, etc.
CFA has four social workers seconded to the government shelters to support the NCCGCS team and to walk with children for relationship building and mentorship in order to promote smooth reintegration processes.
SALAMA (SAFE, SECURE) REINTEGRATION PROGRAM
Children on the street undergo diverse forms of abuse, exploitation and neglect, a result of which is trauma, brokenness and delays in developmental milestones such as intellectual, psychological, health, social and economic. CFA is committed to promote care and protection for such children within their biological families or in kinship care; as well as to reintegrate them into society.
In Nairobi, an estimated 60,000 children live and work on the streets. The rehabilitation shelters, both public and private, are limited in capacity, resourcing as well as personnel. CFA, with support from partners, compliments the efforts of the government by providing reintegration or reunification for any child from the four public shelters that is willing to go back to their families. It also conducts street outreaches to identify, refer or reunite children who are stranded on the streets, unaware of where they can find help. Reunification is similar to reintegration except that it happens mostly for children who do not need rehabilitation and whose families are socially stable.
Reintegration by CFA involves support of the children to access parental care, education, health, life skills, trade skills, monitoring, emergency food packs, identity cards acquisition, psychosocial support, spiritual nurture and family economic strengthening. The costs in school fees, transport, communication, supplies and personnel are informed by the needs presented by each case. These vary depending on the age, level of education, health status, location and family economic capacity. CFA counts on the goodwill of partners, donors and well-wishers to continue providing this essential service.
WEZESHA (EMPOWER) HOPE PROJECT
Building a community safety-net, where children are provided with a safe and nurturing environment, is the only sustainable solution to the street-connected children crisis. CFA in partnership with local and international donors provides safe spaces and solutions to this end through the setting up of community libraries, sport outreach, IT teaching programs, awareness creation, facilitating child protection trainings, civil education to street connected children, meditation in family conflicts, family economic strengthening, networking in case management and the involvement of local authorities as appropriate.
CFA's goal is to have children access services within their local communities as a means of reducing the family-to-street traffic. This is complex especially in the slums where the living conditions of families are unsuitable for human habitation. However, we work with the community to identify relevant activities that suit their needs. We invite ideas as well as partnerships in addressing the child protection gaps in our communities.