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In Kenya, rising inflation, unemployment, widespread poverty, HIV and AIDS, migration to cities and the erosion of traditional family support structures are all contributing to a rise in the number of children without parental care, and those at risk of losing it. Many end up living and working on the streets, becoming involved in crime or being commercially, or sexually, exploited. Girls living on the streets are particularly vulnerable to exploitation and abuse and are often involved in prostitution just to survive. Boys often find themselves in contact with the law with very little access to legal representation. Even children living with their families face vulnerable situations like violence in the home and poverty. Many are sent to work to help their families survive.
EveryChild works with two local partners in Kenya to defend the rights of children who face violence, abuse and exploitation. We focus on children at risk of losing the care of their parents as a result of poverty and abuse, provide protection and support to those living without their parents, and whenever possible reunite children with their families.
What is EveryChild doing to help?
Protecting and supporting vulnerable children
EveryChild is supporting Pendekezo Letu (PKL), our local partner in Nairobi, to deliver projects aimed at empowering families and helping vulnerable children.
Our local partner supports families to deal with the social, emotional and financial challenges they face in order to reduce the risk of their children being separated. By helping parents and carers to join micro-credit schemes, and by enrolling them in business and vocational skills training, our local partner helps them secure a stable household income which allows them to better care for their children. Parents are also offered counselling to make them aware of the negative effects of child abuse and improve their parenting skills.
Girls most at risk, or in the worst cases of abuse, are provided with counselling, educational and life-skills training at a PKL half-way house, aimed at their rehabilitation so that they can later be reunited with their families.
Our local partner is also working hard to reduce the number of boys in contact with the law by working with local organisations, officials, magistrates and lawyers to make the justice system more child-friendly. The aim is to support children’s reintegration back into their families and communities and prevent unnecessary and unjust treatment in detention.
Research on the lives of children without parental care
As a large port and tourist destination, Kenya’s second largest city, Mombasa, has become a popular destination for children migrating alone in search of work and for children trafficked from rural areas. Sadly, many of these children end up in some form of commercial or sexual exploitation.
In 2010 EveryChild worked with SOLWODI, our local partner in Mombasa, to deliver an in-depth research project which explored why children end up living without parental care, where they live and what their lives are like. The findings of the report are now being used to inform the development of our future projects.
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