Wema celebrated 31 years of transforming the lives of street-connected children on Friday, 6th September, 2024 at the Tononoka Social Hall together with mombasa street-connected families. The Birthday Party, which was attended by over 400 street children, youth and adults was a fun filled event that will remain a core memory for those in attendance. The event was opened with a praise and worship session followed by an encouraging and uplifting word from Pastor Ponga of CITAM Nyali.
The birthday party dubbed ‘Streets of Hope’ presented a platform forstreet connected persons to show their talents and enjoy a day made specifically for them. There were fun activities that took place, dance competitions and an eating competition which was a crowd favorite. After a delicious lunch we had several performances from different street bases who were later recognized with gifts. We also had different stakeholders, that is, a government official from the Social services program (Mr. Samir), encourage the participants to use their reintegration services, Mr. Joram shared legal counsel and offered his services to those who need to acquire any vital documents and our social worker George who encouraged them, and commended them for joining us to celebrate such a momentous day.
In line with the theme, ‘Streets of Hope’, there was also a segment where street connected children and youth shared their challenges and dreams, below is a summary of what was shared:
Festus.
This is the boy who wants to become a scientist in future and his dream is to come and his family and other street children come out of the streets..
His challenges were:
*His beddings are boxes and sacks
*Feeling cold during the night while sleeping
*Sleeping in open places like corridors and just at the ground
*Harassment from the national police and the county police too
*Insults from their fellow friends in the streets.
Mwinyi
He wants to become a professional footballer.
His challenges were:
He is not in school and he wishes to go though no one is there to support him
*No beddings he also uses the boxes and sacks .
*He finds challenges when he is unwell since there is no one to take them to get medication.
*He beggs for food sometime he goes hungry.
*They lack security especially where they sleep.
Zainab
Her hope was to get an opportunity to get some skills which would enable her to use such skills to earn a living.
Challenges.
*They face rejection especially when they seek for some casual jobs no one can accommodate them in because they are street girls.
*As ladies they feel unsafe on the streets.
Gwalino.
He wants to get someone who will support him get some skills which will enable him to support his family too.
*He pointed out on the streets, mother’s find it very hard to raise their children in the streets since they depend on begging.
*Accessing health services is impossible because we cannot afford those services, we trust in God for healing but sometimes some of us succumb from the illnesses.
*Harassment by the national police and the county police to leave even though they have no where to go.
*They are the first suspects once the police looks for the law offenders which makes them feel very bad
We ended the event with a cake cutting ceremony that saw all the participants enjoy cake and soft drinks.