The Street Kids of Nairobi (and the amazing woman who fights to give them a chance)

An estimated 250 thousand children in Kenya live on the streets; around 60 thousand live on the streets in Nairobi alone. Some are as young as five or six years old. These children do not choose to be on the streets, but are forced there by neglect, alcoholic parents, a lack of money and food at home, and more. Life on the streets is harsh and difficult. These kids are dirty, hungry, and unable to attend school. They live in fear of being shot by he police, or even being given food donations that have been intentionally poisoned. Many resort to dangerous drugs, such as sniffing glue or jet fuel, to stifle the pangs of hunger and cold. The circumstances these children live in is truly a human rights violation.

While much greater attention and support needs to be given to these children, there is some hope in having met people who have devoted themselves to giving the street kids in Kenya a chance. One of these people is a woman named Lenore, who I have grown to greatly admire during my time at the monastery guesthouse here in Nairobi. Lenore is a woman from Australia who moved out to Kenya four years ago to volunteer. While volunteering in the slum, she met a street boy who told her he wanted to go to school and if she helped him go to school, he wouldn’t sniff glue anymore. He threw his bottle away right then and there. Despite others disbelief, she helped the boy get reunited with his family and into school. He is now drug free, healthy, and doing extremely well.

Since then, she has worked tirelessly nearly every day to help street kids get off of drugs, into school and rehabilitation centers, and reunited with family. Sometimes she gets hardly any sleep because she is up early going out to meet children, and up late calling and emailing so she can find schools and rehabilitation centers to accept these kids, and people to sponsor them. She spends her days in the slums talking with the children, learning their stories, and making sure they know they are loved and cared about. As a part of her mission, she even runs an art workshop on Fridays where street kids are able to come and paint. It gives kids a chance to express themselves, try something new, and to simply spend time in a safe environment. It also gives Lenore an extra point of contact with these kids. I was able to attend the workshop last Friday and see the magic unfold when she noticed a little boy she hadn’t seen before. It turned out the boy was only nine years old (though looked even younger) and living on the streets. After the session, along with another man who works with her, Lenore was able to help the boy to get cleaned up, changed into new clothes, and taken back home to his family, who hadn’t seen him in a long time.

Tonight is my last night in Kenya, but thanks to the amazing people, like Lenore, that I have met, this place will always be special to me.

If you want to know more about how Lenore is helping the street kids of Nairobi and read some of the children’s stories, check out the website for the small organization she has started: Alfajiri Street Kids Art.

AlfajiriStreetKids.org