Kenya - Day 3

We were split into groups of 3 or 4. We went to HOVIC centre, which is basically a day rehab-centre for street/homeless kids, where met and were briefed by all their 9 working staff members. HOVIC provides free breakfast and lunch, also informal education to about 100 (average) children, who are between 3 to 18 years old, every day except on Sundays.

We had a number of activities today. We helped preparing meals (meals called nyoyo - basically consists maize, beans and potato), befriendedand watched the children debating, and in the afternoon, played football (I suck. Even the girls played way better than I). I tried a bit of the meal, and despite my diarrhoea panaroia, the food wasn't bad at all. We snapped a lot of pictures with the kids (and staff!) and they really loved them!. They were really friendly; you hardly need to make the 1st move to talk to them - although I did think they were probably friendly because we are westerners (?).

We chat a lot with these bright kids, and discovered a lot of their concerns about life. Until the HOVIC night centre porject is done, they have nowhere to go to after the centre closes at 3pm. They slept on any shelter they could find with constant fears of being assaulted by patrolling policemen every night. I heard their storied of how some are often beaten mercilessly, even if you are just mere 5 years old. Many of them sniff glue, the thing that they claim to provide them with warmth to survive the harsh coldness during nighttime. Homeless kids are constantly stigmatised by the society, and even by their own family members. They are always blamed for the crimes happening in the society. While they may be some truth, very few see the bigger picture; of how these children's helpless circumstances - family breakups, poverty, exploitation - have forced them to commit crimes in order to enable them to find the very next meal.

They also talked about education very much. They wanted to become lawyer, engineers, pilot - ambitions almost impossible to achived unless they have someone to sponsor their education. They see education as a way out of the poverty cycle, but it is just too expensive here. To get to a secondary school, they have to afford at least 20,000 shiling a year (1000sh = £8), and with the average monthly family income of 3000sh, they more likely to abandon their studies. Made me feel quite sad some people back home took their education oppoturnities for granted.

The debate topic the chilcren had today was 'home-shelter is better than street-shelter'. After listening to their points, I think a very good summary to them is: home is where your heart is