Child sponsorship is helping keep street youth away from drugs in Emali

A ChildFund-supported programme for children living on the streets in Emali is helping children in Kenya break free of drug use, and to return to school.

The rescue-and-recovery programme is aimed at youth under the age of 18 and is being run in partnership with the Makueni County Government, the Kenya Department of Child Services and the Emali business community. The programme engages with children and their caregivers through sporting activities (including a football tournament) where ChildFund talks to young people living on the street about the chance to leave the streets and lead better lives. 10 of the participants said they would return to school if given the opportunity. From there, ChildFund partnered with the local government to ensure the 10 youth would be rehabilitated from drug abuse, reunited with their families and returned to school to resume their studies all within six months.

Emali is one of the dedicated communities that ChildFund New Zealand works in. Situated on a main trucking route between Nairobi and Mombasa, drug use and child exploitation are concerns for the community.

ChildFund works in collaboration with the community, alongside leaders, teachers, parents and trusted local partners who ChildFund has established relationships with. All projects stem from what the community wants and form part of the ChildFund Road Map planning documents. Key focus areas are health, education, child safety and income generation along with water and sanitation. All projects are monitored and reported on quarterly.