Off the Streets, Off to School

A few months ago, we shared about Gati* and Chacha. Half of their father’s body is paralyzed, and their mother ran away. Last October, they had dropped out of school and were living on the streets. Moses Nyamhanga, Director of Our Father’s House, had earned their trust and helped them to be reunited with their father. This was an exciting victory, but Moses recognized that keeping this fragile, impoverished family together will be a long-term journey. One tangible action that Moses recommended was to provide them with the uniforms and supplies that they needed in order to return to school.

Here they are, together with four other children who have spent some time on the streets. Last month, we outfitted all of them with new uniforms and school supplies so that they could start the school year off strong.

Our Father’s House reunites homeless children with their families. In some cases, the relationship quickly becomes strong enough that we can let the family continue on its own. In many other cases, we need to continue working with a family for months and even years to make sure that the kids don’t return to the streets. The above children are some of the ones who we have committed to a long-term journey with, in addition to four more who aren’t pictured (they live farther out from Tarime).

This work is not easy. There are many reasons that children end up on the streets, and it takes a lot to fight back against these. We are not always successful. This time of the year, though, is a time of victory as we celebrate that ten children who were once on the streets are not only back with families, but are donning new uniforms and returning to school.

Thank you, friends, for enabling us to hire Moses so that he can be free to do the hard work of earning the trust of these children, returning them to their families, and counseling their families to make the relationship stronger. Thank you for paying for the uniforms that these children are wearing in these pictures. Thank you for caring so much about the individual, inner life of each one of these children.