Working with Street Connected Children is a Privilege

Hello, my name is Sarah.

I am a Street Outreach Manager working for S.A.L.V.E. International.

I love working with children and youth, but I am so privileged to be working with street connected children especially. It gives me great joy and satisfaction meeting these children on the streets and moving together with them through their journey of transition into happier people.

Children on the streets are like any other child who has grown up in a happy family: they deserve love, care and protection and their rights should be respected.

However, street connected children are faced with a big challenge of people being harsh to them amidst the harsh reality of hard life on the streets.  Many times, they are seen and taken as being thieves, dirty, hopeless and bad children.  They are beaten and abused by the people they meet on the streets who claim to be helping them, yet they have bad intensions towards them.

In the night they hardly get where to rest and during the rainy seasons, these children have to bear with the heavy pours and coldness with no shelter. They are chased by almost everyone including the security guards away from their verandas. No one wants to associate with them because of the bad characters and behaviours that are attached to “street kids” by the community around. Within these harsh moments, they often get sick in the night and there is no one to care for them.

The great joy is that if you get to know these children, build a relationship and interact with them, you get to know the challenges they have gone through in life to the point as to why they ended up on the streets. This gives you a clear picture of who these children are. By interacting with them, you realise that all of them have dreams they would love to achieve in life some day and they are so talented. They enjoy activities like sports, dancing, and art and crafts activities. They are good children and deserve the chance of a brighter future.

We need your help to give these children a brighter future

We hope that you can help us give street connected children a chance at a better life. Please give to our fundraising campaign and help children off the streets and back into education: www.totalgiving.co.uk/appeal/brighterfutures