Monday 20 August 2012

The channel of helping the need

Whilst all that was going on with the organisation I was to partner with, I had several meetings with a church in Mombasa that I will be looking to partner with. In 2010 when I came to Kenya I spent time at the church, and the ministry they work with for street boys. After praying about the situation, the children I should work with and who I should work with the church came to mind so I made some contacts and arranged a meeting with David who runs the ministry. I really want to work together with the community, involving them in the projects, I believe this is where the most impact is made, and where a project can really benefit along with helping and impacting many within the community on a larger scale. Helping the problem at the root, rather than just helping a few.

After meeting with David and discussing much about our aims and objectives we came to an agreement that we would work together. We would work together in terms of the children; taking children into the home of Free Spirit that David and his ministry have been working very closely with for a long period of time, they have been running the ministry for 12 years so they have a lot of experience working with such children. Every Sunday they share the gospel, they provide them with a meal and offer medical treatment to anyone that is in need, this program has been running for sometime and allowed them to build relationships with these boys, especially those who come on a regular basis for sometime they have wanted to help these children further but they have not been able to, they are always looking for new ways of how they can provide the great needs of these needy children.
As the need is so great they have begun working with girls and street families also.

My long term aim is to work with the mum's of these street families working where the need is, the centre of the cause, as if you just help a handful of children your not helping the need, you need to go to the root of the problem to really make a difference and trying to minimise the numbers that are living on the streets. Empowering these women in sex education, teaching them skills that will  educate them, and allow them to gain some kind of work that will help ease these women off the streets,working closely with them, and empowering them in skills to one day be in a position that they are able to provide and care for their children in the right environment. It will be looked upon that we wont be looking after their children forever, but more a helping hand, and that we havent just taken your child so you are now free to do as you please or to repeat the same case, that as we take your children you will be encouraged to come and volunteer (at least once a week) and help out with your child when they are at the home.

We will be working with children from all different backgrounds that are currently on the streets including orphans, children from street families, children that have been displaced from their families, etc we are willing to help where the need is knowing that the child wants a home and help as with street children you cant force them into a structured environment that they are not used to as otherwise they will just run away and feel forced, it has to be their choice, they have to want to be helped otherwise it will not work.

At the beginning my heart was to help the youth on the streets and it still is, but with the youth it isn't possible to put them into a home as they are so used to living freely, living their own way they would never desire to go into a structured home with any rules, they have used to living their own way so in order to help them you have to work around this and do what fits into their needs best. The aim is to work with youth teaching and empowering them with skills that will allow them to gain skills, to get some kind of work which will allow them to earn a living, to try and ease them out of their lifestyle off the streets gradually. It is hard as the population living on the streets perspective of the community is not good they feel rejected, unwanted, unaccepted as the community view them as a waste of space, criminals, thieves, worthless so they have no desire to become part of the community for the way they are treated or the way they have been perceived. They just aren't acknowledged in the way other human beings are, but God acknowledges them, he loves them and they are so precious to him, they are his children and it breaks his heart to see his children in this way, we are called to look after the poor, Free Spirit aims to fulfill this, "breaking my heart for what breaks his".


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