A group of recent MITS grads. Malcolm and I gave them training on peaceful conflict resolution. "Why are there so many children living on the streets in Nairobi?” I asked Darlene Coulston, co-founder of Made in the Streets. Our group sat with Charles and Darlene Coulston after dinner, chatting.
“Extreme poverty,” she answered.
She went on to describe the dynamic of the slums of Nairobi. Row after row of shanties the size of tents. Raw sewage everywhere. Families have nothing to eat, so they send their children to find food and money. If you want to eat, go find food. The particularly vulnerable families are those abandoned by the father.
The home to which the children return after a day of foraging and begging is depressing: mothers and/or fathers quick to beat the hell out of each other and the kids; everyone high from sniffing glue; younger siblings, not old enough to forage, waste away in filth; no toys, no entertainment; nothing resembling a healthy environment in any way.
As they go out each day from home, they see other kids that are living on the streets, on their own. The kids have formed loose affiliations and hierarchies; they are smoking cigarettes and have plenty of glue; they have things, and freedom, and each other. No one beats them except the cops, whom they avoid at all costs. So one day, the kid that has been taking food and money home to his parents decides not to go home. I’ll make it on my own.
Thousands of children live on the streets. At night they sleep with their group at bases, which might be a dump or a street corner. Safety in numbers. During the day, they fan out into affluent Nairobi neighborhoods to steal, beg, and rummage. Most are boys, but a few girls find their way from nightmarish homes to the relative safety of the bases. The girls housekeep at the bases during the day. At night they give their bodies in return for protection. They are preteens and young teenagers.
The organization Charles and Darlene Coulston co-founded nearly twenty years ago is called Made in the Streets (MITS), and they select street kids with promise, and bring them into the MITS facility on the outskirts of Nairobi. MITS provides safety, shelter, food, and an education. It is a faith-based organization, so chapel is every morning with church service on Sunday. The children are given a basic education, and then they choose a skill to learn. Examples of skills taught at MITS are carpentry, fashion design, and catering.
One key to this system is that it is voluntary. Kids can leave anytime. Some do. They find that they have to be responsible and follow the rules at MITS. They have chores to do. They have to study. It can be unfamiliar and unsettling. Many disappear and make their way back to the streets, but most stay. When they graduate at 18 or 19, they go out into the world to find a job. MITS supports them for a few months while they job search, and then they are on their own. Roughly 90% make it.
At any one time, there are around one hundred children at the MITS facility, which includes 35 acres scattered around in one- to seven-acre plots. There is a boys facility and a girls facility. There is a new mothers facility, a church, a soccer field and basketball court, and of course classrooms and skills centers.
The key to the ministry is the MITS office in Eastleigh—ground zero for Nairobi street kids—which is an area most Kenyans avoid. The MITS employees are on the streets everyday getting to know the kids. When they identify one with promise, they start testing his or her mettle. The MITS staff (many of them former street kids), will ask a promising kid to lay off of glue-sniffing for a week, or come to bible readings a few times, or come to weekly training for a few weeks. Then the staff decides on admission.
Girls find an easier path to MITS, especially if pregnant.
What an amazing organization. This is true ministry. They are fully funded by donations. Go to their website and donate money to them. I am always hesitant to contribute money to organizations with which I am not familiar, but I have witnessed what’s happening at MITS, and I assure you your money will be put to excellent use.
madeinthestreets.org
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