If Dodoma, up until a few years ago, seemed “emancipated” from this phenomenon, with the development of the city and its promotion to the capital, it has become a popular destination for many street children. Unlike what is often believed, street children (or adolescents) are not orphans, or at least they are not from both parents, however, given the poverty, the impossibility, or the failure to recognize the importance of families providing education to their children, physical, sexual and psychological abuse suffered from within the walls of home, and many other factors, children are forced to look for another way to satisfy their basic needs and they often find it far from home and on the street.
photo Romina Remigio© 
Most of the times, the child runs away with a sibling who already lives on the street, but who has not permanently cut off relations with the family and returns home for a short greeting and to provide help (even economic), but then leaves again and returns to living on the street, doing small jobs to survive, to have at least one meal a day and to collect something financially that, as mentioned above, he will bring to his family. Through this, a vicious cycle is created, because the child feels responsible for the family, and believes that without him, the adults of the family cannot do it. The consequences of living on the street are traumatic for children. In that environment they start sniffing glue, carry out petty thefts, are sexually abused, they become victims of beatings by the police, and people who only see these children as purposeless, not understanding that street children have not chosen the life they are living and they are certainly not happy living it.
Kisedet started working with them in 2008 and what we do is try to get them off the street and reunite them with their families or to KISEDET shelters. In this way, the children, after detoxing from the glue, have the opportunity to resume their studies. Kisedet also carries out activities to bring awareness to street children through the artistic group “Shukurani Arts Group” and by participating in radio programs where we explain which behaviors to adopt or abandon when dealing with these children. A good example is the fact that people often give money to street children thinking they are doing a good deed, but with that money children do not buy food but glue or other drugs.
“One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.”
― Malala Yousafzai