If Dodoma, until a few years ago, seemed "emancipated" from this phenomenon, with the development of the city and its promotion in the capital, it has become a popular destination for many street children. Contrary to popular belief, street children (or adolescents) are not orphans, or at least they do not come from either parent, however, given the poverty, impossibility, or failure to recognize the importance of the families they provide to the education of their children, physical, sexual and psychological abuse suffered in the home, and many other factors, children are forced to look for another way to satisfy their basic needs and often find it away from home and on the street.
photo Romina Remigio©
Most of the time the child runs away with a brother who already lives on the street, but who has not permanently interrupted relations with the family and returns home for a short greeting and to provide help (including economic), but then he leaves again and returns. to live on the street, doing small jobs to survive, to have at least one meal a day and to collect something cheap that, as mentioned above, he will bring to his family. In this way a vicious circle is created, because the child feels responsible for the family and believes that without him the adults of the family cannot cope. The consequences of life on the street are traumatic for children. In that environment they start sniffing glue, carry out petty thefts, suffer sexual abuse, become victims of police beatings, and people who see these children only as aimless, not understanding that street children have not chosen the life they they are living and are certainly not happy to live it.
Kisedet started working with them in 2008 and what we do is try to get them off the road and reunite them with their families or in KISEDET shelters. In this way the children, after having detoxified from the glue, have the opportunity to resume their studies. Kisedet also carries out awareness activities for street children through the artistic group “Shukurani Arts Group” and by participating in radio programs where we explain what 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 that they are doing a good deed, but with that money children do not buy food but glue or other drugs.
“A child, a teacher, a book, a pen can change the world”.
Malala Yousafzai