Street Corner

1 December 2007

Every day some terrible things happen on the streets – fights, street girls raped, sickness, feelings of sadness and hopelessness, hunger, stealing, lying, fearÉ.

The past two weeks have been especially traumatic for our street ministers who live in Eastleigh and for at least two of the bases where street kids sleep. By the way, they call them bases because "commandos" have bases. One of our kids showed me a picture of the California governor in a magazine yesterday and said, "Is that Commando?" Here is a typical base picture with lots of trash but none of the kids present.

It started with a woman who comes to the Monday program for street girls and women. She has a 6-year-old daughter who was raped. She knew the man, so he was caught and put in jail with the help of our Team members, Anthony and Kennedy.

Then one young man who was in our first program at the Eastleigh Center in 1999 killed another young man who was in our program in 2002 with Anthony and Kennedy (who now work with us on the streets) with a knife. Nicholas spent more than a year learning carpentry and toy-making at a local school, but dropped out two weeks before graduation and went back to drugs and the streets. He killed Patrick, whose brother has an apartment in Mathare but spends time on the streets with friends. The police came to the base but left without saying anything; the young men at the base took that as a judgment that they should handle it, so they killed Nicholas. Anthony and Kennedy have been helping the brother to raise funds for Patrick's burial; they have been up almost all night several times and are getting very little sleep, since there is work to do in the day.

After that a woman name Njeri whom our Team knows and who lives at Jamaica Base was severely beaten by a former boyfriend who stays at another base. The mother of our Mary Muthoni, who also lives at the base, came and found Anthony and asked for first aid for Njeri. He found her near death with internal bleeding as well as cuts on her arm and body. He caught the man who did it, and he and Kibuna (who was in Eastleigh because we are renovating the building) took him to the police; then they got Njeri to the hospital. Ann said this morning in a department head's meeting, "We saved a life this week." And in this case it is likely that the man will be prosecuted in a criminal court.

Also this week another young man was beaten and cut, with his arm so badly injured that it is now paralyzed; he is also in the hospital recovering.

Added to the unrest at Jamaica Base is the fact that a few months ago, a young man was beaten badly, and his friends brought him early in the morning to Made in the Streets. The Team got him to the hospital, where the doctors did not operate but patched him up and sent him home because they did not have adequate beds, and it would be an unpaid case. Back at the base he lived a couple days and died. Some of the young men at the base blamed Made in the Streets, saying our team killed him. It took some negotiation to bring peace to the base. Now Njeri's case has upset some of the young men again, and she was afraid for the doctors to treat her, because she might die too. We think it will settle down as she gets better and better; please pray for her recovery.