UPDATE to our concern for street moms.... 19 October 2007

We are grateful that, at the same time our hearts were touched by the plight of young girls with babies who are on the streets in Nairobi, friends of street kids in churches in the USA have also displayed concern...and put their money down!  We are humbled by God's care and the Spirit's actions to create conditions under which we can have a program for the street mothers.  We have now been promised the basic funds we need for a pilot program.  

Ann Mwangi, who works on the streets in Eastleigh, has started a Thursday morning program and is recruiting mothers who are 17 years old and younger.  We are hopeful that within the next 4 to 5 weeks we will find the girls whom God knows will fit into our program and benefit from it.  

We will do the program at the Eastleigh Center.  John Wambu, who handles all our construction and maintenance needs, will renovate the property with these girls and babies in mind.  He will install a new toilet and shower in the front of the property for street boys to use, since they will no longer be admitted to the inner courtyard.  The present dorm will be divided into two parts, and the front part will be used for men to stay who are visitors working with us.  The back half will house 5 of the girls with babies.  An awning will be put up in the inner courtyard so we can do child care while the girls are in training.  An office with doors off the front hall and off the inner courtyard will be converted to a First Aid room.  One of the classrooms will be devoted the other 5 girls and babies, while another classroom will be used for classes and activities and for women visitors when they come to work with us.  A dining area will be set up for the girls in the back of the property.  All these renovations will cost about $3,500.  

We will also add two new Team members, women who will be responsible for the moms' program.  One of them will be primarily responsible for the training programs, and the other will handle the child care.  Both will handle Bible and child care studies, dorm life and menu planning.

Pray for us, that we will find all the girls by the middle of December and have this program in full swing when the New Year comes!  

Be blessed, charles

FOLLOWING IS THE ORIGINAL NEWS ITEM OF THE NEED FOR A STREET MOTHERS' PROGRAM

The tragedy is that young girls who are forced out on the streets are often raped that very night.  After that, they aren't saving themselves for anything.  So they use their bodies to get a safer place to sleep, to get bed and breakfast, to get a t-shirt, to get a little food.  Some become girlfriends or "wives" to older boys at street bases, thus they are protected from other boys.  Some sleep in night watchmen's rooms with a few other girls; he will only want one of them when he comes home in the morning.

Soon a girl will "have a ball" (be pregnant).  The girls who do not get pregnant are teased that they are not real women.  Having a baby makes life easier sometimes; a girl wtih a baby can do better begging in downtown Nairobi than a girl alone.  But the baby suffers; the little one lies in a corner of a small room during the night while the mother sleeps with someone who offers a bed and maybe a meal.  There are no diapers out there, no soap and little access to water, so babies are not clean.  Amazing that they still smile at you when you pay attention to them.  And they play together in the dirt.

Here is Mercy with her baby Teresia.  She has a 3-year-old named Florence who was left at the street base when Mercy came to the building for the dental and medical clinic.  We have known Mercy since she was 13, and she is now almost 22.  We wanted her in our program but she couldn't stay away from the glue and so never came to Kamulu.  Mercy is now pregnant again.  It is astounding that she and the children survive.  We have seen her after being badly beaten by boys before.  We do the little we can for her and ask God to bless her and help her survive.  
  



 

There is some aid offered at Made in the Streets.  The girls can come any day of the week and wash the baby and the baby's clothes.  There is a program on Monday with talk and Bible study and a class on baby care and a meal together.  Now and then we can have a doctor in to help out.  When someone is sick, we can take them to a clinic.  Thanks to Central Church in Cedar Rapids, IA, and Eastside Church in Duncan, OK, we have funds and supplies for diapers and soap and water and some milk.  Here Molly Welch and Kenna McKenzie, two or our current interns, play with the babies while the moms see the dentist or the doctor.

But the tragedy remains.  We have a girl in our boarding program at Kamulu now who is third generation street girl. We know her mother and grandmother.  With this girl we break that cycle; her child will not be from the streets.  But many of those on the streets now will raise their children without good care, and some will die.  Joann's baby died last year, and early this year two more babies have died.  

Our answer is to have a whole-life program for these street moms, such as we have at Kamulu for street boys and girls.  A whole range of services is needed to avert the tragedy -- housing for the moms and babies, an American Christian who will guide and train and help find funding for the program, three dedicated Kenyans who will operate the program, which may include skills training for the moms, day care and education for the children, food and personal supplies for the moms and babies, a placement service to help the moms get jobs, monitoring of both the training and the new jobs and the medical needs of moms and babies.  

We would expect each mom to be in the housing and care program for about 2 years -- three months to settle in and get some basic training and literacy education, 1 year in a training institution, six months to be placed in a secure job, and 3 months to earn enough to begin paying rent and buying food on her own.  Even after that we might need to continue the day care program for the children for another 6 months to a year.   Team members who operate the program would also guide them in their spiritual lives and in relationship to the church.  

A guesstimated cost of a whole-life program is about $2,000 per year for mom and baby.  A pilot program of 10 street moms would thus cost $20,000 a year for their two years, or a total of $40,000.  I don't know whether we can say these babies and their moms deserve our care and support.  I do know that God deserves our everything.  The only question for each of us to answer is whether God wants to make a way for these street moms, and whether he wants to do it through us.  Be blessed as you consider, and thanks.