FoSC is an organization that was started in 2001 by a group of people in the city of Kitwe that were concerned by the growing problem of young children living on the streets. Prior to the organization being started this group of concerned Zambians worked on their own, providing support to those they met on the street by counseling and even taking them into their own homes. The organization started out of this grass-roots concern and since its inception has helped over 1,000 street children in a variety of ways.
The organization has 3 main branches:
1. Street outreach to build relationships with those on the street and to offer education support, counseling and medical support. On my first day, I was taken out into central Kitwe on foot with 2 of the social workers.
It only took a few minutes before we came into contact with a number of children in dirty clothes - all of them recognized the social workers and came up to greet us. They are anywhere from 8 to 18 years old and were all either begging, or doing some sort of remedial "jobs" such as helping direct traffic in a parking lot, leading blind people through town, or selling small trinkets. One of the things I first noticed was that almost every one seemed to be carrying around what looked like an empty bottle. I soon learned that these bottles held what is most dear to the majority of these children - a sniffing mixture of petrol and glue. Later on this walkabout we encountered numerous children who were high, as well as others that were so far gone that they had passed out on the street.
2. Rehabilitation, in which children who agree, are taken off the street and placed in one of the organizations care homes. These children are sent to school, attend weekly church services, receive counseling, and are fed and clothed by the organization. FoSC has 3 care homes - 1 for girls which is holding 9 currently, and 2 for boys which is currently holding 17, although it seems that this week 2 ran away to return to the streets - they can not resist the freedom they have on the street or the addiction to drugs and the small amounts of money they can earn.
I visited all 3 of the homes on Monday and Tuesday and it is amazing to see the transformations in some of these kids. Some of them told stories of beatings, rape, and being forced into the sex trade that were just awful. On the good side - the kids seem truly happy in these 3 care centres and have lots of space for sports and recreation, and even a school and teacher onsite for those kids that need extra help before they can be placed into the public school system.
3. Reintegration, where the organization works to find the families of these children and where possible, places them either back with the parents or with another responsible family member after the environment has been deemed safe for the child.
Currently there are around 100 children living on the streets in Kitwe. Unfortunately, funding of the organization has fallen so low recently (due to the economic crunch) that they are in danger of closing, can not afford to fill the space they have in the care homes (there is capacity for 25 girls and 30 boys), and are not even able to pay some staff salaries. Fortunately, the staff are so dedicated to this cause that they are still working without pay in order to ensure that they can help as many children as possible.
My role here is to help the accounts officer get the 2011/2012 accounts up and running for the new fiscal year, but mostly I will be looking for new possible sources of funding for the organization and preparing some proposals for them. I think this is the week where the rubber really meets the road for me - the type of work that is done here is definitely more intense and the things I have seen and heard in the past week have really been causing some stress on my mind and emotions! Luckily for me (maybe not so lucky for him!) I've got a good friend close by who has been the target of some very stressed text messages - that has helped me out a lot.
Stay tuned....
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