NAIROBI, KENYA:
Compassion in Action for Children of the Streets
by Josh Jackson, Fall 2000

Rivers of sewage run through the Mlango Kubwa slum in Nairobi, Kenya, carrying litter, bacteria and human waste across the only patches of open space where the children can play. An estimated 180,000 people live here without electricity or running water. Thousands of children have no home but the streets of the slum and no shoes to protect against infection. To eat they must turn to begging, stealing, prostitution and drug dealing and are thus condemned as outlaws and untouchables by local citizens. They have no money for school fees and no hope of breaking the cycle of poverty.

To survive, children commonly live together at a base that might simply be a corridor or an abandoned bus with the older ones looking after their younger siblings. Most of them are victims of physical or sexual abuse, and almost all sniff glue or gum to relieve the hunger and loneliness of the streets.

Several factors have contributed to the recent explosion in the number of children on the streets of Nairobi and other cities in Kenya: urbanization and the breakdown of the extended family support systems, ethnic tension between tribes heightened by the legacy of
colonialism, lack of social services and affordable education, skyrocketing unemployment, recent drought, and abusive family situations. Perhaps none, though, are as immediately apparent as the AIDS epidemic. Families are being decimated by the virus, and children are left to fend for themselves. Some of the children on the streets were born HIV-positive and many others have lost parents to AIDS.

Dr. Tom Olewe, the director of the Luke Society in Kenya, began visiting these kids while he was still in medical school, and their desperate plight moved him to devote himself fully to helping improve their living conditions. After graduation, with virtually no money to his name, he began VIPs Street Child Ministry, Nairobi's first ministry to focus on the health of the 60,000 street children in the city.

Mlango Kubwa is a haven for the most notorious criminals. Even its name, which translates "the wide gate," refers to a place where everyone is found from car-jackers to prostitutes to thieves. Police are afraid to even step foot in the ramshackle village. But because Tom spent so much time getting to know the children, caring for their problems and earning their trust, he and the volunteers who assist him are able to enter this violent world without fear.

"It was very unsafe initially when we went," he said, "but the more we visit these people, the more they accept us. We've had occasions where we've had to treat some thugs who were assaulted the previous night. And those end up being our security details. They won't let anyone touch you."

Tom chose to call his ministry VIPs Street Child Ministry because he believes that someone needs to show these kids that God loves them and that the body of Christ wants a better future for them here on earth. These children are outcasts in their own society and often have very little self-worth.

"When I was given a chance to talk to the kids, I told them they were very important people," he said. "We really feel honored to be called by God into a ministry that would be a part of the Great Commission."

Tom's main concern is "Christ-centered, street-child friendly medical care." He regularly treats the skin infections, wounds to the feet and legs, eye and respiratory infections and intestinal parasites that plague the children of the slum. Their conditions expose them to violence, substance abuse, malnutrition, and unsanitary water. At night, they must huddle together for warmth and comfort, further spreading disease. Tom attends to their needs at a base just inside the slum's boundaries. It would be impossible, though, to only treat the injuries and infections without concern for their overall condition.

"Half of the kids have scabies," he gives as an example. "You treat it, screen them the next week, and they're gone. Screen them the third week, and they have them again. There's a lot of work to be done in this area. Improving the drainage, just finding a way of keeping the children away from this water, getting them into schools because they have nothing."

VIPs is a holistic ministry, going beyond just the health concerns of the children and looking to their pressing needs of food, education, clothing, shelter and even counseling. Tom works closely with a network of other Christian ministries and churches in the city. He has helped get sponsorship for many of the children with Christian child sponsorship organizations. He regularly works with these different agencies providing annual screening and ongoing treatment for the children they are serving.

One of the key partners and supporters of VIPs Street Child Ministry is the Mlango Kubwa Kenya Assemblies of God Church. The front pew of the church is often the operating table for victims of violence or other trauma. Tom has also been involved in the church's food program, where teaching, preaching, singing and sports are coupled with serving