KWETU HOME OF PEACE: A REHABILITATION CENTER FOR STREET BOYS.
SITUATION ANALYSIS.

The plight of street children whose verminous existence daily pits them against the dangers of disease, starvation, drug abuse, harassment by the police and angry mobs, sexual exploitation, dehumanizing immoral habits and the gloom of a bleak future, pricks the conscience of a person(s) of good will.

These children confront us not only in the Nairobi city center, but also in many shopping areas of the outskirts of Nairobi city. It is on this background that KWETU HOME OF PEACE (*KHP) was founded.

HISTORY AND PROGRESS
In 1993, a group of youth of our lady Queen of peace, Nairobi South B catholic parish, under the able leadership of Fr.Michael meunir got together to set up a care and a rehabilitation home (center) as an effort to alleviate this disgraceful situation and suffering of the numerous children living on the streets. They called this center “Kwetu” which is a Swahili word for “our home”. The need for a space was a necessity so as to achieve this noble cause, and through a parishioner, the former president of the republic of Kenya, Mr. Daniel Arap Moi, donated 0.8 ha. On which KHP is built.

To date kwetu caters for over 80 boys and has 2 centers 1) the main rehabilitation center and 2) a pre-rehabilitation center, called a drop-in.

Location
Presently the home has its main rehabilitation center situated in Madaraka estate next to Strathmore University about 3 Kms from Nairobi city center. The drop-in (reception) center for the street children is located in Nairobi south C at St. Catherine Catholic church compound,about 5 kms south of Nairobi city center.

The project started as a day care center where both boys and girls would come to have a bath, a meal, medical services, clothing and other informal activities once a week. In self-evaluation, KHP decided that one day in a week wasn’t enough and expanded its services to 4 days in a week.

In 1994, a strategic decision was made to make KHP a boys project. By 1995,it was agreed that there was need to make the home residential in order to have impact on the street children and this called for a clear definition of the rehabilitation model to be followed such as putting the boys back to school among other rehabilitation strategies.

KHP main focus is to rehabilitate boys and to reintegrate them back to their families and communities after a rehabilitation period of 6 months to 2 years. The project addresses itself to the street boys in Nairobi south shopping centers, which comprises of Mugoya, south C, south B and Nairobi west. Most of these children come from disadvantaged surrounding slums namely Fuata nyayo, Mukuru, Mitumba, Kibera, Kwa Reuben and Kayaba.

KHP also reaches out to boys in Nairobi City center, City council social halls for street boys rehabilitation, government Juvenile (correctional) institutions and other organizations with similar objectives.

To ensure the success of reunion, KHP has progressed to include family support programs as an important component in reintegrating the boys back to their families and communities. This is in a program called Kwetu integral parents program (KIPP) in which the major components are skills training in knitting and salon and also in micro-credit scheme for financial assistance in small-scale businesses.

KHP learnt that mixing the boys who come straight from the streets with the ones undergoing rehabilitation was increasing dropout rates. The home decided to start a separate program as a drop-in center that was put in place in 1999.

The drop-in center is a pre-rehabilitation facility and has a bed capacity of 24 boys. It is situated in South C area of St.Catherine Catholic Church compound about 5 kms.south of Nairobi city. After a minimum of 3 months , depending on stability of a boy and change in behaviors, a boy is referred (graduates) to the KHP main rehabilitation center. Since the official opening of the reception center in 2001- April 2004, over 160 boys have benefited from the drop-in center services.

KHP main center is where the main rehabilitation process takes place. This center has a bed capacity of 54 boys. Currently these boys are schooling in formal and non-formal schools and in vocational skills training.

After a period of 2 years in the main center, a boy is reunited back to the family and the larger community from where various follow-ups are done to enhance successful re-integration. Kwetu has over the years averaged 23 reunions per year. Over 400 children have been reunited since Kwetu’s inception.

Kwetu also has a carpentry-training workshop for the boys which was started in 1999.It has a training capacity of 16 boys. Boys enrolled are from KHP while others are from our networks and the surrounding slum areas. Training takes duration of 2 years, and the boys sit for a Nationally recognized Government Grade test (grade 3) under the ministry of Vocational training.