SNOWMAN_UK@HOTMAIL.COM
im a 33 year old student from Bradford, if anyone can help me spice up my page, please feel free to leave me a message.
Dont forget to read my journal
(The official monthly update of the Streets Ahead Children's Centre Association)
---->Why The Streets?
Street children are a growing problem in Rwanda. While initially many were orphans, survivors of families totally destroyed during the Genocide in 1994, with no other choice but to take to the streets; increasingly now many children are drawn there by the hope of an easier existence than the one they currently endure. These children may come to town on market day, and see the vibrancy of a possible life far removed from the grinding poverty of their village, where food is scarce and the daily toil of cultivating a failing field amidst a growing family is hard and unrelenting. They see other children, seemingly carefree, chasing each other round the makeshift stalls, dodging in and out of the crowds of customers, with no-one to order them around, and think:"that looks good."
Thus begins their gradual drift to the nearest urban centre, where their eventual arrival brings the shockingly sudden realisation that life on the streets is equally harsh and unrelenting, except that now they don't even have a roof over their heads. And what work their is - carrying goods on market day, washing minibus/taxis, fetching water for houses far from the communal water stations - is spread even thinner as the numbers of street children swell
Currently, our work is divided between Rwamagana and Kayonza, with about twenty children in each town. The children in both places have a variety of reasons for begin on the street, but those in Rwamagana are more likely to be orphans. One of the boys even survived the Genocide through the intervention of a genocidaire, who, in the midst of the massacre then taking place in Rwamagana church, rescued him from the man hitting him with a machete, and said they had killed enough for one day.
A couple of boys got separated from their families during the general chaos of 1994, and found themselves on the streets for want of a better place to be. At least five went to live with relatives after the fighting was over, but were chased away or left due to the poverty of the family, feeling it was better to fend for themselves than stay. Several of the older ones explain that one or other of the parents remarried after the death of their first spouse, and it was simply impossible to live with the new step-father or step-mother. This is often either because he feels his father betrayed his mother by marrying again, However, more often than not it is the step-parents that forces the child out of the house, either literally or through continual emotiomal and physical abuse, denying all responsibility for children that are not their own.
The easiest way for a boy wishing to leave home to escape is to become a cowherd, and mony of 'our' boys initially found work looking after someone's cattle. However, since all subsequently left their jobs upon realising that the farmer had no intention of ever paying them, we have come to the conclusion that it must be standard practice to hire someone, wait until they leave due to lack of pay, and then hire a new lad.
If you would like more infomation about anything that we do, or would like to support us, or are intrested in sponsoring a child, you can get in touch woth us: PHONE (00250)08571586 EMAIL markrwanda@yahoo.com POST SACCA, BP 72, Rwamagana, Rwanda
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