St. John Bosco Street Children Rehabilitation Centre cares for over 200 children from the area. It strives to take these children from the streets into the safer, more secure environment of the centre, where they will receive regular meals, shelter and will be provided with the skills of basic reading, writing and arithmetic needed for entrance to the local Primary Schools. The Centre's ultimate aim, after a period in formal education, is to reintegrate the children back to their families and communities. The Centre continues to sponsor the education of reintegrated children, and also monitors a child's progress through school and home visits.
This year drought
has hit the region just north of Kitale harder than ever. Whole maize crops
have already been lost, leading to soaring prices for maize imported from
neighbouring countries. Further strain will be put on the Centre's resources
with the expected arrival of a massive number of people from the afflicted
areas; a huge amount of whom will undoubtedly be children, who will have no
place to go except to the streets. Two new dormitories will need to be built
to cope with the demand of new children in the centre, and funds are urgently
required to deal with these escalating costs and to secure the future of the
project.
