An update from Anetta

I spent most of my days in Tanzania at the residential centre where 45 former streetchildren currently live. I watched the kids laugh, play, and go to school . Life at the residential centre is stable and safe for these kids. It was hard for me to imagine any of them living on the streets and often I wondered what their situations had been like. 

It all changed one night, when we went out for Street Outreach. We went with Jackson, the social worker and Ema one of the older boys living at the drop in centre . We left the drop in centre in central Arusha at 10 pm. The normally bustling streets lay in silence as we stumbled along in the dark carrying a pail of warm tea and bread.

We didn't walk far before I saw a fire in the gutter with a group of kids trying to keep themselves warm. The kids were rubbing their hands together to fight the cold. I could hear boisterous laughter coming from their direction, from the drugs and alcohol they use to numb the pain and hunger.

We found a shop front that was relatively clean and set down the tea and waited while Jackson went out to talk to the kids around the fire. After a bit the kids started to swarm us, we opened the pail and started handing out cups of tea and bread.

It's hard to explain the look of hunger on the faces of the boys as they crowded us. Each one would come and say hello,  and shake our hands. They were laughing and joking with us, but it broke my heart because I could see in their eyes the glass sheen of drugs.

Within minutes of receiving the bread and tea, it was gone. Exoudie, one of the street kids we know very well, had gone  to find more kids to tell them we had food and drink. After a bit Exoudie, showed up with more kids so we dolled out more. We didn't have much left however as the boys around us had all had their share, we continued on our way.

At the bus station we found two younger boys, about 13 or 14, who were sleeping under potato sacks. Exoudie knew the boys were under the sacks, so he had tossed them aside and the boys woke up.  We handed them the last of the bread and tea and watched as it dissappeared. Seeing the two boys huddled together under sacks as their only protection against the chill of the evening, devouring the bread and gulping the tea made me realize how blessed I am.

Most of the kids I met that night, I never did see again, but in those faces I could see my kids faces. I witnessed the looks of desperation and hunger in those big brown eyes and I knew full well my kids at the residential centre had been in similar situations.

When I encountered the depravity of the street children face to face it broke my heart,  but at the same time gave me a deeper drive to try help. The kids I have come to love so deeply at the residential centre have been given a chance.  Every child no matter where they are deserves a chance at life and I will strive to save one child at a time.