SKids

(= Street KIDS, a.k.a. TOP-TOPS, see below for more on that)

Family support 
Theogene, 12 years old, recently integrated in school (not re-integrated, as he had never been there, so he can barely hold a pencil and draw letters), was nearly crying at one of our latest meetings, but not really because of that small fight he'd just had, it was nothing serious and he's not new to that; the real reason was that when he gets home from school there's never anything to eat, so despite the good feeling of attending school he's not exactly happy. "Mattia, what can we do for him?" "No worries, Eraste, I'll take him home later and see what I can do." 
The solution was the same we adopted for Angelique and her family (see main blog, one of the women's stories): buy 10 kgs of rice and walk home with the boy. All easy and effective? Hopefully effective, at least for some time, and easy at the start, but not when you follow the boy through a ragged curtain into a dark place called home and you're somehow introduced to a living skeleton lying on the bed, who came out to be Theogene's dad... Luckily there were also some young adults outside, who we hope will make good use of the rice and help Theogene.

New discoveries: helpful but confusing
Mattia was getting really worried about the whole project, when he counted over 50 children, (with possibly much more coming every new meeting) to be reintegrated in school, not only for the financial implications, but also for the overall feeling of how things are going around here, so he was particularly pleased and relieved by what he found out in a screening session which he managed to organise thanks to Steve's (Eraste's son) help, by letting him take care of half the group (the older kids), while he brought in Eraste to question, in his loving but very tough way, all the new children about their school situation: most of them are actually going to school and are coming for the group and snack (and something else...)
That was surely good news, for them and for our project, so with renewed enthusiasm he dived into a new small phase of reintegration, only to find out, as he had already suspected, that there are many kids who are attending without paying (and without uniforms or complete set of stationery items), especially in the cheapest, government-run schools (many others are public but managed by churches), which are sent plenty of poor kids from the Sector Education Officer. Well done to the system, who seems to understand the situation and pushes schools to keep children in, to avoid increasing numbers of drop-outs, that is street-children... but why then did we have to spend so much to pay in full for "our" kids? Couldn't we just provide them with a good stationery stock and use that money to support their family, rather than becoming, unwilling, a funding institution for the Education System? Now, what about those who are still out of school? Shall we pay for them or just push them into a classroom?
Luckily, Eraste is in close contact with the Education authorities, who are willing to meet us to discuss the next moves, as they are really pleased with what we've been doing.

Current figures (13/03/15)
Reintegrated children = 27 (4 secondary school - 23 primary)
Old children - Young adults waiting for training placement (too old, too far behind for school) = 8-10

Break (early March) and new schedule

Given the new unmanageable numbers and the need to reassess the situation, the project took a first break, from the famous “Friday of the 63” to the next Thursday, to calm things down and have some time to think ahead. From now on, they are coming only Thursday and Friday afternoon. Soon we’ll organize the week with different activities for different age groups. Then we can start concentrating more on the “real” street children, 2 of which, anyway, are already going to school; both are coming to our place for breakfast and one also for evening study-help (with included dinner).

From SKids to TOP-TOPS

In a month and a half over 90 children dropped by, one day or more, but are they all Street Children? In a way, we could say they are, using the double definition of “children OF the street” (who have no place to live) and “children ON the street” (who have a home but spend only the night there, while during most of the day they wander around); but actually, looking at the real situation in this place, most kids are “children ON the street”, as they’ve got nothing, and nothing to do at home, where there is not much food, no toys, no garden, nobody to take real care of them, so when they’re not in school (all day apart from 4.5 hours), if they are too bored, hungry, adventurous enough or with friends doing the same, they go around, from street to street, and when they hear about a place like ours. 

So what are they? Whom are we serving? What are we doing? 

Plenty of questions, difficult to answer, but little by little we’re  understanding the situation a little better: at first we were relying only on Eraste, but now Mattia is getting the picture by himself, after many sessions and even some reintegrations done without any help, together with plenty of occasions to meet children at the centre or during his daily walks through the local labyrinth of dirt roads, to do the shopping, go to the market to buy bags or shoes for schools.

The real street children, “children OF the street”, are surely many in Kigali, and even in our sector, but we’ve got only a few (2 or 3) among our numbers. 

What about the others? Mattia’s new name for them is TOP-TOPS: Too Poor TO Pay for School! 

Education should be free, but schools are expensive to run (building, maintenance, material), teachers are not well paid and need bonuses, so urban cities charge their pupils; moreover, the great idea of uniforms surely has a lot of advantages as to equality, sense of identity, tidiness, decency and whatever else, but practically it means that students’ families have to find even more money; stationery is not expensive, but for a lot of people around here, once you count in all the rest, it is indeed too expensive. All in all, too many are dropping out and not because they’re badly behaved or lazy, but just because of financial difficulties in their families.

Numbers and age.2

Subtitle: blowing out of proportion (February-March)

From 20 to 30, then 40, with over 10 young adults; one Sunday morning, at the restaurant, an orphan boy of 4 appeared with his sister, aged 6, friends of some others of our children; one day a mother with a one-year old on her back showed up, but we realized she was well in our range, as she is 18; the news of somebody offering a snack and writing down names and info for possible school reintegration seems to have spread quickly, so the numbers kept growing, and growing, till one day we counted 63, including three mothers who wanted some help of any kind: sending them back to school (?), a job, school for their children, family support or just the opportunity to stay there and enjoy the snack, which is the only thing we could actually do, as now they are too many to do anything else. 

Reintegration on the rise (late February)… and later on pause (early March)

We added a few more schools to our list of possible places and took more children here and there, some even in Secondary School, a very good results as students usually drop during late primary, so not many of not-schooled children have passed their “National Exam” (end of primary). Secondary Schools are also more expensive and require more convincing of the headmasters on our parts, as they are, understandably so, a little wary of accepting students who have not been in school for a few years, but we’re quite confident about the behaviour of “our” boys, so we can insist and win them over! After a while we stopped, as it is now hard to choose whom to help, among the crowds coming to ask for support for school.

Numbers and age (late February)

From the initial ten at the end of January, now we have a constant attendance of over 20, plus some of the reintegrated ones still coming every now and then (depending on their school shift), which means higher expenses for food (but that’s been offset by the new water filter in the Leoni’s house, which allows us to get drinking water for the skids without having to buy it every time), longer snack time and more challenging and slightly more chaotic lessons. 

We’re also enjoying the attendance of more and more older kids, actually young adults, as they range from 16 to 21; this makes it harder to plan (school for all or are they too old? What have they done up to now?), but luckily they’re way better behaved than you could imagine, so they are not causing any trouble to the young ones or to us. Just like the small kids, they’re always very grateful for what they receive here, from the snack, to the lessons, to the Sunday lunch, and last but not least, the attention and consideration we’re trying to give them, together with the ideas we have for them, whether it’s school reintegration or some sort of apprenticeship of vocational training. 

R.3 x 3 (mid February)

Third instalment of the reintegration programme, this time for 3 Skids, at a different school, or actually 2 and a question mark, as we paid for 3, but then that third one, another very young and recent recruit, was already registered at the school so it seemed he just needed payment, uniform and material, as he was going to school up to only a while ago, but then he missed a few appointments we made with him and didn’t show up at school, so now we’ll have to follow up his case a little, checking if and when he’s going to school; most likely he’s just confused…

UPDATE: he’s in school (still confused, anyway...)

CPR on SKids (early February)

No, it’s not what you think, no adventurous paramedic TV series from Kigali… it’s Contagious Progressive Reintegration! After Alexis was taken back to his family and school, we told about it to the other kids and we even had a dedicated moment during the next Sunday service, when with a few street kids in the front we gave the congregation an account of the reintegration (or at least that’s what we think Eraste said, as we couldn’t understand more than a few words) and we all prayed about it. All this made other SKids long for a more settled life and the next Sunday, after service&lunch (in a local small and extremely cheap restaurant) half a dozen boys let Eraste (sort of a father for them) know they were going back home, as many of our children are still somehow connected with their families. From the following week, we then started contacting the nearest school and soon after we reintegrated seven children, including a very young one, 8 years old, who had joined the group only a little time before. Differently from Alexis’ case, this time it meant to pay for school fees as well, (given that all schools in Kigali charges pupils… not exactly “free education for all children”, as per government’s boasts), not only buying uniform and stationery, but on the other hand we didn’t have to take much care of the families’ situation, though that’s just for now, as not all of them are really able to provide for those kids who went back (there might be many more in the house) and actually they still come to our afternoon meetings, not to lose the food they got accustomed to; if you then add the fact that primary schools here work on two shifts, morning or afternoon, you understand why now they often appear at our place, before or after school, when they can’t come to the meetings, with a clear “I’m hungry” statement!

Alexis - part 3 -> see main page (the blog itself) 

Alexis - part 2 (04/02/2015)

He’s too self-effacing to come out and tell, but street children are like a family and there’s always a more extrovert brother ready to step up and talk for you, especially when you’re a good boy now in trouble: “teacher, Alexis ararwaye”, which Mattia now understands as “Alexis is sick” (who’s teaching and who’s learning here?). Mattia first, then Elena and Eraste, have a good look on a very bad show: a pretty ugly skin infection, with plenty of high-relief exploded bubbles on both hips; bed bugs from the mattress or rug or whatever where they sleep? Bugs from those dirty pieces of fabric called clothes, probably never changed in 3 months? Surely all helped by a very badly nourished body… 

So the next day he comes earlier, we let him have a shower in our watchman’s toilet, providing luxuries as plenty of water, shower gel, shampoo and a fresh towel and we dress him anew, thanks to Eraste’s children outgrown trousers and shirt (there’s no idea of socks and underpants, but we’ll get those too for his back-to-school moment). When he knocked on the door to signal he was finished, it was hard to realize it was him, after seeing him 10 times in the same dirty trousers and track-suit jacket. But now it’s time to go to the doctor, as that infection needs more than just a cream from the pharmacy as we first thought. So Mattia goes back to where he had taken Michele, this time with an older, coloured son. A long wait, then the same doctor who visited Michele has another double-language conversation with Mattia (French-English) and admits to being quite touched by the boy’s situation and our taking care of him, as he’s got a son the same age as Alexis. Blood tests, disinfection&dressing, payment, trip to the pharmacy (with a stop to get some food as we've completely skipped today's lesson, which was kindly lead by Elena, and the following umugati n'ubuki, bread&honey), a few tablets to Alexis for the evening and the morning, while the rest we’ll stay with us till the next day, when we'll also have to go to the city centre to buy the serum against tetanus, as most likely he’s got no updated vaccination. He should be fine soon and in two days we’re taking him back home, after a change of dressing and some purchases (belt, shoes, stationery…)

Alexis - part 1

14 years old, a thin body in small, closely fitting clothes; a gentle face, a shy demeanour, still a freshness about him, despite the lost look that sometimes comes up in his eyes and the dirty clothes, getting dustier and dustier by the day… Turatzintze Alexis hasn’t missed a day, not even at the very beginning, and he’s one of the quietest, easiest to deal with; he’s also a little ahead as to knowledge: he can understand English better than most, he can write decently well and quickly, he learns fast; a look at the information we have shows the reason why: he was in school for much longer, a few grades more than some of his friends. His story then explains the rest of this description: he’s been away from home 3 months and he left after his father deserted his mother and went to stay in Kigali with another woman; he still looks and acts like a family boy, the street hasn’t changed him as much as not to see that side of him any more, yet. He’s now keen to go back home and back to school and thanks to St. Eraste who got in touch with his mother now we’re planning to bring him back to Butare, in the south, to reunite him with his family and hopefully find a place in a school for him, which are the two main aims of the programme: re-shape the kids so as to bring them back to a normal life based on family and school, where a family is still available…

Different perspectives

In the first month review post we hinted at a slow response to some of our plans and some readers asked what those plans were: well, they happen to be the very thing which you’ve been reading in this section for lines and lines, meaning the street children project, started by Eraste, gladly joined by Mattia and coldly received by the bosses when it was presented at an introductory meeting a couple of weeks ago. The executive secretary, after praising the value of the idea, tried to put forward practical objections on the line of “have you thought of the underlying problems, how do you think to tackle the deep reasons for the situation…”, to which the answer was that any little we do for them is a lot, but those objection didn't really want answers, as they sounded more like excuses not to fully embrace the project; the bishop meanwhile tried to discourage the initiative by warning Mattia of the subtle thieving nature of those boys, who are “not normal kids”… 

At the end of the meeting, Mattia was instead heartily thanked by Eraste for championing the project, as the poor man feels constantly marginalized in his own church because of his work for the marginalized, first the disabled, with the school still tolerated rather than cared for by the congregation, now the street children, who caused him bad looks and comments like: “you’re bringing thieves in the church compound”; again the other day, sitting under our porch, he expressed his feelings to us: “I’m so full of joy to have you here, Mattia, with Elena, so we can work together for the little ones, because I really love them and not everybody does, around here”.

SKIDding between Roald Dahl and Robert Plant

One of Mattia's favourite short stories is The Way up to Heaven (if you’ve read it, you can’t forget it; if you haven’t, I can’t spoil the surprise, so the title will do) and the undisputable masterpiece of Led Zeppelin is Stairway to Heaven (nothing to add, here), but what about the skids? They don’t write books, yet!, they don’t sing, at least not wailing in English, but the connection is clear, as they are “Our way to Heaven”, according to Eraste and Mattia, who are delighted to have found a soul-mate who shares their faith and compassion, centred on Matthew 25, 36-40.

Numbers on the rise (03/02/2015)

On Tuesday, we were glad to have a new arrival, Fabrice; Eraste knows him already, good. During our lesson-time, then, the boys were pointing at the window: new “pupils” coming! First two, then two more, all way older than the average. After welcoming, giving them copybook and pencil, updating them on the lesson and writing some more words to copy (a few will keep them busy for a long time), Mattia dashes out of the class to go to the school yard (it’s all small and very close), where Eraste was talking with Elena about a physiotherapy patient (late for an appointment, once again), just to let him know: “Eraste, there are 4 new boys, quite older, is that OK?”

“Oh yes, I’ve seen them coming in, it’s fine, I’ve been to the place where they gather and I told them about what we do and that they can come”.

A bit shocked by the wonderful communication and organization skills of his partner, Mattia goes back to the classroom, somehow manages to have everyone write down the words by sharing the much-fewer-than-needed pencils and, after the snack, reflects that it’s all still up in the air but at the same time it’s going well and the numbers are rising rather than falling, which is very encouraging.

Market meetings

Mattia hasn’t gone to see exactly where they spend most of their time, yet, but he’s met them a few times while on his expeditions away from the main road, that is walking on the dirt roads to go to buy fruit and veg from the “informal traders”, practising his integration and linguistic skills. They’re happy to be the ones who know the “muzungo” (white man) wandering through the neighbourhood and he’s happy to meet their smiling and known faces and not just curious stares; recently Michele was following daddy for a boys shopping&exploring trip and they greeted him as well, with their “amahoro” (peace) fist-to-fist gesture.

The half-naked boy and the half-drunken guy

To make it even more eventful, that Monday was also graced by two special appearances. The first was Germain, one of the ever faithful, who on the day was sporting a funny new look: a shoe (if theirs can still be called so) held tightly up between his legs, especially while we were seating in a circle... he was not playing silly, just trying to cover the gigantic hole in his trousers, ripped, in front, from just over the knee to the middle seam; at the first opportunity, Mattia-teacher-dad sent his two very understanding boys on a mission and a few minutes later they were back with a pair of Michele’s underpants which helped Germain enjoy the rest of the hour with less hassle. The second was a new recruit, older (about 18) and not as easy as the very good boys usually attending: he was visibly not in total control of himself and the big empty bottle he was carrying just confirmed the impression; anyway, he joined us for the second half of the programme, taking part in the acrobatics show and the race, and everything went quite smoothly. You know what? He’s come back again, with no bottle, for the next two days.

Fun day on a Monday (02/02/2015)

Monday was a brand new public holiday, but it had just been messily patched by the Government on the school calendar in the previous few days (the real holiday, to celebrate the nation’s heroes, was Saturday… or Sunday?), which meant that on Friday we hadn’t said anything about it to the kids (we weren’t the only one to be confused, even Michele and Sam's super school informed parents on Sunday night, by email…). Of course, as Mattia rightly guessed, the Skids didn’t have any reason not to follow the usual schedule, so here they are, though the school is closed and Eraste is in Uganda! Never mind, Mattia decides they’ll stay on the lawn, just outside the school, still in the church’s ground (most likely nobody wants the skids to stay there, but the bosses are not around and we can just pretend we didn’t know…). It was probably the best day yet: English lesson in a circle on the grass; two welcome young guests, named Michele and Sam, home from school and unable-unwilling to stay in the house while Mum was tricked into a work meeting by an unexpected member of the Church staff who pretended to be just paying a visit; wheel-barrow race; and to finish it off, show of impressive acrobatics (any kind of flicks and capers) performed by the extremely talented skids, with Michele and Sam doing their very little bit when it was their turn, getting cheered anyway by the lovely boys. At the very end, Mattia left all the boys, M&S&skids, waiting in the church’s yard and ran to buy food. Reckless? No, he knows them well already and was sure that with the promise of food they would behave very well! And so they did: when he came back they were all there, same spot, all together, no problems!

Thanksgiving rhyme

God is… GREAT

God is… GOOD

We thank him for... OUR FOOD!

Rules

Number 1. Hands off, no punching, hitting, pushing, slapping…

Number 2. “Say please and thank you”

Number 3. Sharing (to be strictly adhered to when the two water bottles are handed out…)

Wild cheering

They like coming, they enjoy being taught, they eagerly wait to be handed their copybook, they have a great time with the little sport we do, but the biggest, spontaneous cheering came when from Mattia’s brown paper shopping bag emerged… pili-pili, the local cold sausages, which “teacher” had to cut and stuff in the pieces of bread as quickly as he could, before the kids eyeballs dropped on the floor and drowned in the puddle of water drooping from their open mouths…

Tasting a word and laughing at “teacher” (28/01/2015)

On Wednesdays, Mickey and Sam come back earlier, so the boys are invited from 1.00 to 2.00, a good opportunity to concentrate on food; one day, Mattia went for bread and cheese and was surprised to see that it was not as normal a choice as he thought: they knew it was “fromage” (in local language, borrowed from colonial French), but their experience of it, for some of them, stopped there, as it is not very expensive or rare, but still not the cheapest and widest available food, so not on their horizon; interesting to note were also the smiles on their faces and the giggling which accompanied Mattia’s cutting of the supplies: as Eraste explained (Mattia’s Kinyarwanda is not there yet), they couldn’t understand the process of cutting away the rind, for them a silly waste of edible material. Just for the records, apart for a few exceptions, they liked the new discovery, as not a single bit was left, rind included, and the next time Mattia asked them to guess what he had brought, a few wished it was cheese.

LeVeL: Low, Varied Level

As previously noted, they are between 12 and 16, but their last school grades, before they dropped out, were from 1^st to 5^th primary, which means some of them had just a few lessons, and can barely hold a pencil; others are a little ahead in writing but any English word is new to them; some have a surprisingly good handwriting… hard to plan a lesson, but whatever Mattia comes up with, they enjoy being “at school” again. A couple of them were also given by “teacher” a sheet and a pencil and asked to write lines of the letters of the alphabet and one came proudly back with a dusty, brownish piece of paper with faded marks, which proved to be his exercises (you can’t call it homework, without a home!) done, to Mattia’s delight.

Small but good

There might be hundreds of street children in Kigali, and a lot around here in Gikondo, so our average of 11 might not seem much, but it’s a very small project, just started, so we’re happy like this and the good thing is they seem constant and happy; we’ve bought copybooks and pencils (which we keep at the school not to lose them in a day or two), Mattia is “teacher” and most of the days we have our short lesson, which consists in learning words (actions, opposites…) and copying them from the board; on other occasion the snack becomes a sort of lunch and then there’s just time to play a little.

Food for thought... and stomach! (22/01/2015)

From the second day, Mattia has started bringing some food for the boys, who seemed to like it, and need it, a lot; Eraste, who’s always around when they come, confirmed it was a good idea, as it really hooks them!

This way the short time they spend here (from 3.15, when Mattia and Elena come back from Kinyarwanda lessons, to 4.35, when Michele and Sam come back from school) is starting to take shape, with some English (mostly words and simple sentences), some food (with prayer first) and some sport (races, relays…)

A bit of background

That was Mattia’s first, but not their first activity: Eraste started gathering them a couple of months ago after having them released from prison, where they were being kept for small thefts, by telling the officers he would run a project for them (yes, sounds weird handling of prisoners, but we guess it was not proper imprisonment either, no trial and sentence, just keeping them there for some time); the “project” meant that they came to the school a few afternoons in November and December; nothing special, but enough to lay the foundation of what we might do from now on: he knows them and where they usually live, they trust him and are grateful to him, they know the place and feel at ease when they come and most importantly he now has an idea of their situation and some contacts for their families.

A sudden start (21/01/2015)

After the first two weeks of settling and house-fitting, Mattia one day threw a hint at Eraste, just to reassure him that we’re not here just to adapt but to serve and that he hadn’t forgotten his promise to help him in his project: “Hi Eraste, tomorrow we might talk about the street children, I’m up for it!”.  The very next day, Elena comes in saying: “Mattia, Eraste asked me to tell you to go to the school, as the street children are there!” Not exactly the planning conversation he expected, but any start is welcomed after 20 days, so Mattia went to have his first meeting with about 10 kids, aged 12 to 16 and, after the introductions, lead a short and improvised English lesson, based on actions. All well that starts well…

A late idea (10/08/2014)

It was the bottom line of Mattia’s job description, added at the very last minute of our test-visit in August, when Eraste, director of the Amizero Special Needs School, caught Mattia’s interest by revealing his hopes of “doing something for street children”, his other big passion, beside the disabled, or before them, time-wise only, as he worked with street children for 15 years before shifting field and opening Amizero.