Home  Meet the project coordinator The Youth Overhauled project

Although the street child is still living on the streets, some few organizations have put in some effort to help these needy children. In March 2000, the Mayor of Kampala - Ssebana Kizito called a news conference where he stressed that the number of street children has increased to 4000 <four thousand>, he went further ahead to call upon the government of Uganda, organizations and the like to help in the struggle to reduce their numbers. Below we have managed to meet some project facilitator who have put in a lot of efforts to help these needy children. These Organizations include: Friends Of Children' Association (F.O.C.A)- This is an organization which undertakes to cater for the street child F.O.C.A [friends of children' Association) is located on Namirembe road in the heart of the city opposite to the pride theatre. In the interviews we had with the street children, they told us that this organization at times provides with them food, clothing, medicine and the like. It also under takes to : - Resettle street children. - Provide accommodation. - Provide education etc. F.O.C.A [friends of children' Association) has spent 14 years of service in helping these needy children. Friends Of Children Association. P.O.Box 10352, Tel: 236156 Kampala 2. The Kampala City Council (K.C.C): The Kampala city council (K.C.C) has also put in some efforts to help the street child. This has been characterized by the mayor's looking for funds from non - governmental bodies from outside and inside Uganda. He has also managed to set up projects aimed at resettling street children, among these include the Natete Street Children Resettling Programme - The Kampala City Council bought a piece of land in Natete, on this one, a resettlement home is going to be set up which shall cater for street children from mainly Kampala city. It has also gone ahead to allocate probation offices in each and every division in Kampala city Council i.e. Nakawa, Central, Kawempe, Makindye, Rubaga 3. Department Of Probation & Welfare Mwanga ii road Kampala This organization also works hand in hand with other sister organizations like Family and Children's Court, Uganda Foster Care and Adoption Center & U.C.O.B.A.T 4. The Rev. Kepha Ssempangi Foundation. This foundation was found by Kepha Ssempangi. Its headquarters are in Mukono and it caters for street children, victims of violence ,orphans etc. This organization is popular for its devotion towards the children rights in Kampala ,Mukono and Uganda at large. It achieved this popularity mainly by adopting Enoch Ssebanga whose rights were abused by his parents. 5. UNESCO 6. UNICEF 7. MINISTRY OF GENDER, LABOR AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT. FOREWORD FROM THE MINISTRY OF GENDER, LABOUR AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT. According to research carried out by Dr. Munene concerning street children, in 1993 there were approximately 4,000 street children in ten major urban centers in Uganda. Today, we have reasons to believe that the number has increased significantly, although there is a lack of comparable survey and figures documenting the increase. The Ministry of Gender, Labour and social Development has felt the need to respond to this issue and therefore established the street children’s desk in 1995. This desk was charged with the responsibility of monitoring and co-ordinating street initiatives countrywide. In the beginning of the 1990’s, organizations dealing with street children were using institutional and handout oriented approaches, which might have attracted even more children to the streets with the hope of receiving material assistance. At that time, the Ministry saw a need to establish practiced guidelines for people working with street children. In 1997 a consultative process of documented experiences of different organizations had their “Do’s and Don’ts” was started with the purpose of formulating standard guidelines to assist all agencies dealing with street children. The guidelines are based on exciting government laws and policies, namely the children’s statute (1996) and the local government Act (1997). These laws and policies emphasis the responsibility of the parents and have given large degree of responsibility for the welfare of children to the local authorities. The local authority find the phenomenon of street children problematic, largely because it is a recent phenomenon which still requires extensive research into workable approaches, however their resources to accomplish this are limited. These practice guidelines which have incorporated District and NGO input, will assist the local authorities in working with street children. They provide a range of preventive and interceptive mechanisms for assisting the vulnerable group of children. These guidelines will also be used to supplement other training packages dealing with children in especially difficult circumstances. I would like to thank the members of the National Street Children Committee the ministry staff, and especially the street children desk, for their support and input. Lastly, we wish to thank all indigenous and international NGOs as well as governmental agencies who are supporting Uganda in addressing the problem of street children. I acknowledge the financial and material support, as well as the technical input received from our many partners, in general and in particular, the Germany Development Service, Germany Technical Co-operation, The Education for the street child project. Without their assistance the process of formulating these guidelines would have been areas uphill task.