Street Kids

I hardly know where to start. I will try to recap.

Section 1: Street Kids

I have been touched by all the street kids around Likasi. I started inquiring about who is helping these kids. Maybe social welfare or some government program is available. Maybe a church is doing something to help them. Perhaps an NGO or non profit. Maybe just ordinary Congolese people are doing something. The story that really touched me was Francois a 12 year old boy with a peg leg. He was abandoned by his parents as a child because of his disability. He just wasn’t worth the effort. He has never been to school. He spends his days sitting under a Jacaranda tree about a kilometer from where he sleeps at the start of town. He mostly just sits there hoping someone will give him some food. I realized the kids go somewhere at night and finally tracked down where it was.

That’s when I met Mama Betty a Catholic sister who has been working with these kids for 17 years. Seventeen years ago she heard about a baby girl named Linda whose parents both died of cholera and she had no one to care for her. Mama Betty was heart broken and took her in. From there it has grown and now she helps 207 kids. She does everything a Congolese person can do. She has a field, the older kids are street venders, using an old bus for public transportation, but it isn’t enough. The kids go hungry and only about half of them are in school. So the kids go out to the streets to beg for food. Mama Betty had tears in her eyes as she showed me the rooms and explained they sleep 4 kids to a bed (no mattresses on the beds) and more are just on the floor. She can’t take in new kids but she does anyways because it is so heart breaking. Rainy season has started so what choice does she have. The kids walk around with worn out clothes and no shoes asking for a piece of bread or anything you can spare.

It is beyond overwhelming. There are just so many of them. Even at $10 a kid for 207 kids is $2070 far more than I have. I bought them a soccer ball and I’ve never seen the kids so happy. They played and played while other kids looked on jealously since I had bought them a nice ball and the other kids had to play with their homemade trash balls made from old plastic bags. Normally helping street kids is very difficult in Africa. A huge advantage here is many of these kids have been influenced or even raised by Mama Betty who has taught them Christian values. I want to help these kids. I am praying for the wisdom and means to do so. Please pray with me.

Section 2: Christian Education

I am out of time so this is to come.