Posts Tagged ‘Street Children’

When Sister Christa Marsik, one of the Adrian Dominican Sisters working at St. Clare, arrived, she brought with her professional counseling skills and set up a counseling program at St. Clare. The children at St. Clare have heroic stories that recount how they survived on the streets, how they managed to escape from early marriages and female genital mutilation,  how they endured years of mistreatment, along with questions about their future, etc. Sister Christa is there to listen and help the children sort out these experiences so these events do not become obstacles to their growth and development. Here Sister Christa is talking with  a Form II girl in make-shift office at St. Clare.

The Children’s Village is at full capacity but there are still hundreds of children living on the streets. Each week Fr. Riwa attempts to give them one “good” meal. This meal usually consists of bread and a carton of milk.

Fr. Riwa will tell one of the children the time and location of the feeding. It is usually late at night otherwise, due to the poverty in Kenya, many who are not street children would show up just to get some food.

Hundreds of orphaned street children show up and the process is amazingly orderly. When Fr. Riwa arrives he leads them in a grace before meals and then asks them all to sit down in rows and he distributes the food one at a time.

One volunteer said, “This is an incredible experience. I will  never forget this moment.” Another volunteer noted, “I am surprised I am not afraid surrounded by all these street children, but with Fr. Riwa here, it is so peaceful and orderly.”