General

A long time ago, when Rafiki Mwema first opened its doors and took vulnerable and abused girls into our house, we worked on a safeguarding policy to protect our vulnerable children. We sought advice and guidance and adopted a policy that we have adhered to ever since. We have never shared a picture and a story of a girl, where there is any chance that her identity could be established. We work with our children always; about information we share and information we don’t. Funnily enough, all our children love that the world knows they have had a really tough time, and yet still love and support them, as you all do. 

We recently spent time addressing our Safeguarding Policy, something we do every year, and decided that we would no longer share our children’s given names, even to their sponsors. Our family all know their pseudo names and are delighted to receive letters and post addressed to their ‘Rafiki name’. We will also make the assumption that people know the reasons that our children are in our family, and with this in mind, we will never share a child’s ‘story’ or information on anything that happened to them and we will instead share their characteristics and tell you about who they are and what their likes and dislikes are. 

This is not at all about not trusting our beautiful sponsors with the children’s stories, but more about continuing to protect their online identity. If you already have access to their names and stories, we know you will continue to honour and respect them, exactly as you have always done.

At Rafiki Mwema we are constantly visiting and evaluating our policies and will always be looking at ways we safely share information, at the same time let you know just how much we love and are thankful for all you do.

Without you we simply can’t do what we are doing

The feeding program is one of the most wonderful parts of our project and something we know is needed and valued. These are children and young people who have nothing and in the times of COVID-19 are at huge risk of starving to death as well as risking their lives with the many simple injuries that we might take for granted if they happened to us.

As well as feeding our street family, we also make sure that they have access to medical and dental care. We have ensured that our boys have their many injuries attended to; we have given them access to antibiotics through the hospitals who wouldn’t treat them before; we have taken them to have broken bones fixed and illness attended to and medicated. We had one young boy screaming in agony when he had an ulcer under one of his teeth. He couldn’t eat or sleep and we don’t know what would have happened if we hadn’t been there to help him.

We have helped a very vulnerable mama and her four-month-old son leave the streets and return to a healthier and safer way of living in a small house in town.

Our staff spend their days with the boys. They don’t just turn up to organise their food. They arrange showers and washing facilities for their bodies and clothes. They sing, they dance, and they chat while some boys share their heart wrenching stories. The boys look forward to them arriving at their base camp in town and they look like a big, slightly dysregulated family.

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So how did it all go so wrong one day last week?

Why was one of our beloved Aunties targeted and attacked by the very boys she has recently dedicated her life to?

Why was she hidden in a small kiosk because of the risk to her life until the danger had passed?

The day started like all the days at the feeding project with check-in, singing, storytelling and laughter, until one of the boys who attended the big boys project arrived and was acting very angry towards the small boys. He sought out our Aunty Conci and grabbed her phone. He and two friends, who are not part of our project, started to man-handle her and scream at her. They threatened her life and looked ready to carry that threat out. The boy, who we had helped with medical treatment as well as food was furious, high on drugs and dysregulated. He believed that Conci had laughed at him a few days earlier when he had an altercation with a member of the public.

But she didn’t see this coming. No-one did. This boy had been angry a few days previously and it was Conci that sat with him until he was calm. But today he was out for blood and that blood pumped inside Conci. She was terrified and without the prompt reaction of other staff and other boys we could be reporting a very different story.

The project shielded Conci and got her away from danger. We have our therapeutic team caring for and helping her. We had to close the feeding program for a few days whilst we thought what was the best way to support and care for our staff as well as our boys. If the staff had refused to return, we would have understood. But they haven’t. They all met (social distancing and with masks) and decided that Rafiki Mwema needed to employ a local man who helped us that day and is often around, who the boys like but also respect. When he is there the levels of disruption are minimal. He is not aggressive but is known to the boys and his presence helps keep control.

So feeding is resumed from today with a new member on our team. We will monitor and address difficulties as they arise as always. We will have meetings and trainings to minimise the risk. But the risk is real. We are talking about a community who deal with altercations with their own court and doesn’t back down from conflict.

And yet these are the same boys that shed tears for what was threatened to Conci; who are outraged at what happened towards someone they care about. These are the families that are sending messages of support and sorrow to our team. Who wait for the program to reopen its gates to get the food and the connection they so desperately need. We thank our staff and pray for their safety and will not hesitate to close if anyone’s life is at risk.

We have launched our Rafiki Feeding Program sponsorship over on our website here where you can make a donation of any amount. If you sign up for a monthly donation of any amount you will receive an email each month to update you of our achievements thanks to the funding provided by our wonderful sponsors.

Life working with our boys who survive in town is a mixture of joy and fear. Many people are just not really ‘cut out’ for this work while others shine so very bright, we are dazzled by them.

Today we had a training session with our outside staff, those who are not living-in the farm during lockdown. Today I heard a story that I want to share with you about why we know we have some of the best staff members in the world.

All our children are split into two groups; our older boys and our younger boys. This story comes from our young boys, boys as young as five or six years who have no family to care for them, no home to live in, no-one to check on them. They live in street families and they live a hard, violent, frightening life. Schooling doesn’t happen. Meals don’t happen. Violence at the hands of other street families and the police does. The government don’t support them; they chase them away when they become too many and they treat them like rats that plague the town. They are labelled dangerous and are often horse-whipped when they sleep, simply for being alive.

Their lives are tougher than you could ever imagine. Their lives are short and full of fear. They sniff glue to stop them from feeling the pain of being alone; the pain of sleeping on the cold wet streets during the rainy season; the pain of hunger; the pain of fear; the pain of losing any hope of love and help.

Rafiki Mwema came along when the world turned their backs. The community saw the street families as being carriers of COVID19, as ruining their business; they represented everything they feared about themselves, so they tried to drive them away.

Rafiki Mwema brought them a meal each day, a hot cooked meal that was so much more than food. It was a meal that said, ‘We see you’ It said, ‘We care’ and so much more. Through our daily feeding program with 80 children and young people who sleep rough and scared, relationships have been built and developed. Some are yet to feel real for our boys who fear and trust no-one. Everyday our amazing team turn up to play football; to hear their stories; to feed them and to care.

Yesterday one of our young boys arrived as always. His head was crawling with lice, so many that it seemed his hair had turned white. He walked towards Conci, who has been with the small boys so long they see her as their Mama. It could have been an obvious thing for her to move slightly away from him, for her to focus on his moving hair; to show him distaste or fear. But she didn’t. She sat down on the ground next to him and chatted to him about his day and how he was doing. She showed an interest in his life. And she, one by one, removed the lice on his head, crushed them between her fingers, and said that it seemed like it might be good to get his hair shaved. She was gentle and caring; she was loving and kind. This young boy was relaxed and had no shame. He trusted that he was accepted exactly as he was. And that was true.

In that moment, every single cent that you donate accumulated in our small boy feeling alive again. Feeling he was more than a target for abuse. That he was wanted. That he was loved.

That is priceless. Thank you for giving these unwanted children hope. Thank you for bringing their souls to life.

{We are still feeding the children in town everyday whilst funds allow.  If you would like to contribute towards this campaign you can do so via the donation form online and just mention in the comments it is for the feeding/football project in town}

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