A few months ago Agape started the drop-in center for street kids. The volunteers who were there before me did a wonderful job together with the kids of fixing up the place. Innocent is responsible for the drop-in center and I have a lot of respect for her. In the first two weeks I was there I have been observing the place and I tried to help wherever I could. I have also been on an outreach (I will tell you more about an outreach in another blog) twice.

The drop-in is there to offer the kids from the street some education and other skills and a lunch. But I had noticed very quickly that most kids only showed up for lunch or a little bit before that. The first days I was there there were only about five/six kids at the time I arrived (from who two live in the drop-in center and two young kids from the neighborhood). At around 11 am the kids slowly started to come in. Sometimes there was a lesson, sometimes they offered craft and sometimes they just played soccer outside.

During the outreaches I asked Innocent how we could get the kids to come earlier. Innocent said that we needed a pull factor but she did not really know what.

So I thought about it a lot. For me it was quite obvious that they needed some structure in there. Kids need to know what they can expect when they come, but just structured lesson times would not get them to come earlier I was afraid. But it was also clear to me that food was the biggest pull factor. The biggest number of kids was always achieved around lunchtime.
So I made a plan, which starts with offering them breakfast and then after breakfast a structure up till lunch to keep the kids there all morning. (Around 2/3 pm the kids always go back to the streets to make money and to find a place to spend the night). I first discussed this plan with Innocent and Philip (another social worker who works in both the drop-in center and the home) and both of them were really enthusiastic and thought it could work. After that I spoke with the ‘big boss’ of the center and the home and he said that I could give it a try. But Agape is completely reliable of funding and money of course is always an issue. So I offered to pay for it the first weeks to see if it would work and that he could try to realize the funding in these two weeks to guarantee the proceeding of the program after I leave. He agreed and promised me that if it would work well he would make sure he would arrange the money for the breakfast.

So that is when I started. Monday the 15^th we offered breakfast for the first time. The Friday before, we informed the kids and we told them to be there between 9 and 10 am to get breakfast, after 10 they do not get breakfast anymore. Innocent said to me that they would arrange black tea with sugar for every kid and I would buy the buns.

That Monday the 15^th there were about 18 (!!) kids when I came at 9am. And the number increased up till 25. During this week the numbers of kids kept on increasing and this morning there were 48 (!!!) kids. This means the plan is definitely working and we are all very enthusiastic. It also means that the social workers there and we as volunteers need to be creative in offering them all lessons on there own level and offering them interesting crafts lessons and they need enough material. But luckily I got some really generous gifts from you back home who responded to my request to help me, help the center, which enables me to buy a lot of material for the coming months. So THANKS to everyone who was so generous to help me, help the center.

Last week I started together with Moses, one of the older kids who is there from the beginning, to paint the structure on the wall in the center so it is clear for all the kids and Moses finished it while I was on safari, he did a great job!!! (See pictures)

I am proud, to be honest, to see my plan has worked up till now. The kids are getting lessons every day now and every day there is an (craft) activity organized. I hope it will keep on being successful and that they will keep the structure of the day even when I am gone next week. But there are other volunteers who will be there longer then me and they will keep me updated.