Catholic religious sisters are working to assist vulnerable girls on the streets of Nairobi, Kenya, by offering them friendship and a likelihood at education. It’s believed that around 60,000 families continue to exist the streets in Nairobi.
Sister Caroline Ngatia, of the Assumption Sisters of Eldoret, told Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that normally the moms of the vulnerable girls are on drugs.
Despite this, the sisters partner with the moms and if the ladies show a willingness to be rehabilitated they’re sent to a different organisation away from their families.
Sister Ngatia said, “Once they’re rehabilitated, we empower them economically, after which we reintegrate the ladies back with their families.
“Those who can’t be reintegrated with their relatives remain with us, so we take them to high school, we pay for his or her school fees, and we do numerous psycho-social support, because they’re girls who’ve been sexually abused within the streets, girls who’re infected with AIDS.”
When given the alternative the ladies prefer not to return to their old life on the streets.
“When we manage to rescue these girls there may be a complete transformation to becoming a greater person in society,” said Sister Ngatia.
“We encourage them to take education seriously, because only education can break that cycle of poverty.”
ACN has supported the sisters with construction projects and by providing scholarships for education.
Superior General Sister Joyce Nyagucha Ontune praised the work of her order, saying, “Because they’re well trained, they’ll run the projects well and we are able to see the fruits.”
She continued, “We even produce other organisations asking us to run their homes, because ours are doing well, since the sisters are expert.”
According to the US government, an estimated 1.6 million people in Kenya have HIV/AIDS, representing nearly three per cent of the population. It can be believed that over one million children in Kenya are orphans attributable to HIV/AIDS.
