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USAID Information:
External Links:
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Zambia
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Africa KidSAFE Alliance for Street Children
Implementing Partner: Project Concern International (PCI)
Funding Period: December 2004 - December 2007
Amount: $2,215,780
Purpose: Consolidate and expand a safety net of of NGOs and
community-based organizations to effectively meet the immediate and long-term needs of
children living on the street and otherwise vulnerable.
Accomplishments
- Provided over 2,300 orphans and vulnerable children with food and opportunities
for education and vocational training through the network partners each day: nearly
400 children have accessed shelter, counseling, medical care, and other material
support at centers.
- Contacted over 400 children living on the streets on a regular basis by means of an
inter-agency KidSAFE outreach team established in 2005.
- Provided over 1,000 street children with medical care on the streets through a newly
initiated Mobile Health Service (MHS) made possible through the private donation of a van.
- Reintegrated 329 children with their families.
- Trained 142 childcare workers in basic childcare qualifications.
- Developed a database of children in the centers and on the streets.
The information included assists in the development of an individualized
development plan for the child, including efforts to reintegrate the child with
his or her family or other community setting, and in identifying the most
appropriate short-term placement options for the child (over 100 children are
currently entered).
- Instituted weekly case review meetings to discuss twelve to fifteen child cases with the outreach team,
mobile health team, PCI/MCDSS Reintegration Officer and others; specific plans for follow up for each child
are determined, including referral and/or reintegration plans.
- Developed a comprehensive life skills training curriculum, including video and
facilitators guide, based on a drama developed and acted by street children;
Twelve trainers were trained, and seventy-five children at five centers have
participated in the ten-module workshop.
- Expanded the KidSAFE network to include additional partners in Lusaka and new partners in
Kabwe, Ndola, and Kitwe.
- Promoted private sector involvement through sponsorship and training opportunities,
including the KidSAFE children’s soccer league launched in 2006 and a center-based
bakery initiative in coordination with National Milling Corp.
- Trained KidSAFE partner staff on conducting street outreach, family tracing and
reintegration, psychosocial support, program management, advocacy, community mobilization,
microfinance, and social entrepreneurship.
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Zambia is at the epicenter of a catastrophic global increase in the number of orphaned and vulnerable children.
High levels of poverty in the country are destroying the families and extended family systems that have
traditionally cared for vulnerable children.
Orphaned or other vulnerable children, particularly those from poor households, have no option but to
turn to the streets to support themselves, their siblings, or their families. Poverty and economic
hardship in the home, frequently linked to parental mortality, is the primary “push” factor causing
children to become street active. Less important but still significant “push” factors in Zambia
include neglect or abuse in the home, and a lack of opportunity for schooling, other training, or
income generation. A significant proportion of children on the streets are there as a result of
pressure from peers, avoiding school, or due to the draw of the opportunity for making money,
living independently, or drug addiction.
The number of children on the streets in Zambia has increased significantly since the first cases were
recognized in the 1990s, and particularly in the past ten years. Between 6,400 and 15,400, children sleep or
spend unsupervised time on the streets, and many more children are at risk of moving to the streets due to
extreme vulnerability in the home.
Children on the street are less likely to attend school, and are exposed to violence, physical, sexual, and
verbal abuse, and other threats to their physical health, including substance abuse. Their need to support
themselves makes street children more likely to engage in high-risk behaviors, leaving them vulnerable to
HIV/AIDS. For most of these children, their emotional well-being—their sense of identity and self worth, of
being important members of society—also suffers greatly through life on the streets. Without assistance,
the future security of these children is seriously jeopardized, a cycle of poverty and vulnerability is
perpetuated, and the productivity and viability of future generations and society overall are threatened.
Since 2004, USAID’s Displaced Children and Orphans Fund has supported Africa KidSAFE, a network of local
organizations formed by Project Concern International and Fountain of Hope to provide street- and facility-based
support to children who spend all or part of their days or nights on the streets.
The KidSAFE network currently includes sixteen active implementing organizations, with participation
from numerous other local NGOs and CBOs, and regular input from government ministries. Through KidSAFE,
PCI works with these partners to identify and support children on the streets, to reunite children living
on the streets with their families where feasible and desirable, or to refer them to other secure
community-based living arrangements where their physical, emotional, and developmental needs can be met.
Increasingly, the network has been working to prevent other children from ending up on the streets by
strengthening the capacity of families to care for them.
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