In October 2019, Hivisasa published a story about the growing plight of homeless mothers in Uasin Gishu’s Eldoret. With urbanization, several towns in Kenya are now grappling with the challenge of homeless families. In Kenya, the most affected cities are Nairobi, Kisumu, and Mombasa.
However, the problem of homeless street families is also being manifested in other growing towns like Eldoret and Nakuru. According to The New Humanitarian, the Kenyan street family population stands at over 300,000.
Homeless families usually face an array of problems such as diseases and harassment by authorities. At the same time, a new challenge is manifesting in the name of homeless mothers living on the streets.
Hivisasa has highlighted some of the challenges faced by these young homeless mothers living in Eldoret. In this case, the mothers experience challenges like lack of contraception, exposure to HIV/AIDS, lack of immunization, and lack of prenatal and postnatal care.
Most of the mothers rely on well-wishers for necessities like food and medicine. In Eldoret, organizations like the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital have been on the forefront to offer contraceptives to these mothers.
Most of the street mothers like other street children usually get involved in begging, pick-pocketing, drug trafficking, child prostitution, scavenging, directing motorists to parking spaces, and hawking or selling several articles of uncertain origin.
Child Rescue Kenya which operates in parts of Western Kenya and Rift Valley has also been involved in attempting to offer health services to street families and rural areas.CRK has initiated several projects to tackle malaria, typhoid, pre and post-natal clinics, immunization programs, STD treatment, and family planning advice and services.
The organization uses community clinics to reach these families.CRK has also made attempts to stop children from moving to the streets where they become more vulnerable.
The organization is making interventions at street and community level to preempt children moving to the streets, offer support and opportunities for those who have made a move and positively change the way others perceive them. CRK has also established rescue centers for homeless mothers where they get access to health care and HIV/AIDS awareness.
Other entities like Kenya Children of Hope have a different approach to repatriating street mothers back to society. KCH aims to determine the cause of children finding their way on the streets first before working on modalities to repatriate them.
Plan International in Kenya has long had programs towards ending teen pregnancy in Kenya’s vulnerable populations. Despite these efforts, there is still a lot to be done. This problem needs urgent attention since it is a threat to the social fabric.