According to a 2012 UNICEF report, more than 250,000 children live on the streets in Kenya, including more than 60,000 in Nairobi. As in Dagoretti, a low-income neighbourhood of Nairobi, poverty lures many children into homelessness. They are known as ‘chokoraa’; a nickname derived from ‘garbage eaters’, because the children – most of them boys – survive by scavenging through people’s trash looking for food. The children are used for most of the menial jobs at the Dagoretti open-air market, such as collecting garbage, cleaning filthy public toilets and transporting heavy loads throughout the market. The wages they receive for this are barely enough to afford them a decent meal. At night, they sleep on porches and sidewalks, covered in bags and plastic, clustering together to stay warm, while the boys take turns staying awake to watch for danger.

Life on the streets of Dagoretti is mainly about survival, without any ambition in life. The street children lack any purpose due to their alienation from mainstream society. Street children are denied an identity by the way they are treated by other people. But the situation for these children is not completely hopeless. But it’s not entirely a hopeless situation. With small, persistent efforts they can be helped to realise their own utmost potential.

The street children from Dagoretti have now found their way to the training centre, (the tam-tam is doing its job) and the centre, is being expanded step by step with new vocational training courses, such as shoemaking, bicycle repairing and hairdressing.

The Levozy Self Help Group is an organization that supports street children and school dropouts in Dagoretti by providing them with education and healthcare, and aiming to reduce their poverty by helping them generate income. The organization was founded in 2010. In a small vocational training centre, built in the simplest way from galvanized corrugated iron sheets, the Levozy Self Help Group has since offered about 50 street children vocational training as car mechanics, electricians, and tailors. The teachers are all professionals who transfer their years of experience to these young people. The Van Doorn Foundation helped them in 2016 to convert a corrugated iron workshop into real classrooms and workshops, and the Dutch organization ‘Tools to Work’ supplied tools for the training courses in 2017.

After part of a corrugated iron workshop was converted into two classrooms in 2016, and Levozy SHG had developed a curriculum and training modules for the training centre, in 2017, they received additional tools from the Tools To Work Foundation in 2018 for the car mechanic, metalworking and tailoring.

A small expansion took place in 2020 and two more classrooms were built for woodworking and shoemaking courses. The training centre was also equipped with adequate sanitary facilities for the growing number of students.

This project aims to build a carpentry workshop (so that practical woodworking lessons can be given there, and the number of woodworking students can be increased), and to set up a hairdressing, shoemaking, and bicycle repair training courses.

With this expansion, a substantial part of their business plan is realized, the capacity of the training centre, will be expanded by 30 students (street children) and formal government recognition for this informal training centre, will be in sight.

Levozy SHG developed a business plan for the training centre in 2020. The plan pays attention to the efficient operation of the centre, achieving sustainability and guaranteeing the quality of the programs. With the services provided by the students (car repair, shoe repair) and products made (clothing, windows, doors, and furniture), the training centre generates income that can be used to pay for the running cost of the centre.

Once the training centre meets the quality standards for informal vocational education, students can participate in skills exams of the National Industrial Training Authority (NITA) and become certified technicians (with a craft or artisan certificate).

The construction of a carpentry workshop and setting up a hairdressing, shoemaking and bicycle repair training costs € 4,600 excluding running costs. Levozy SHG will cover the running costs and will also provide skilled and unskilled labour for the construction of the carpentry workshop (valued at €600). Levozy SHG therefore only requests support to purchase the necessary building materials, training equipment and tools.

Van Doorn Foundation is looking for sponsors for the €4,000 needed for this!