With an aim to deter street children from entering crime, artisans in Kamukunji’s Jua Kali market in Nairobi has initiated a programme to train street children for free and later offer jobs to them…
According to Tom Mboya, Kamukunji Jua Kali Association Secretary General, the skills offered to the urchins will be instrumental in enabling them earn a living
Speaking yesterday, he added the venture also served as a training centre for pupils who were not able to get post-high school education or those who did not get the necessary grades to transition to high school.
“Some of the children dropped out of school in grade eight because they did not get the grades to be enrolled in high school among many other reasons,” Mboya stated.
He said that after the training, the apprentices continue working with them at the market, allowing them to practice their skills and gain more experience.
Due to lack of any skills and basic education many street children results in committing crime to feed and sustain themselves.
Approximately 300,000 children and young people are estimated to be living on the streets in Kenya. Of these, about 60,000 live in Nairobi.
Around half of them aged between eleven to fifteen years old while children below the age of five constitute 7 percent of the known total.
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