Tens of thousands of children live on the streets of Nairobi without adult care. The goal of the project was to lift children out of the street environment and enable them to fully reintegrate into society. It ran from November 2010 to February 2012. It supported formal primary-school education at the Bosco Boys centre as well as numerous informal training courses (in agriculture, cooking, carpentry, welding) and leisure activities (sports competitions, cultural performances, educational trips, children’s camps and the like).
The 2011 school year (which runs from January to November) was completed by 329 pupils, with 34 eighth-graders sitting the final state exams. School fees were paid for 35 graduates at secondary and technical schools so that they could continue their studies. The children’s parents and relatives were also included in the project. Home visits by the social worker helped enrol 145 new boys, who had previously lived on the streets, in the centre’s rehabilitation programme. In early April 2011, Bosco Boys pupil Peter Mwaura visited Slovakia together with the centre’s director, Father Sebastian, SDB. On their tour of Slovakia they met many supporters of the Salesians’ missionary work in Stupava, Žilina, Námestovo, Prešov, Banská Bystrica and Bratislava. In February 2012 the Bosco Boys centre was visited by the Slovak Ambassador to Kenya, Michal Mlynár, who took part in the finale of the traditional Jesus Cup football tournament. On that occasion he unveiled a commemorative plaque thanking the project’s sponsors.
The project was supported from the state budget of the Slovak Republic through the official development assistance programme SlovakAid with the sum of EUR 135,000.
