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Mission Society missionary Michael Agwanda coordinates Life for Children Ministry (LCM) in Kenya, which he founded. This outreach provides food, housing, healthcare, education, and spiritual nourishment to the children with whom it works. Through LCM, orphans are reintegrated into loving homes with their extended families.

Here, a LCM partner shares the plight of street children in Kenya, and how you can help.

Kisumu is the third-largest city in Kenya, boasting a population of approximately 400,000 people. The street child population is estimated to exceed 2,000.

If you were to walk the streets of downtown Kisumu, you would see a number of boys helping motorists find a parking place and waiting patiently for their expected tips. Walk a little further to the fringes of the city, and Lake Victoria appears with numerous seafood restaurants on the banks. Linger for a few minutes, and you will see the boys here as well, trying to persuade patrons eating at the outdoor tables to give them their leftovers.

As you walk past the restaurants, there are cars and trucks parked at the edge of the water. Street children congregate here in hopes that they can help someone by washing their car and hopefully earn a few shillings. You will also see numerous boys, chest deep in the lake, washing their clothes and bathing themselves.

Another popular hangout for the homeless children is the bus station. This is where buses from many other cities throughout Kenya stop to pick up or unload riders. This is a very busy area and attracts many small vendors selling everything from clothes to food. The boys here are also doing whatever they can to earn a few shillings.

In the life of a street child, if you do not make a little money, you do not eat. Many of the children who work in this area also call this home. The activity around the bus station is much slower at night, so the kids find this an ideal spot to sleep because of the shelter it provides with concrete floors and partial roofs. Also, with few people around at night, it is much safer for them.

Another popular spot for those who do not mind hard work is the city dump. Perhaps 30 boys and young men call the dump home. Here they work all day, searching for scraps of metal, glass, or anything that can be sold to businesses that can use them. Then the boys share the meager proceeds of the sales with others. They also scavenge food scraps and any materials that can be burned. They are always searching for large boxes or pieces of plastic to make a covering to ward off the chill of the night spent sleeping on the streets or in the dump.

Most of the street boys treat the other boys like family. They welcome them to share their sleeping spots as well as share their food. However, like any large group, stealing takes place, and older boys take advantage of the younger boys rather than trying to find work. Trying to survive on little food and primitive sleeping conditions takes its toll. If you spot the boys at night, most will have a plastic bottle that contains glue, which they sniff to help them escape their hunger and to help them fall asleep easily on their makeshift beds.

Unfortunately, evil flourishes on these dark streets. Like large cities in America and all around the world, the streets of Kisumu have attracted predators who find the young boys as easy targets. Sadly, there are more and more reports of the boys being given money for food in exchange for sexual favors.

Regardless of where the street children work or sleep, they are always on the lookout for police. They never know when they will be arrested and/or beaten for violating the loitering laws.

Life for the Kisumu street boys is very rough, but Sunday is a different story! Between 100 and 200 boys gather each week for the LCM feeding and worship program. The boys are given a hot meal and hear about the love of God, many for the first time. As funds permit, the boys also receive a bar of soap and medicine to treat their wounds and illnesses.

The boys on the streets of Kisumu are truly blessed by Life for Children Ministry. It is our prayer that, as the funds for this ministry increase, more boys will be blessed and given the hope of life off the streets.