An education can help children rewrite their future
In Mwanza, Tanzania’s second largest city, almost 900 children struggle to survive on the streets amid violence, abuse and exploitation. Education could provide a way off the streets and out of poverty for these children. Yet without the essentials they need, the safety and hope of a classroom remains out of reach.
A gift of £26 could change all that by providing a child with the uniform, school shoes and books they need to go back to school.
The chance to go to school opens a brighter, safer chapter for children on the streets.
I want to change a child's story >From Streets to Success
When Benjamin* was ten years old, he ran away from violence at home only to find that life was far worse on the streets, where he faced daily beatings, hunger and abuse.
Worst of all, on the streets, Benjamin was locked out of the education system that could provide a way out of poverty and abuse. Without uniform, shoes and books, school was simply inaccessible to him.
Thankfully, Railway Children's outreach workers found Benjamin and were able to reunite him with his mother and get him back into school.
Benjamin is now thriving and doing well in school. He said:
I want to work hard and help my siblings and mother
But for every child like Benjamin, hundreds more children are still on the street and locked out of education.
Every day that a child spends on the streets takes them further away from the change that education could bring. Studies show that missing just one year of school leads to a 9% drop in income for children later in life**. And in a country like Tanzania, where half the population live on less than $2 per day, that’s catastrophic.
But thanks to you, we have outreach workers on the streets of Tanzania and Child Help Desks in bus stations. So we can get to children like Benjamin before they became entrenched in street life and locked out of the education system for good. Our proven approach of supporting children for as long as they need, helping families find solutions to their problems and working with schools on reintegration, means we’re ready to help more children rewrite their futures.
But we can’t do it without your continued support.
With your help, we can provide children with the essentials they need to write the next, brighter chapter of their lives.
You can provide children with the essentials they need to write the next, brighter chapter of their lives
*Name changed
**G.Psacharopoulos & H.A. Patrinos, 2018