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We met Rosa* after finding her children, 10-year-old Esther* and her eight-year-old brother Kelvin*, sitting on the pavement on the side of the food market eating a rotten watermelon.

They had both been beaten up by older youths for picking discarded food out of the bins and it was clear neither had eaten properly for a long time.

We took them home and met their mum, so ill she could hardly get out of bed.

She needed urgent medical care, but once she began to recover we helped her set up a small garden and start growing crops to feed her family.

It has been so successful that she now sells what they don’t eat and both children are happy, healthy and thriving.

Esther and Kelvin have also been learning how to grow vegetables and help their mum in the garden.

In Tanzania many thousands of children fight for survival on the streets – facing violence, abuse and exploitation. For many, the main reason they end up in that situation is due to poverty. Parents that cannot successfully provide enough food for their family are more likely to find their children leave home – desperate to find a better life, even though the reality is often far worse.

Giving families a way to grow a small amount of crops to feed themselves is crucial to keeping their children from the streets.

 

*Names and identities have been changed