Kenya: Help for girls living on the streets: Misereor

There are millions of street children in Africa. The ‘Rescue Dada Centre’ in Nairobi provides some of them with shelter, a sense of security and a future.

With your donation, you are giving girls prospects – for education, safety and Misereor’s work around the world.

Continent

Africa

Thematic focus:

Building equitable cities

In Kenya, many girls live on the streets under difficult conditions - without protection, prospects or access to education. Especially in the capital Nairobi, poverty and violence characterise daily life. Girls living on the streets are particularly vulnerable and often victims of violence and sexual exploitation. Many of them flee from precarious family circumstances, but an even harder life often awaits them on the streets.

The Rescue Dada Centre (RDC) has been providing a safe haven for girls living on the streets for many years. Here, they receive psychosocial support and are given a new outlook on life. Despite political unrest, flooding and economic challenges, more and more children are able to leave life on the streets behind them and find a stable, supportive environment.

Many girls are able to return to their families or find a foster family.

Children's rights are written on the façade of the Rescue Dada Centre.

The heartfelt attention is particularly important for the former street girls.

The young girls are delighted with the support from Germany.

At the Rescue Dada Centre, the girls can be children again

On the grounds of the Rescue Dada Centre, the girls have time for sport, relaxation and learning together.

Play and physical activity are an integral part of everyday life at the centre and foster a sense of community, trust and stability.

Individual support as part of everyday life at the centre: staff provide close support to the girls and help them develop their skills step by step.

Psychosocial support is a key part of the work: conversations help people to come to terms with their experiences and develop new perspectives.

The Rescue Dada Centre has its own vegetable garden. Here, the children play an active part in tending the garden and learn how to grow healthy food and why a balanced diet is important.

Veronica completed a training course with the help of the Rescue Dada Centre and now works in a hairdressing salon.

Today, Veronica is standing on her own two feet. Through her work at the hairdressing salon, she is able to earn her own living and shape her own future.

Daily life at the Dandora rubbish dump: for many families, collecting recyclables is their only source of income.

Lessons at the Rescue Dada Centre: Children who previously had no access to education catch up on missed lessons here and are prepared for reintegration into school.

Freshly prepared meals are part of the care provided at the Rescue Dada Centre. For many girls, regular meals are not something they can take for granted.

The Rescue Dada Centre offers more than just a safe home. Lessons delivered by qualified teachers help the children to fill gaps in their knowledge and enable them to return to school after their stay.

Kariobangi is an informal settlement in Nairobi and home to many of the children supported by the Rescue Dada Centre.

Stronger together: The girls in the Rescue Dada programme experience a sense of community, support and new prospects for the future.

A safe place to sleep in the city centre: structure and stability are important steps towards a return to a normal daily routine.

Living conditions in the areas surrounding the projects: Many families live in informal settlements in difficult conditions near the rubbish tip.

The Rescue Dada Centre has been offering these girls a place of refuge since 1991. It supports girls aged between 5 and 16 by providing medical, therapeutic and educational assistance. Often, it is at the RDC that the girls find someone who will listen to them for the first time and respond to their personal needs. The aim is to give the girls long-term prospects and to reintegrate them into a stable environment. The involvement and support of their families are particularly important in this regard. Parents also receive support and have the opportunity to work on themselves. Ideally, the girls will then return to their families feeling stronger.

That was the case with Brenda, for example. She lived on the streets with her mother and eight siblings. The family scoured shopping centres and rubbish dumps for food and money. When Brenda met a social worker from the Rescue Dada Centre in 2023, her life changed. She received counselling, was enrolled back in school, and her mother was given support to set up a small business.

Your donation helps to give girls like Brenda a better future.

77 girls have been successfully reintegrated
Six girls are currently in training
71 girls are attending secondary school
Around 600 hours of therapy were provided
38 girls and women qualified as beauticians; 30 of them found employment straight away
40 small businesses were set up

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27 €

225 €

282 €

300 €

€ *

For example, accommodation and meals for a girl at the Rescue Dada Centre cost 27 euros a month.

When making a donation by bank transfer, please quote the reference ‘S63101/Kenya Girls’ in the payment reference field. This lets us know which project is particularly close to your heart; your contribution will be used as a general donation towards this work and Misereor’s overall global mission.

To ensure that your donation has an impact in the long term, Misereor uses a small proportion for important administration an related tasks. This way, we make sure that projects are selected carefully and implemented responsibly and that their effects are regularly monitored. Should it not be possible to use your donation as planned, we will use it where it is currently needed most.

Our local partner organisations

Rescue Dada Centre

Misereor works with the Rescue Dada Centre in Nairobi. It was set up in 1991 by the Archdiocese of Nairobi as one of the few street children programmes in Africa that explicitly cares for girls and young mothers. The Rescue Dada Centre works closely with other local organisations, is also politically committed to the interests of street girls and, thanks to its good local network, procures large quantities of donations in kind that directly benefit the girls.

Mona Plate

Donor Communications

Telephone: +49 241 442518
E-mail: mona.plate@misereor.de

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I didn't like it when my mum drank and then called me names. That's why I left home. (...) I want to work hard to support my family and help my siblings in life.

Njoki (14)
learned new self-confidence at the Rescue Dada Centre

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