Photo by David Blumenkrantz

The Problem of Street Children
Won't Go Away
Originally published in Executive magazine,
January 1993
(Article)

By David Blumenkrantz

"It seems to me curious, not to say obscene and thoroughly terrifying, that it could occur to an association of human beings, drawn together through need and chance and for profit into a company, an organ of journalism, to pry intimately into the lives of an undefended and appallingly damaged group of human beings, an ignorant and helpless rural family, for the purpose of parading the nakedness, disadvantage and humiliation of these lives before another group of human beings, in the name of science, of 'honest journalism'. . . and that these people could be capable of meditating this prospect without the slightest doubt of their qualification to do an 'honest' piece of work, and with a conscience better than clear, and in the virtual certitude of almost unanimous public approval."

James Agee, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (pg 5)

How to approach such a delicate subject, so laden with overtones of collective responsibility, and undertones of collective guilt, without making it read like a fundraising appeal? Further, in this era of economic stagnation and "compassion fatigue," one has to be careful even when attempting campaigns of public awareness raising, so as not to offend or frighten away even the most marginally-potential donors.

THE PROBLEM, as it is referred to by nearly everyone you discuss street kids with, is getting worse, and quickly. There's no sense in playing ostrich with cold facts. THE PROBLEM has no easy solution. THE PROBLEM doesn't go away when we lock the doors at night. THE PROBLEM doesn't go away when you throw a few shillings at some pathetic kid near City Market, nor does it diminish when the local media pays lip service to THE PROBLEM in the occasional "definitive" pullout sections.

Indeed, in the case of street children in Nairobi, and in fact most of Kenya, talking demographics in the same breath with THE PROBLEM is like telling a peasant tea-picker not to worry about his 40 shilling-daily wage, for after all he's contributing to a multi-billion shilling industry. The two go together, but in the immediate sense are mutually irrelevant.

So, what IS needed? Undugu Society seems to have some of the answers: educational assistance, vocational training, rescue and reception centers. Also: genuine concern, love, motivation, and wealthy overseas donors. Yet nobody at Undugu is deluding himself or herself or us that they have gained the upper hand in the battle against THE PROBLEM.

One only has to spend a few days with their social workers (Father Grol included), to realize that the hardest part of this job is not finding the kids and gaining their confidence, but knowing how to temper their expectations of what assistance is available to them.

Venture into one Nairobi's countless makeshift alleyway villages, called chuoms, and watch the social worker seem to ignore the depressing specter of eight pre-teen boys sucking mindlessly on containers of shoemaker's glue. Pull one child out of the chuom and to the hospital; leave the rest in suspended decadence. Child prostitution. Venereal disease. Scabies. AIDS. Name it. Call it "urban poverty," let the sociologists marvel and fret. Don't jerk my tears, don't raise a finger to help, because it's only a cultural aberration in the safe world of free enterprise. Someone else is being paid to worry about it. It's God's plan.

Don't bet on that, because THE PROBLEM is self-perpetrating, indiscriminating, unsolved as yet, and oh so human.