
A milestone in Tanzania: New national guidance for supporting at-risk children
We’re proud to announce the launch of 14 new support desks across Tanzania, along with national guidelines for supporting vulnerable people.
Matt Zeqiri meets those fighting to survive on the streets in Tanzania.
A first-hand experience of how child poverty in Tanzania impacts so many families.
Date: 27th May 2022
It’s 5am and it’s still cool and dark, but the local bus terminal is waking up. I’m here to witness the work of our early morning outreach team who arrive on the streets at this time every day as the city comes to life.
Buses are arriving, doors are opening, passengers are disembarking. Hundreds of people are already here, most of them on their way to work. Traders are opening the shops that line the bus station’s perimeter, and food vendors are firing up their cooking equipment as they seek to tempt customers to part with a few shillings for a breakfast snack.
On the ground in front of a row of shops, there are children. Dozens of them, fast asleep.
The first group of around 18 boys range from about eight to 12 years old. One group of four boys is relatively fortunate, with a blanket of some sort to lie on. The rest lie on the stone steps. A clutch of smaller boys lie huddled together for warmth and safety.
One boy sleeps by himself, 20 feet away. I’m told it’s because he wets the bed. What bed? One of the groups start stirring. One small boy wakes with a very cheery “Good morning!” in perfect English while another immediately implores RCA’s outreach workers to help his friend Joseph.
Joseph* is about 13 and has been behaving strangely, his friend tells us. He has been having delusions and engaging in conversations and arguments with people who are not there. Yesterday his behaviour caused problems in the market and he was beaten by security guards. Badly, it seems. When he is woken up, he walks with a severe limp and needs to be helped the few hundred yards to RCA’s vehicles, where Elias (our youth facilitator) takes him to hospital.
He is tested for malaria and will be assessed for mental ill-health. Tonight, Joseph will spend the night in the hospital. It’s far from ideal – healthcare is basic and patients’ food provisions are non-existent – but it’s a lot better than last night. I am struck by how much these boys care about each other. Joseph’s friend wept as he begged us to help.
The neighbour gave him TZS 6,000, which Eric used to flee on the bus. The first week of street life has been very hard. Eric is sleeping with a group but he is hyper-vigilant about others, and he has every justification. Older boys have been stealing his food, leaving him hungry.
Eric is tired too, as this experience has left him wary of other children; to protect himself, he waits until the others are asleep before he goes to sleep, and he gets up as soon as others around him start to stir.
Within an hour, Eric’s prospects are looking better thanks to our outreach team.
He was happy to accompany us to RCA’s office, asleep in fresh clothes, as we start to try to trace his mother – a process that involves using local community networks to piece together the information Eric can provide.
It may be a long process, but we don’t want him back on the streets, so a temporary foster carer is found called Farida. Farida lives 25 minutes from RCA’s office with two children of her own and is delighted to have the opportunity to give a child a safe place to stay. Eric can live with Farida for up to six months, which we hope will give the team time to reunite him with his mum.
Despite the terrible situations they face, the trauma most of them have experienced, and the constant fear and hunger they live with, the children I met waking up on the streets of Mwanza seem generally happy.
Someone mentions that they can get a football from a Community Champion at 7.30am, and off they go at an incredible speed – leaving a trail of dust and laughter in their wake.
*Names have been changed to protect children’s identities.
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