Tumaini Innovation Center Shifts Gears During Crisis

As COVID-19 cases began to be identified in Kenya in mid-March, the government acted quickly to implement mitigation measures such as closing all schools and implementing a country-wide curfew. The measures created a dual set of challenges for the Tumaini Innovation Center in Eldoret.

What would happen to the former street-connected children and youth who were now Tumaini students living at the center?

What would happen to the thousands of youth still living alone and in groups on the streets of Eldoret who had no safe place to shelter during the curfew hours?

During the past three months, the staff and volunteers at Tumaini have reached and flexed to meet both challenges.

The first effort was to reintegrate as many of their current students safely into their families as possible. Through a network of contacts and flurry of messages, 26 of the 30 students were able to return to their nuclear or extended family.

The staff continues to worry about each of them and how COVID-19 is impacting their home life including if they have enough to eat. “As we know, food is one of the basic needs of all humans, and after the global pandemic of COVID-19, food became a rare basic need to find. The economy changed for the worse and life became tough globally, but more so for our students,” said Samwel Kimani, program director at Tumaini and a Mandela Washington and Leaders in Innovation Fellow.  “This led some to go back to the streets of Eldoret to look for food and money since hunger left them with no choice,” he continued.

Children and youth living on the street are especially at risk during the coronavirus pandemic.

In fact, the Tumaini staff donated from their own pockets to purchase and deliver food to their students in their homes. “The resilience that our students had in staying at home, even in the difficulties that they were facing, was humbling and encouraging to us,” Kimani added.

The effort to rescue additional street children and youth and provide safe shelter during the pandemic was also an urgent need. Respiratory infections are one of the leading causes of death among street children and youth, so COVID-19 posed a specific serious threat to these youth that often live in crowded and unsanitary conditions with no access to soap and running water.

While keeping their safety and health at the forefront, the Tumaini staff and volunteers embarked on an effort to rescue and reintegrate as many street children and youth as they reasonably could. The Kenyan government provided partial support for the effort and recently increased that support due to the success of the project.

The Tumaini team is uniquely positioned for this task with ten years of growth and experience working with street children and youth. The center was founded a decade ago with Kenyan and North American AMPATH partners providing the initial leadership and direction. It has grown to include both residential and day programs in a variety of vocational pursuits including a stellar engineering program delivered in collaboration with Purdue University. Volunteers such as Benson Kiragu, who know firsthand the trials faced by these children, help extend the reach and impact of the center.

Even with years of expertise and training, the unique challenges presented by COVID-19 have created both poignant and harrowing experiences for the team working to reintegrate the youth rescued from the streets during the pandemic.

Social worker Caroline Gakii was excited to travel with three young boys to return to their respective homes in Bungoma County. Gakii had carefully computed the time it would take her to reunite each boy with his family and get back to Eldoret prior to the curfew at 7 p.m. All was going well after the reunion between the first young man and his grateful family. But a more stressful reunification with the second family made Gakii concerned that the schedule was tightening. That was before the rain started.

After a 90-minute rainy and muddy trip, the final boy was finally reunited with his grandmother.

“You would think that after repatriating three boys with their families that the heavens would smile upon me and make a way for me to get home,” said Gakii. “But who was I kidding? It was already 6:30 pm. I was not going back home tonight.”  Her colleagues arranged a place for her to spend the night, but her thoughts were elsewhere.

“‘Who will tuck in my son in bed tonight? Where does he think I am?’ These were the thoughts that raced in my mind as I prepared myself to a strange bed that didn't have the familiar warmth that I was used to,” she added.  “‘Tomorrow will be better!’ I whispered to myself as I smiled and finally closed my eyes to sleep.”

As unexpected as the day was for Gakii, at least she didn’t end up being interrogated by the police as program coordinator Sally Kimani did while attempting to reunite two boys with family in West Pokot. Following a jubilant reunion between her first charge and the young man’s grandmother, Sally and the second young man set out by motorbike. Unfortunately, the young man was unable to provide direction all the way to his grandfather’s home and the pair eventually sought the help of an off-duty police officer.

At the police station, the nervous young man boldly proclaimed that he did not know Sally and that she had been kept at her home for two weeks which promptly led to a comprehensive child trafficking investigation by the police.

Tumaini leaders have worked tirelessly to help street-connected children and youth.

“How did I come from just doing my job to reunite this child with his family to child trafficking?” wondered Sally. “Thoughts continue flooding my mind and for a moment I felt helpless and discouraged,” she added. After providing documentation and validation of her work for Tumaini, and saying numerous prayers, the boy was eventually released. The police had spent the four hours trying to track down the boy’s family to no avail. Unfortunately, the pair had no choice but to return to Eldoret and the young boy unfortunately returned to the streets.

Head teacher Esther Wairimu’s journey to reunite a young man with his family in Naivasha was much happier despite her initial trepidation. On the journey, the young man explained that he had been working as a fruit vendor, but when COVID-19 forced the closure of the market, he lost his job and ended up on the streets of Eldoret. Along the journey, the pair changed matatus (public buses) in an area with several people selling their wares. The young man asked to borrow 100 Kenyan shillings ($1 USD) to buy a shiny necklace.

Wairimu teased him asking if it was for a girlfriend. “No, it is for my mother. I must make her happy again," he said calmly. When the pair reached the boy’s home, no one was there. After a few anxious hours of waiting, Wairimu was finally able to reach his grandmother by phone and she was so excited by her grandson’s return that she quickly came home for the reunion.

Over the course of the last several months, the Tumaini team has rescued 113 street children and youth and reintegrated 51 back into their homes. Twenty continue to be hosted at Tumaini Innovation Center.

As the team at Tumaini looks to the future and the eventual return of their normal rehabilitation, education and vocational programs, they hope to recruit some of the youth and children that they have settled at home during the pandemic to join them in pursuing their education. In a few weeks, they will have a new dorm for 100 boys, so they will have plenty of room for new students.

As the team continues to break down barriers, there is still much to be done to assist and support more children. A generous Purdue donor is matching donations up to $50,000 and a portion of the AMPATH Emergency Fund will be directed to this effort.

Tumaini staff and volunteers used personal donations to buy and deliver food for students’ families.