Christopher's story

Our Lead Trainer Denise McEvoy recounts this story which illustrates the importance of street work.

I encountered Christopher on the streets of Lusaka, Zambia. I was in the city preparing for a  Street Worker Training programme. I accompanied two local Street Workers to experience a typical night as a street worker, to meet the children and orientate myself  within the local community. I was there to observe, listen and learn. It was 1.30 a.m. We were walking along a major thoroughfare and as far as the eye could see along shop doorways were children (babies, toddlers, teenagers, young adults) bedding down for the night. Many had their feet in sacks and cardboard boxes. I asked naively about the sacks! I was told, "They use them to keep warm and keep the rats from biting their feet." At one point on our journey a boy aged about 16 years old approached us and pleaded, "Come, the small boy is sick."

Christopher and his small friend were huddled in a shared flour sack at the doorway of a fast food shop. After much reassurance by the workers Christopher was encouraged to show us his injured foot. His left foot was seriously cut and clearly infected. Four days previously, Christopher had been knocked down by a lorry whilst crossing the busy Cairo Road. We were told the driver got out of his truck and angrily threw the child to the side of the road and the traffic moved on as normal.

Christopher was new to the city. He had travelled down from the north of the country with his brother and sister. They had become separated two days previously, so Christopher had turned up on the Cairo road where the regular street boys told him to stay put. They knew the street workers would visit that night and help him. After much persuasion and reassurance, the two workers, Pauline & Moussa, carried the boy to their vehicle and on to hospital. At the first hospital it seemed futile to proceed. No-one was interested in attending to Christopher's wounds.

At the second hospital the workers spent 2 hours negotiating; firstly with the receptionist and then with a doctor to allow Christopher to be seen. He was eventually seen to - his wounds cleaned, a bandage applied and anti-biotics prescribed. Christopher was taken back to the night shelter run by  Pauline & Moussa's organisation where he remained for the duration of my visit. The project paid for the medication to heal infection in his foot. While he was in their care he at least had some basic food and shelter. Importantly he had the opportunity to be safe. It is here that Moussa continued his work with this child, within those first few days establishing contact with the child's father. Through his contacts with other street children & workers the team of street workers traced Christopher's brother & sister. Work had begun to get the children identity papers - a major obstacle in accessing medical care and education. Without this formal ID children like Christopher do not exist.

How can we help?

Our response is to train ordinary, brave and inspirational local people as street workers to support street children. We recognise that in order to do this neccessary and challenging job these workers need to be nurtured, sustained, supported and trained.

So that...Street workers can:

• Be the first point of contact with street children
• Tell us what children need - through their relationships they provide pathways to family, education, better health, safety, identity
• As a network provide the basis for a professional, coherent response to street children in what is otherwise a fragmented, inconsistent, knee jerk response
• Continue to recognise & build on the children's strengths, resilience, and resourcefulness