.jpg)
Over 400 street families in Kisumu City were given food as part of Christmas celebrations, courtesy of the Gifted Heart and Hope Foundation.
The group came to the rescue of neglected street children by offering them food at the same time showing them love and compassion during the festive season.
The organization’s Director Kennedy Odongo said they came together as friends to start the Foundation that is now bringing change in many lives.
Odongo said during the festive season there are a number of families who go without food, thus the need to come to their aid.
The Foundation gave a Christmas gift in form of food to the street families to enable them to celebrate as others.
Speaking to the press at Taifa Park, the centre of the celebration, Odongo noted that giving during Christmas is ideal to ensure nobody is left behind during the celebrations.
Besides food, he said the organization has organized a series of engagements with the street children where they talk to them to understand their plight and how they found themselves on the streets.
Odongo added that the idea is also to bring them close to them so that they can counsel them and engage them to see how best they can support them and possibly get them out of the streets.
“We plan to set up a training wing where the street children shall be trained and equipped with the requisite skills to venture into income-generating activities.”
He also appealed to well-wishers to support the programs and ensure that the street children menace in the area is addressed.
Evans Oloo, a member of the Foundation added that the Foundation was borne out of friends and relatives
Oloo said they collected money among themselves and shared out the food.
He said they have better plans for the Foundation as they also plan to help those students planning to enrol in form one next year.
Besides helping the less fortunate, Oloo added that the Foundation will too venture into tree planting as a way of conserving the environment.
A beneficiary Solomon Achola who is also a representative of the street children hailed the initiative and thanked the Foundation for bringing joy into their hearts.
Achola noted that they will now join the rest of Kenyans in celebrations.
“Life in the streets is very tough, I want to thank the organization and urge other well-wishers to assist us with similar programs with a view of getting us out of the streets.”
He added that he has been in the streets all his life and now as a grown-up man, some of these street children are much more willing to get out of the environment to pursue better dreams. BY THE STAR