Our primary goal is to enable street children to return to life in a caring and stable family environment, either with their own family, foster family, or by living independently in the community.

Preventative interventions addressing root causes are needed to stop children moving to the streets, but those already on the streets are at high risk, vulnerable and requiring special protection to enable them to develop.

Retrak reaches out to street children, helping them thorough the difficulties and crises that they face everyday, caring and getting to know them as vulnerable individuals and as children and, as trust increases, working with them individually, helping them develop so they can make choices about their lives based on realistic possibilities and their own potential.

Sport brings people together regardless of age, race or background and is a key tool for engaging with street children. Football not only provides an opportunity for the children to have fun in a safe environment, but also improves health and wellbeing, builds confidence, self esteem and personal discipline and promotes teamwork. It enables the children to participate in a positive activity, build bridges with the community through participation in local football tournaments, and helps develop valuable relations with Retrak staff who will support them in their transition away from street life.

Many street children survive by picking through rubbish left on the road-side or outside houses and restaurants. Providing street children with a regular meal not only helps their health and development but also provides another opportunity to strengthen the link between the children and our staff. Those street children who are especially weak or vulnerable on the streets may spend their nights at Retrak’s emergency refuge protected from the dangers of the street.

Street children live in poor conditions, rummaging through dustbins and rubbish dumps for anything they can eat. Such an existence leads to malnutrition, the spread of disease and susceptibility to other illnesses. When the children fall ill or are injured they have nowhere to turn and even minor ailments become more serious through neglect. Retrak run clinics which are open to any street child and provides basic medical care and promotes health awareness. Health and hygiene training sessions are also held to improve street children’s understanding around issues such as HIV/AIDS, STIs, and basic hygiene.

Generally, children who live on the streets have experienced trauma, neglect and abuse. They are in need of care, protection and counselling. Social workers build strong relationships with each child and work with them to overcome their past trauma and to explore their opportunities for the future.

Many children who find themselves on the streets are desperate to be educated. Retrak is able to offer basic but imaginative catch up education for the children, focussing on key subjects such as literacy, numeracy, health and HIV/AIDS. The access to education is vital in building up the self esteem of each child which in turn helps to improve their chances of a successful return back into the community.

Retrak works extensively with children who want to leave street life to prepare both the child, and the family, for the return home. We help provide the skills, education and emotional support needed for successful and sustainable integration, and also ease the economic shock of returning home by helping families develop income generating activities.

For some street children it is neither possible, nor in their best interest to return back to their biological family. In these cases, where it is appropriate, Retrak will try to place the child with suitable foster parents to provide a loving home environment.

Each child needs to be given the time and means to make the transition from the streets back to the community. To help this transition and to adjust from street life to family life, children may stay in a halfway home for a short period of time before returning home. Here children can rediscover a sense of community and family as they are prepared and equipped for reintegration into society. Each child shares a cottage with other children, and cared for by a house-parent. In this environment the children become familiar with family life and regain their understanding of family routine and responsibility.

Although we believe that a safe family is the preferred environment for a child to grow and develop, for many street children, the difficulties faced at home are key reasons for them coming to the streets. Retrak works with each family – whether biological or foster – to ensure that children return to a safe, strong and caring family environment. During visits to the family, before and after placement, Retrak’s staff provide counselling and guidance to family members. This may occur during regular visits or, for foster carers, through regular workshops, and addresses key issues such as child development and behaviour, discipline, education, health care and HIV/AIDS.

Retrak’s first priority in reintegration is to explore the possibility of children being reunited with their natural families. Retrak works extensively to prepare each individual child and family for the return home spending time with each family to ensure that they have the means to support their child, and that they understand the child’s past in order to avoid stigmatisation and discrimination. During the first year of resettlement Retrak social workers make follow-up visits and, if necessary, provide the family with an income generating grant to help build a small business ensuring that the family have enough income to support the child.

Foster care is a relatively new concept in Africa and Retrak is one of the few agencies pioneering this for street children. Many of the street children whom we seek to assist cannot be resettled with their families. While institutions can provide for a child’s basic needs, such as food, clothing, shelter and protection, foster care is an important and preferred alternative in providing for the emotional and social support which street children need to rebuild their lives.

Foster care ensures that the child is brought up in a stable and loving family environment and has the freedom to play, grow and enter adulthood better equipped, both practically and emotionally and Retrak is working to extend its foster care network.

For street children who are unable to return home and are too old to be fostered, Retrak provides an opportunity for them gain practical skills through vocational training. The knowledge and skills they gain assists them in integrating into community with employment skills or capable of living independently. Rather than just alleviating poverty in the short term this project enables vulnerable street children to gain confidence, expand their knowledge and skills base, and generate their own income - thus contributing to the micro-economy of the region.

Building on their vocational training or using existing skills and aptitudes, Retrak will help older children set up their own small business, providing practical help and advice, tools and equipment and small amounts of start up capital.