There are over 250,000 children living on the streets of Kenya, with more than 60,000 of them in Nairobi. Dagoretti, located in the western part of Nairobi In Dagoretti poverty lures many children into homelessness. They are known as 'chokoraa', an epithet that translates to 'garbage-eaters' because the children - most of them being boys - survive by scavenging through people's trash trying to find pieces of food. They are used to do the most menial jobs available in Dagoretti's open-air market, including collecting trash, cleaning filthy public toilets and transporting heavy loads around the marketplace. At night, covered in sacks and plastic bags while clustering together to keep warm, the boys take turns to stay awake in order to keep watch for any forthcoming danger. They sleep outside on verandas or pavements, fully exposed to the elements. Girls are forced to resort prostitution in order to get food or clothes.
Life in the streets is based mainly on simple subsistence, without any aspiration in life. It lacks meaning and purpose because of its alienation from the mainstream society. Street children are denied an identity by the way other people treat them. But it's not entirely a hopeless situation with these children. With small, persistent efforts, they can be helped to realize their own utmost potential. Levozy Self Help Group has been successful in providing practical training in Car Mechanics, Car Electrical, Tailoring & Dressmaking, Knitting & Embroidery, Welding and Fabrication.
Levozy Self Help Group is an organization that supports street children and school drop-outs in Dagoretti and aims at providing them education, health care and to reduce their poverty. The organization was established in 2010 and obtained a registration certificate in 2011. In a small vocational training centre built in the simplest way of corrugated iron sheets, the Levozy Self Help Group provides vocational training to street children and school drop-outs in car mechanic, car electrician, Tailoring & dressmaking, Knitting & Embroidery, Welding and Fabrication courses and sporting activities.
A child from any socio-economic background will be able to find suitable work upon reaching adulthood, thereby enhancing its future prospects
The main objective of Levozy Self Help Group is to empower street children and school drop-outs whose parents died as a result of HIV and AIDS (Orphans) with vocational skills training to access employment or become self-reliant to improve their livelihoods.
