Street Child Africa (SCA)

Thames Ditton, Surrey

www.streetchildafrica.org.uk

Street Child Africa

SCA has an active programme which supports street childrens organisations in Ghana, Mozambique, Senegal, Zambia and Zimbabwe. SCA aims to:
• fundraise
• raise awareness
• generate fresh approaches to working with and for street children
• share information with other agencies and NGOs; and,
• offer advocacy to other agencies and NGOs with similar objectives.

SCA was founded in 1998 by a Catholic priest, based on his experience of living and working in Africa for more than 35 years. All of the work it supports is strictly non-denominational, and provides support regardless of the religious beliefs and background of any child. On its website it has the interesting Rufisque Charter of Senegal where various aspects of the relationship between field workers and individual street children is set out.

Among the requirements in the charter are:
• before speaking, the adult must listen to the child and take his/her wishes into account
• it will be considered important to preserve the values of the street within the child (free will, coping skills, spirit of initiative, solidarity with other children.. )
• large institutions and orphanages are not equipped to deal with the needs of street children; and finally,
• the child must know that from the moment of a first meeting, he/she will never be abandoned.