Street Action - Committed to street children through action and partnership

"Sometimes donors give, but they then face big problems and they stop. It is very hard to tell a child that you have to go back on the streets. But if we had our own houses, and a village, it will be sustainable for us and we can grow food, have a farm, animals. The children can also be involved to help themselves and not to wait every month for donations for food, rent and other needs." Dieudonné Nahimana, New Generation

A recent UNICEF report on Burundi has estimated that there could be up to 3,000 children living on the streets in the country by the end of 2010. Although we are cautious with statistics, we know that the number of children and young people arriving on the streets of urban areas such as Bujumbura is increasing and the work of organisations like New Generation is becoming more urgent.

Street Children Village: Providing a home and future

A key project for New Generation is the building of a 'New Generation Village' for street children. This would provide short and long-term options for street children to find alternatives to street life. This would also save money each month on the houses that New Generation has to rent. New Generation has a six month window of opportunity to raise funds to begin building the village on a piece of land donated by the government, otherwise the land will be taken back by the authorities.

Street Action is committed to supporting this project. The cost to build one house, which would be a home for twenty street children, is £25,000 . This includes all running costs for the first year, at which point, each house would be able to generate food (and other income) from agricultural projects set up and run by the street children in the village. We are excited because this is a innovative and sustainable way of helping children make the transition from the streets back into communities.

Overall, we plan to raise over £100,000 to build four houses but are urgently looking to raise £25,000 to allow building work to begin on the first house by then end of this year. If you want to make a one-off donation, however small, to this project then you can do so by visiting our New Generation Village appeal at JustGiving (http://www.justgiving.com/NewGenerationVillage). If you know of people, organisations or funders who may want to donate larger sums, or play a larger role in this project, then please introduce them to us.

Keeping New Generation's homes open

Another urgent need is to ensure that the two existing houses run by New Generation are kept open. Sadly, due to a general reduction in funding, two houses have already had to close this year and there was a danger of the other two closing. Street Action were able to provide some emergency support to ensure that these houses remain open but we are looking to increase our regular monthly support to New Generation to ensure that they remain so. Money donated by you, our supporters, goes towards food, clothes and school fees for the children and also includes rent for each house. The cost per child is only £40 per month.

Monthly giving - every little helps

Providing monthly support is an effective way to ensure New Generation's long-term growth and sustainability. It can be easier than you think to change a street child’s life and as little as £40 a month will ensure that a street child in Burundi can have a home, food, clothes, education and a future away from the streets.

How can you do this? Wherever you live in the world you can donate monthly to Street Action through our donation web page at http://www.justgiving.com/streetaction/donate
From this page you can make a regular monthly payment for any amount you choose. The website will lead you through a simple registration process if it is the first time you have used JustGiving

If you prefer, you can set up a standing order with your bank using the details below or you can make a one-off donation directly into our bank account:

Cooperative Bank Account Name: Street Action, Sort Code: 089299, Account No: 65219069