Street Action - Committed to street children through action and partnership

Joe Walker, Street Action's co-director, will be travelling to South Africa this month to catch up with our partner Umthombo Street Children in Durban. In April Dieudonné Nahimana, founder and director of New Generation in Burundi, will be coming to the UK to spend some time with Street Action. This will be followed by a trip to Burundi in the early summer.

New Generation: Burundi is one of the world's poorest nations and is emerging from a twelve-year civil war. It is now beginning to reap the dividends of peace but with the rising number of children arriving on the city streets, finding a new future isn't easy for everyone. 2010 will be a key year as it holds its second post-conflict elections, which it is hoped will pave the way towards a more stable peace process.

New Generation is a young organisation and we're committed to supporting Dieudonné and Teddy Claude Harushimana, their programme director, as they build up the capacity of the project and look to generate more sustainable levels of funding so that their work can grow. Dieudonné's time in London will enable us to talk about the development of our partnership and to learn and understand the issues that Street Action can promote and advocate for on behalf of New Generation.

Umthombo Street Children: While Burundi prepares for elections, South Africa's building up to quite a different event -- the first ever FIFA Football World Cup on the African continent. As mentioned above, Joe Walker will be travelling to South Africa this month to catch up with our partner Umthombo Street Children in Durban. Working in partnership with British Airways and through some grants from New Generations Trust and the Tartan Army Children's Charity, we're continuing to invest in the development of Umthombo's Safe Space, a rehabilitation, therapeutic centre and shelter for street children.

Safe Space will play an integral part in Umthombo's 2010 strategy. Tom Hewitt, CEO and co-founder of Umthombo Street Children states, "Safe Space is the hub of Umthombo's 2010 plan for street children in Durban. Through therapeutic programmes, they are empowered to leave street life. It is a crucial resource for the World Cup period and beyond”. Joe will spend time with the Umthombo staff and the children and young people on the streets, as well as being updated on upcoming developments planned for the coming year.