Mkombozi works hard to maximise the potential of street children and youth and to provide them with information on available services. Specifically, Mkombozi works hands-on with children and youth on the streets of Moshi town and Arusha city. Each day and several nights of the week, Mkombozi's Street Educators make contact with children and youth, spend time with them and enable them to make positive choices. Through regular contact, training, advice and by being a positive role model, Mkombozi's street outreach activities enable youth to improve their psychological and educational functioning and to become self reliant.
Mkombozi's street outreach activities include the delivery of Non-Formal Education (NFE), family life education and business training to street children and youth to improve their educational, social and psychological functioning, to help them become self reliant and to help them transition to independent living. Activities include health provision, referral to other services including residential services, family reunification, linkage to vocational school and formal school.
A "mobile school" is used to deliver literacy, health and human rights education as well as creative therapy to children and youth on the streets. The school is a tool that enhances children’s knowledge while building their confidence and self esteem. Children and youth are engaged in recreational activities, sports, play, arts and drama to build their resilience and help them explore their talents and potential.
Notably, providing services to children and youth on the streets is a complex balancing act between upholding their rights to protection and not making street life preferable to that of residential care, home or independent living. Mkombozi respects a child's decision to not make contact or be reunified with their families and ensures that family life education underpins interactions with these children and youth (including problem solving, conflict management, self-esteem, communications, and health care).
The primary goal of Mkombozi's outreach is to give street youth hope that they are able to achieve what they set their minds to achieve, to help them to value themselves, and to encourage others living in the urban environment to understand and value street children.
To learn more about The Mobile School, a non-profit organisation (and Mkombozi partner) that focuses on the improvement of life-circumstances of street children, go to: http://www.mobileschool.org. The "mobile school" itself is an educational instrument that was technically and pedagogically adapted to the reality of the street and its basic aim is to facilitate street work and increase its efficiency. The Mobile School currently loans a mobile school to Mkombozi to facilitate street work in Arusha.
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