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Sudan

Sudan: Spotlight - Drop in centre for street boys in Khartoum

Sudan: (2005-03-24) - Operation Mercy's drop in centre in Khartoum, Sudan opened at the end of 2004 and now provides daily food and activities for street boys. These boys are orphaned or separated from families, often due to the conflict in southern Sudan. The centre provides stability and security for these children, who are sometimes as young as four years old.

Approximately 30,000 children live on the streets of Khartoum. The majority of these children are boys, separated from their families and struggling daily to survive. Aside from a lack of basic necessities, they face threats of police round-ups, beatings from older boys and forced military recruitment.

Mathew, a boy who appears to be around 16 years old, shares his story: "When I was small, the soldiers came to our village. I do not know how old I am now. They collected all the children and put us into two groups: one for girls and one for boys. Then they shot our parents before our eyes. They beat us."

After witnessing more atrocities, the children were sent into slavery in Khartoum and the Darfur region. "I tried to run away but they caught me," Mathew says, "They nailed my feet to a wooden plank and tied ropes round my ankles. They cut me with a knife on my body. The other boys became afraid to run away." He still bears the scars from the knives, rope and nails. He ran away again and this time made it to Khartoum, where he tried to find work on a building site. Mathew became sick and his condition worsened.

Help and healing

A man Mathew met told him about Operation Mercy's centre. "I went to the drop in centre and the teacher took me to the hospital. They found that I have diabetes. They are taking care of me, with my medicine and special food," Mathew says.

Boys who come to Operation Mercy's Drop in Centre can eat a meal, bathe and receive basic medical care. Sports and educational activities are also part of the programme. Currently, the centre usually hosts between 70 and 100 boys each day.

Encouraging family relationships

Staff members go into markets around Khartoum to connect with street boys and tell them about the centre. Extended, daily contact with the boys helps us locate their families and we hope that some will be able to return to their homes. Many boys come from families displaced by the conflict in southern Sudan.

Mathew would like to reconnect with his family in the South, if he can find them. "My most desperate thing is to find if I have any relatives. I want to go back to my area and see if anyone knows who I am," he explains. "The teachers in the centre are going to help me find my people. All that I know is that I am from Dinka tribe and I know my name." Mathew was very small when he was taken from his home, so he is not certain about whether he has family left. "I don't know if my brothers and sisters or my relatives are alive, only I know my parents are dead because they were shot in front of my eyes."

A place to live

Sometimes the centre will host boys who are very young or have special needs. If these boys cannot return home, they are assessed for placement in one of Operation Mercy's live-in centres in Geraf and Renk.

Graduates of the live-in centres now volunteer at the Drop in Centre, evidence of how meeting basic needs and providing security changes lives. At one special event, boys from the Drop in Centre sat listening intently as those from the live-in centres did sketches, sang songs and explained how their lives had been changed. An Operation Mercy worker explains, "These children need love, they have amazing potential. The boys will die physically and emotionally if left on the streets."