The Child Reintegration Centre has launched its initiative to rescue street children, collaborating with local organization Street Child UK, which estimates there are as many as 6,500 children living on the streets of Bo.  These children may have escaped violence in the home, or they may have been abandoned by parents who are too poor to provide for them.  They are in desperate need of shelter, food,  education, and a family to love them.  This is the case with Momodu and Momoh, brothers identified by Street Child and rescued by the CRC.

Momodu, 14 and Momoh, 12, are from a family of 10 children, of whom four died.  The family, originally from a village near Bo, began to fall apart when their mother fled the abuse of her alcoholic husband.  She took her daughter, but left the five boys to fend for themselves.  Momodu soon ran away, landing on the streets of Bo. He survived by begging for empty cartons from shop owners, which he sold to market women for a few cents.  Sometimes he sold metal scraps that he gathered from garages. 

Eventually Momodu tired of the rough street life and returned to his village, but the home situation had not changed.  His father gave him and his brother Momoh a little money to travel to their auntie's home in Bo, where two of their brothers had gone to escape the turmoil of their home.  Sadly, their aunt also turned them away because she had no room for them.  
 
Alone and abandoned, Momodu and Momoh had nowhere to turn but the street.  They washed dishes for a woman who sold food at night.  In payment, she gave them a little food and money.  They slept in market stalls, where they were discovered by Street Child UK, who referred them to the CRC.  

The CRC staff brought the brothers into the interim home, took them to Mercy Hospital for testing, and began counseling.  The CRC is tracing their family to identify a safe home for them. They want to go back to school, but for the time being, they are so happy to be at the CRC.

HCW, 1MILLIONHOME and the Sierra Leone Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs (MSWGCA) are collaborating to hold a reintegration/transition workshop for orphanage directors, child welfare program leaders, and government officials from West Africa.  

The workshop will be held in Freetown in Fall 2020.  Program Development Director Laura Horvath describes the event as a hands-on workshop designed to equip participants with the tools they need to begin their own transition  from institutional to family-based care, as recommended by the United Nations. (Read more about family reintegration here.)

MSWGCA Minister Mabinty Tarawallie will host a nationwide meeting with all registered child protection organizations to encourage attendance at the 1MILLIONHOME/HCW workshop.  The CRC will be highlighted as a trailblazer in the movement to reintegrate children with their family of birth or a foster family.

The CRC staff have been collaborating with Street Child to provide interim care for abandoned children while their families are traced and prepared for reintegration.  Street Child has a long history in Sierra Leone providing short term and emergency care to homeless children.  ​​ "I am very excited about the CRC taking the lead to work side by side to get children off the streets, Child Welfare Programs Liaison Mohamed Nabieu says.  "The MSW Minister's goal is to take 1,000 kids off the streets by the end of this year, and she would be working with the CRC to support her goal."   

​The CRC continues to build a robust case management system, hiring additional case managers to effectively and efficiently monitor the welfare of children and families.

The CRC is launching a Deinstitutionalization department focused on helping orphanages transition from residential to family care.  Led by long time CRC team member David Musa, the DI Department will assess an organization's readiness for transition, teach the organization how to develop a transition plan, and coach their staff through the process.  The DI Department will coach orphanages on safe, collaborative, and sustainable family reintegration, as well as family strengthening and sustainability.  ​