THANK YOU to all who have donated so far. From 8th June every penny donated will be going direct to our work in Kolkata to provide urgent supplies and shelter for 100 families suffering a twofold crisis in the wake of Cyclone Amphan as Covid-19 continues to spread in their communities. Our goal is to raise a further £1800 to provide 100 families with a tarpaulin, water purifier, water drum and disinfectant. Just £18 will provide all this for one family on the street.

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Help us support street children at the time when they need it most. If we don’t, no one will.

StreetInvest and our partners in Kenya, Ghana and India are doing all we can to respond to the needs of children and young people who have no one to turn to at this desperate time. StreetInvest works with partners to put trusted adults into the lives of children on the street. These adults -  called Street Workers – continue to work on the front line to protect these incredibly vulnerable children from COVID-19. They need your help, to:

• Keep Street Workers on the street, and safe, so that children aren’t left to cope with this crisis alone
• Share vital information with children on social distancing and good hygiene, what the symptoms are and what to do if they have them
• Distribute crucial sanitation and hygiene supplies and install water points accessible to children who are on the street
• Provide essential food and medicine where other services have been withdrawn, and opportunities to make money to survive have all but disappeared 
• Work with government and local authorities to make sure that emergency measures protect street children too, and don’t harm them further. 

For street children, the COVID-19 crisis doesn’t only mean a risk from the virus. Their precarious livelihood – often reliant on busy public spaces, movement and the informal economy – has all but disappeared. They are unsafe and unsupported, and as communities around the world pull together, street children are excluded. Lockdowns have been imposed, services have become inaccessible and misinformation and fear is spreading fast.

Street children need support and reassurance - but they also need sanitation and hygiene supplies, medicine, and food.

£10 can provide essential nutrition for a child whose meal service has been withdrawn, for one more week.

£20 can buy one handwashing station with soap to be installed on the street corner for children with no access to water to prevent the spread of Covid-19 during this pandemic.

£100 can keep a street worker on the street for two weeks. With outreach services and drop in centres halted, the children need their presence on the street more than ever.

£150 enabled the installation of a 3000L water tank in a slum that would otherwise be without water.

Isolation is nothing new for a child who relies on the street for their survival and lives every day disconnected from their community, with no one to turn to. As the global COVID-19 pandemic takes hold, and we all adapt to being more isolated than we were, street-connected children need our help more than ever to stay safe, access vital services and feel a sense of belonging in their community – even if the community is in lockdown.

THANK YOU

UPDATE

The COVID crisis continues.  It is progressing in different ways in different places but it means continued challenges for street children everywhere.  We are setting a new ambitious funding target to allow our partners to respond appropriately in their ever shifting and complex environments and find long terms solutions.