Addressing plight of street children through drama

My Story, a play by Kaami Arts, a child development organisation, puts the family at the centre of street children dilemma. The play was part of activities held by Kaami Arts at Lemigo Hotel on Sunday to raise funds for the Urakunzwe Kibondo Daraja project aimed at using art to address the problem of street children. According to Martine Umulisa, from Kaami Arts, the play was meant to show that the root cause of the “street children phenomenon” is the family. “The root causes of street children phenomena are in the family institution, and if within a family, we insult children, judge and mistreat them, we are responsible for what happens to them when they run away and end on the streets.” In the play, the children act out realistic scenes; a broken family with a violent abusive mother and an alcoholic father. There is also a skit that shows children on the street sniffing glue, begging, scavenging and sleeping out in the cold. To make it real, the children use swear words and vulgar language. Characters like the social workers come to offer help but the children who have lost hope don’t trust them at first. The play ends with the children in class talking about their dreams. The play covers themes such as poverty, genocide, hunger, broken family, child neglect and prostitution. Alfredia Niyoyita, a 15-year-old pupil at Abadacogora Intwari Centre for Children who participated in the play, said, “My father was arrested and our mother abandoned us, leaving behind five of us, I ended up on the streets because we were starving, which wasn’t the case on the streets.” He added that participating in the play helped him forget what he went through. “I advise parents to pay attention to their children, to prevent cases of children running away from home to the street, because living on the street is a very bad experience,” he added. Over 165 children have participated in the project, from six institutions, including child rehabilitation centres, schools and youth cooperatives. According to Tumaini Manimbi, the project coordinator, the play has been staged in 15 different locations around Kigali to sensitise people on the problem of street children and how to solve it.

Entertainment

Addressing plight of street children through drama