Shekhinah’s night outreach teams patrol Kampala’s most dangerous areas, offering street children what they crave most – safety and belonging. We found 9-year-old Maria huddled under a Nakulabye market stall, her tiny body covered in bruises from older street boys. Today, she sleeps in a clean bunk bed, attends our primary school, and no longer fights panic attacks thanks to our trauma therapy dogs. “The first time Goldie (the therapy dog) licked my face,” Maria remembers, “I cried because it was the first gentle touch I’d felt in years.”
Our Street-to-Shekhinah program follows a proven three-phase model: Rescue (immediate medical/emotional first aid), Restoration (6 months of intensive counseling and education catch-up), and Reintegration (either into our family-style homes or carefully vetted foster families). Former street boy Tom, now 14, recently graduated to Phase Three – he’s apprenticing with our partner garage while mentoring newer arrivals. “I show them my scars,” he says, “so they know their wounds can heal too.”
The results speak powerfully: 83% of street children in our program maintain stable housing and education after two years, compared to just 12% survival rates for those remaining on streets. Your $50 donation covers a rescue kit containing emergency medical care, nourishing meals, and the first safe night’s sleep these children have known. For Kampala’s invisible children, this is the difference between dying unknown and thriving as God’s cherished child.
