Street Child is the charity of the month for October
In 2008, Tom Dannatt travelled out to Sierra Leone, then the poorest country in the world. Whilst there, he witnessed unimaginable poverty. Children as young as five were living, working or surviving on the streets; they were alone, out of school and without hope for the future. He was inspired to act. So, Street Child was born.
The plan was to find one hundred street-connected children and get them back into a family and back to school. Since then, Street Child has helped over 250,000 children to go to school. They’ve also helped over 15,000 families to set up businesses in some of the world's toughest places so they can afford the cost of educating their children long-term.
Currently, 121 million school-aged children are out of education world-wide. Millions more children are in school but failing to learn. Street Child believes that achieving universal basic education is the single greatest step that can be taken towards the elimination of global poverty.
Street Child’s projects focus on a combination of education, child protection and livelihood support to address the social, economic and structural issues that lie beneath today’s education crisis. Wherever they work, they partner with local organisations and communities, supporting low-cost sustainable solutions that make a real difference to the children.
Street Child goes to some of the world’s toughest places, including remote, hard-to-reach areas and fragile, disaster-affected states. They are currently based in ten countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Nepal, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka and Uganda.
For more information, please visit their web site: www.street-child.co.uk