Jitegemee is a Kenyan NGO created for the purpose of aiding street children

Street children

A street child is a child who lives on the streets of a city, deprived of family care and protection. Most children on the streets are between the ages of about 5 and 17 years old.Street children live in junk boxes, parks or on the street itself...

 in Machakos

Machakos

Machakos is a town in Kenya, 64 kilometres southeast of Nairobi. It is the capital of the Machakos District in Eastern Province of Kenya. Machakos Town is a major rural centre, and also a satellite town due to its proximity to Nairobi. Its population is rapidly growing and is 192,117...

, Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

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History/Foundation

Jitegemee was founded in 2003 by the work of Farah Stockman

Farah Stockman

Farah Stockman is an award-winning American journalist, currently employed by the Boston Globe.-Education:Stockman attended Harvard University, graduating in 1996....

 and Alex Mutiso, and has been supported since by grants and contributions. It is overseen by a U.S. NGO, Jitegemee USA.

Purpose

Jitegemee means "sustain yourself" in Swahili

Swahili language

Swahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...

 and the program focuses on giving the street children the training and means necessary to become self-sustaining. Their work is ongoing and relatively successful insofar as around 130 children (as of May 2008) are participating in one of the programs Jitegemee has established.

Common alternate paths for such children on the streets of Machakos include prostitution, drug-addiction, crime, and unskilled labor producing very little income.

Practice

Kenyan law

Education in Kenya

-History:Historical records from the travels of Johann Ludwig Krapf and Johannes Rebmann reveal that Kenyans had access to education as far back as 1728 with a Swahili manuscript Utendi wa Tambuka, attesting to the fact...

 requires that children in grades 1-8 attend free primary school, so for this age group Jitegemee provides food as well as money for concerns such as books and uniforms. After completion of primary school, children with interest and sufficient grades can elect to attend high school (referred to as secondary school). Children lacking the grades or desire to attend high school can participate in Jitegemee's vocational program.

For secondary school children, Jitegemee continues to provide food and expenses as well as school tuition. For the vocational program enrollees, they teach classes on how to be a productive employee or mentee, and then help the kids find mentors in one of a handful of local trades ranging from hair-dressing to welding

Welding

Welding is a fabrication or sculptural process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by causing coalescence. This is often done by melting the workpieces and adding a filler material to form a pool of molten material that cools to become a strong joint, with pressure sometimes...

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