History
History of Street Child Africa
1994 - Street Child Africa’s success story started in this year when a Missionary of Africa Catholic priest visited the Parish of Our Lady of Lourdes in Thames Ditton and told the parishioners there of his work with street children in Accra, the capital of Ghana. The reasons for there being so many children on the streets were numerous and complicated but the stories were of individual children facing enormous challenges and they touched the hearts of the Parish Priest and his parishioners. A Support Group was set up in the parish to help the local agency working with street children in Accra and over the next four years parishioners and members of the surrounding community were inspired and motivated by their growing relationship with the agency and the children they were helping and the Support Group grew in numbers and income.
1998 - A group of parishioners in this parish formally registered Street Child Africa as a charity and a board of six Trustees was elected to oversee the workings of the charity, raise funds and awareness.
2000 - The Head Office was formally established in 3 small rooms in Thames Ditton, from which funds were raised to help hundreds of children through the agencies we supported in Ghana; CAS and Street Girls Aid.
2001 - The Board commissioned a consultant anthropologist to visit Africa to evaluate the work of agencies working with street children. This consultant was to investigate agencies in both English- and non English-speaking countries, with a remit given to be all inclusive. Resulting from her research, the decision was made to accept and support a selection of agencies in Senegal, Mozambique and Zambia, in addition to those already supported in Ghana and the Street Child Africa that we know today really started to take shape.
2002 – By this year the administrative work had expanded sufficiently to require the appointment of a full time Administrator, with some part time staff.
2005 - A Director was appointed, followed by a fulltime Fundraiser a year later when the head office moved to its present address.
2008 - Street Child Africa hosted a workshop in Mozambique, bringing together the agencies we supported from across Africa to offer training and a chance to share good practice.
Street Child Africa’s effectiveness steadily grew with the appointment of an Overseas Programme Director as well as a Senior Overseas Programme Officer. Full time staff numbers increased slightly but our high calibre volunteers continue to help enormously in the work of the charity.
The number of local agencies now supported in Africa rose to 12, due to the inclusion of those in Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Uganda.
2011 - A new Executive Director and a Special Events Co-ordinator were appointed. We are now lucky enough to have seven Trustees from differing professional backgrounds who bring expertise and many skills (such as law, finance, marketing, overseas programmes, management) to the Board to ensure good governance and full accountability as required by law.
Our fundraising, which began mainly in Churches and Support Groups, now comes from a wide variety of sources – schools, large corporations, local businesses, trust funds and foundations, major donors, merchandise, faith-based groups of all denominations, the media, art galleries, events and the newsletter. Street Child Africa today continues to reflect the best of our history with strong community links, excellent volunteers, committed supporters and inspired and motivated staff.
As we move ahead to the challenges of 2012 we are confident that, together, the community that is Street Child Africa can make a positive difference to the lives of street children, whose potential is our inspiration.
