A rare chance

90 street boys get counselling, shelter and education at Dogodogo Drop-In Centre in Dar es Salaam

By Julie Bach

27. October 2005

Every day a small fight against poverty is fought at the Dogodogo Drop-In Center in Dar es Salaam. Around 90 boys are staying at the modest house in the centre of the city. They sleep on thin mats and they only have a small locker each for their personal things. But if they did not stay there  they would live in the street. “We try not to make it too comfortable here, it would simply attract too many boys. As it is we already have to send a lot (of boys) on to other organisations,” says Dolorosa Duncan. She is the project coordinator at the center.
Many of the boys arrived in the city alone from rural Tanzania. They lived in the streets of Dar es Salaam until they came to the center. A lot of them have had first-hand experience with child abuse and violence. “The children have run away from something horrible in their families - but the life in the streets is hard for them, with many smoking marijuana even though they are quite young,” Dolorosa Duncan says. But at the center the children get a rare chance of help. They get counselling and shelter, and they all start in a school. “For the kids here it is very important not to get stigmatised, that is why they all go to normal schools among regular kids,” Dolorosa Duncan says.
However, the point of the center is not to let the boys stay permanently.

“Our main objective is always to reunite a boy with his family or relatives,” Dolorosa Duncan says. That is why the boys are sent back to their relatives every Christmas to visit. “We really want to make an effort to re-establish their relationship with their relatives,” she says. Nevertheless, she points out that in cases of sexual abuse it is not advised.