WHAT IS MAKINI.

Makini is a nonprofit organization supporting children and youth living and working on the streets in Tanzania. This organization started working since 2008 and it was officially registered in 2010.

WHAT ACTIVITIES MAKINI DOES

We identify children from different streets even the pocket areas where kids do not share with peoples easily and keep them as their private domains. We do the identification in daily basis to keep ourselves in-track with children and to be updated with all new, secrets and coming information's about children. This includes supporting them medically, psychologically, food and clothes wise and rescue little new children by linking them to different care providers.

Another step is rehabilitation. we invite identified children to the training venues where they get linked with different training's according to their desire and talents, these venue are not permanent areas and not free for a child to even make noise, laugh Lauder or cry just to release the burden inside them, they meet with Makini officials for about four to six hours which the remaining hours they spend back to the streets. Through this way of training we manage to support more than 500 children a year, our question is, if we invite these children to the place where they feel free and spend whole day with officials around them, How many children are we going to rescue every year? And this becomes well planned with enough funding to duplicate the project to all regions with high number of street children in Tanzania, Wont us call Tanzania in 20 years to come as the land free off street children? 

We do understand there are many issues affecting children and families to make children run to the streets, But if the protection teams and care plans are well arranged and managed, all the issues affecting children will be supported within the community, government and right care provider. This will make our children to send information to the right place and reduce number of children going to the streets more and more.

Our Other stage is reuniting children with their families or relatives. This stage is done after children have been assessed and matured in support and the family have been visited and assessed if they can manage to stay with the child without a child going back to the street. this is a very important stage to our activities. It is the harvesting side of our journey.

We are also conduct preventive measures and activities to support children within their communities so that they do not go to the streets. We opened a branch in Tanga, Lushoto District where there are many children going to the big cities like Dar es salaam for work after drop out from school or not even went to school at all. Makini decided to put a branch in Tanga to rescue children before they end up on the streets by supporting them with their rights and responsibilities as children.

Makini uses different methods to engage children and support them. The use of artistic skills is more practical and involving which gives children chance to express their feelings and be practical not listeners only. Art is also gives children a chance to present what they have been practicing and proudly show off their talents. 

We use play therapy for younger children to engage them into playful intervention and make them feel their child hood again. These children have acted being father and mothers of their own on the streets which made them to be rigid, hard, overprotective and violent in ways of defending themselves.

For the adult children we use psychotherapy which is in an theatrical way to help a child express the problem she has come across and all children involved in finding the solution of the problems.

Makini use recreational and sports activities like circus, rope, cycling, ball sports and many to keep children fit and focused as well as reducing their stress.