Mishono Foundation is a charity organization; an initiative of Mishono Wears, founded initially to provide clothes to the street boys in our community, but with time embraced the objective of providing the basic needs to the boys. It was started on 25th October 2015 and legally registered on 15th July 2016, under the Society’s Act. Currently we have over 40 boys who we provide for, and 20 who we h
ave shortlisted to provide more, based on their willingness to change. Basically we meet with the boys once a month, every last Sunday of the month, where we have them bath, change into clean clothes donated by friends of Mishono Foundation, then we have an afternoon together, interact with them, talk to them, teach them and share a meal with them, as a show of love. We have since started a feeding program, which provides the boys with at least a meal a day, from savings and donations from friends of Mishono Foundation. Since inception, our conditions for provision has enabled positive change in the boys, with reduced hours under substance influence, change in attitude, improved responsibility with the meal cards issued, improved level of cleanliness just to mention but a few. Our short and long term objectives are summarized in our mission and vision statements:
Mission: To recruit street children and enable them live a normal life. Ensure these children are well dressed, have food, shelter, good health, rehabilitated from drugs, access education, are self dependent and in line with religious morals. Vision: Bring positive impact to the society by sharing love with the less fortunate and ensure extinction of street children in our community today. Over the years we have come up with different programs, which help us in reaching and achieving our objectives as an organization. Rehabilitation program: This is where we help the young boys get out of drug and substance abuse by keeping them involved in an activity in the course of the day. Our objective is to reduce the time they have to use the drugs, which in the long run will lead to complete rehabilitation. We also partner with organizations and rehab centers such as Kiambu Rehabilitation Center where we have some of our boys admitted.
2. Feeding Program: Due to the fact that we o no have a home to house the boys, we have this program which we ensure he boys at least get a meal a day. This meal comes with conditions such as the boys have to be fairly clean to get the food and not tipsy at all, which has a lot helped a big deal in dealing with the drug abuse. This involves all our boys who are homeless.
3. Back to school Program: This is through which we have taken the willing boys back to school and supported the few who are already in school. We have 7 children both in primary and secondary school in this program. We have since been on the look out for partnerships with schools, especially boarding schools that can take in our boys on scholarships, although this has not been very successful.
4. Family Support Program: This is a new program that we started this year, whereby we reach out to the families of the boys for those who have relatives around and try connect the boys back. In it, we have taken close to 10 boys back home and we are constantly checking on their progress. The furthest we have taken a boy is Ugunja in Nyanza province and Alvin is doing well. For some we came to realize that they have brothers and sisters and living in adverse poverty and therefore, we started a program where we give the parents grants to open small businesses to support the family. At the moment we have given grants to two mothers, one operating a samosa café and the other doing groceries. We have trained them on basic financial management and look forward to helping them grow.
5. Dressing the Streets Program: This is our main program whereby we collect and gather clothes from friends and family and distribute tem to the boys. We pay a place where they can always take a shower and wash the clothes although most of them forget and just come shower the next time we have the program. Normally, this happens once a month. We are however looking forward to having our own space where the boys will be comfortable to come as dirty as they are to shower and do their laundry.
6. Community Advancement Program: This is the program through which we take up the challenge of improving our community, as it has a lot of influence to achieving our objectives. We do clean ups, awareness campaigns and get involved in activities pertaining improving the state of Kawangware both by the government and other stakeholders. We are looking forward to having programs that touch and cover the whole being of our boys to ensure that they get all the necessities for change. This include medical plans for the boys, intense guidance and counseling, getting host families just to mention but a few, all which will help in achieving our objectives fully. To run these programs, we rely fully on our own contributions and proceeds from our merchandise (t-shirts, wrist bands and portraits).
