Rehabilitation for addicted street connected youth

Firstly, apologies for the delay in this report.

We currently are coming to the end of our intensive 6 month daily work with our World of Work (WOW) Group 5. Since we started with this group back in February 2023 many of this group have reduced their usage of drugs. The implementation of our Personal Development & Lifeskills module twice a week helps as well as having a counsellor attend the programme twice a week as well as the support of our core staff. Most of our young people are now ready to continue with the next stage of the programme by beginning skills training, apprenticeships or running their own small business. The young mothers will continue attending at Edwina Gateley House for a while longer.

Recently addiction counsellors from Kitale Community Advancement Programme (KAP) spent the day with our WOW 5 group. As the KAP team come from time to time the young people are free and open with them. The youth said they found their sessions helpful for them. We have decided that going forward rather than sending people for residential rehabilitation we will refer the young person to the KAP Community Rehabilitation programme. This is due both to the lesser expense involved with community rehab and the reluctance of some youth to leaving Kitale for residential rehab for a period of 3 or 6 months.

While reporting some of you will know of "Joe" whom we supported for two sessions at rehab during 2021 and 2022. We see "Joe" now from time to time when he visits us or when we meet him on the streets. "Joe" is back drinking again now for some time. When we meet he is in good form and says he is not drinking too much. Leaving addiction is not easy...

Thanks to everyone who has supported this project.