PROJECTS
At St. George, we do not only provide temporary shelter to vulnerable children, but we also trace the family backgrounds of those children, try to understand the reasons that culminate in their situations, work our best to address any identifiable problems, reunite the children with their natural families, if we can (or put them up for fostering or adoption where necessary), and make follow-ups on their state of affairs and well-being. Through these efforts, we engage in multi-pronged approaches to ensure we deliver the services that the children and the families need. These activities culminate in different types of projects, some of which are outlined below.
INTERIM CARE CENTRE (ICC)
This is our main project as it is a daily activity of our program. This is where we get referral cases of vulnerable children who are either from the streets, or in street=connected situations, or being abused. We process and provide temporary shelter for them. We provide psycho-social support, family tracing, family and parenting support, reunification and monitoring to ensure there are recurrences.
COMMUNITY INTERVENTIONS
Through this project, we enroll children into formal and non-formal institutions, give them learning materials, help their parents with tools, fertilizers and capacity building for sustainable livelihoods. We also support vulnerable communities with the drilling of boreholes to provide water for their communities. We help construct latrines for them for community hygiene. We provide training to parents/caregivers on good parenting skills, safeguarding of children's rights, and environmental protection.
Advocacy
Under the Advocacy activities/project, we provide support to girls to encourage them to stay in schools through awareness-raising on menstrual hygiene and reproductive health. We also provide psycho-social support to street and street-connected children in the city centre using our Drop-In Centres as a safe space. We further build the capacity of street and street-connected children on child rights acts, strategy for street children and other services.
VILLAGE SAVINGS & LOANS ASSOCIATION (VSLA)
As a means of preventive measure, we provide support to women in the communities to save money from the sale of their garden harvests in the Village Savings & Loans Association box for the period of a year. Through this savings, women are financially empowered to sustain their families. They also have the ability to take loans from the savings, and to have community dialogues during their meetings. These activities help the families to keep their children from street situations.
