(ANS – Nairobi) – “In my adult life I always wanted to work with and for street children; first in my home country Slovenia, then in Ethiopia in Bosco Children and later in Kenya”. That is how Polona Dominik, a young Slovenian social worker, begins her testimony in the Salesian Bulletin of the East African Province.

I came to Bosco Boys Nairobi in February 2012 and spent two good years as a volunteer. I am a social worker by profession. We had almost 200 former street boys with us in Bosco Boys in Langata and Kuwinda, plus others who were under our sponsorship after completing the program at Bosco Boys. There were new requests daily for admissions, so as a social worker there was a great deal that I could do, and a great deal that I have learnt which I could not learn anywhere else.

One thing is sure: life does not give equal opportunities to all. I met children and their families with stories of suffering, poverty, negligence, abuse, devastation… in a country that is very rich in many ways. Every day I was meeting boys, whose family was absent or unable to provide food, shelter and education, so they are forced to look after themselves by stealing or by earning a little through street jobs (like collecting garbage etc.). Countless number of children live like this and only a small percentage have the possibility of rehabilitation in a centre like Bosco Boys. (…)

It is never the child’s fault that he is on the streets. How could it be? He is just a child, who came to this world and is entrusted into the hands of the adult world, which too often fails to take care of him. He is just a child. And when he or she fails in life, it is OUR failure. What do I mean by “our”? I mean all of us. Society is divided into rich and poor, with the rich often being unwilling to share whatever they can with the poor. I mean institutions who receive these children and the child still doesn’t prosper in life. I mean society that is ignorant of the world and needs of children.

In short this is what I say after almost 3 years in Kenya. Now I am no longer working with Bosco Boys, but I work FOR them, in the headquarters of Don Bosco East Africa. I’m daily struggling and trying to touch the hearts of people of Kenya in order to get sympathy for those who are less fortunate, and to be able to give and share. (…)

I can describe my experience at Bosco Boys in one sentence: there is nothing nobler or more important in the world than saving the lives of needy children, and I am happy that in Bosco Boys I was part of that noble cause.

Published 19/03/2015