Malezi Bora na Maisha Mazuri: “Good Parenting for a Good Life” in Kenya Updates

Globally and in Kenya, children and youth leave their homes to make a life in the streets primarily because of poverty, family dysfunction, and child abuse, among other reasons. Once on the streets, young people are subject to harsh living conditions, and must often engage in substance use, survival sex and other means to survive. As a result, some young people do not return home, and in many cases have children of their own and raise them on the streets. With frequent violence experienced among the street community, children raised on the streets risk being caught in a cycle of intergenerational violence; one of the very reasons that lead young people to the streets to begin with.

2023

2022

malezi bora team dinner

The Malezi Bora team is excited to announce that fieldwork has been launched for the Malezi Bora programme! Research training is in progress. After a Parent Advisory Group meeting, data collection is set to begin.

 

Reporting by Kathleen Murphy

The Malezi Bora na Maisha Mazuri team was thrilled to be awarded a grant from the GPI Emerging Trends Fund. These funds will support our work in Eldoret, Kenya, to refine the Malezi Bora programme for street-connected mothers to engage fathers too. By undertaking formative research to better understand the gendered nature of parenting practices among this population, as well as important content and delivery considerations for engaging fathers (including opportunities to leverage the digital ecosystem), our goal is to improve positive and playful parenting practices by both parenting partners, challenge gender norms, and reduce violence against children and violence against women.    

Our project team has also expanded to include Co-Investigator Dr Eve Puffer from Duke University, Collaborator Jessica Clark from the Consortium for Street Children, and a new Steering Committee member Dr Lonnie Embleton from Mount Sinai. In essence, our team is growing, with the goal of putting folks in place who can contribute both to this project and its next steps. We are also pleased to be partnering with Innodems, Kenya.