Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!
31 January 2024
Post No. 337
The Week’s Contents
• Halving
Povertyfor and with Street and Homeless Children in Africa• New Year’s Structured Finance Activities/Micro-projects under Financial Capacity and Capability Building Programme/Scheme: Activity 4 (31/01/2024 to 06/02/2024)
• Joy of Giving 2024
… And much more!
Key Messages
• Halving Poverty for and with Street and Homeless Children in Africa
This is a standalone appeal, which is about humanitarianly responding to the request of unsheltered children in Africa. The appeal continues our help to reduce poverty by allocating power on home and land to those who would like to become private home and land owners in Africa. In the context of this appeal, we are particularly working on the conditions of children in Africa who do not have access to healthy shelter, and how they can be assisted to achieve this access to halve their number.
These children, who come from various backgrounds, try to find opportunities that are available on the streets. They could be children victims of a dysfunctional family, the result of culture, affected by domestic violence, the product of poverty, urban migrant, the displaced by wars or natural disasters in Africa.
They live and work on the streets as they try to pick up any opportunities available on the streets. These opportunities are generally menial jobs like sale of small goods, car washing, shoe cleaning and polishing, including crimes to survive.
Some of them are homeless as well. There are children who are or become homeless for various reasons including wars, civil insecurity and natural disasters. Many of them end up being internally displaced.
All these children, who are under the age of 18, need support.
You can help reduce or halve the number of street and homeless children in Africa.
Your support will help to enhance social protection of these children, strengthen their economic support and improve their educational outcomes and skills development.
More about this appeal can be found under the Main Development section of this post.
• New Year’s Structured Finance Activities or Micro-projects under Financial Capacity and Capability Building Programme or Scheme: Activity 4 (31/01/2024 to 06/02/2024)
We are continuing our programme and scheme to build Financial Capacity and Capability within the community. We are available to work in hybrid mode with users via the Financial Capacity and Capability Building Programme (FCCBP) or Scheme (FCCBS) so that our community members can be stronger this year. Both FCCBP and FCCBS will help beneficiaries to reduce risks linked to financial incapacity and incapability while improving their intergenerational income and transfers.
The fourth activities of FCCBP and FCCBS, which will be run from 31 January to 06 February 2024, have been highlighted below.
• • 31 January to 06 February 2024: Taking Life-saving Financial Decisions (Activity 4 of FCCBP)
Activity 4 of FCCBP is an open discussion with participants on the way they decide their financial matters, whether they do it alone or consult the people around them or ask for financial advice from a financial adviser.
Indeed, life-saving financial decisions are also life-defining financial decisions. Life-defining financial decisions are, according to ‘wiserwomen.org’ (1),
“Decisions you make throughout your lifetime – choosing a career, getting married, having children, buying a home, starting to save and invest – have a big impact on your future financial security, including retirement”.
It means engaging in the financial decision-making process which comprises identification of your financial goals, gathering relevant financial information, analysis of financial data, development of alternative solutions, selection of the best financial strategy, implementation of the selected strategy, impact monitoring and evaluation of the decision.
If any of our users want to participate in this exercise of open and frank discussion on how they take their life-saving financial decisions or how they can improve it, they can contact CENFACS.
• • 31 January to 06 February 2024: Making Financial Decision via Budget (Activity 4 of FCCBS)
In order to make a sound and well-thought decision, one needs some tools to guide them. One of these tools is budget (i.e. a predetermined quantitative plan expressed in financial terms for a given period). In this Activity 4 of FCCBS, participants will be supported in doing or reviewing their budget to support their financial decisions. They will learn or revisit their budget (e.g., household budget) and how this budget can help them to make better financial decisions. This exercise will cover budget design, analysis, implementation and impact monitoring and evaluation.
Those who will be interested in developing their financial budget before making their financial decisions, they are free to contact CENFACS.
• Joy of Giving 2024
Today is the last day of sharing your most impactful and rewarding experiences and feelings of giving. You can share with us your sense of gladness. You can connect and unites with us through your happiness of generosity of helping others.
You can share the good feeling factor you had after giving to causes like the noble and beautiful ones of CENFACS. You can speak to us how delighted you are after giving to charities, the impact of your giving on others, the barriers you overcame in giving, the inspirations you brought to others in giving.
The Joy-of-Giving Days are also an opportunity to motivate others who may not be aware or do not believe that giving brings a good feeling to the givers or donors or even funders. Through your sharing stories of giving, others can find the strengths, power and wisdom to become charity donors or funders. The more donors or funders we have, the better for the noble and beautiful causes of poverty reduction.
To spread your good feeling of giving or tell and share your joy of giving, please contact CENFACS today.
Extra Messages
• Gifts of Peace, Edition 2023-2024, Closes 31 January 2024
• Poverty Reduction Show in 2024
• CENFACS’ be.Africa Forum E-discusses Nurturing a High Sense of Poverty Reduction in Africa
• Gifts of Peace, Edition 2023-2024, Closes 31 January 2024
Our Season of Giving through the Gifts of Peace for Edition 2023-2024 has not yet finished. However, the Gifts-of-Peace Campaign is ending today 31 January 2024. We are making a plea to those who have not yet managed to support them to do it now.
If you have not yet supported, you can still do something great for poverty relief and for healing the lingering economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic and the scars of the cost-of-living crisis.
Although the deadline for the Season of Donation for these gifts is today 31 January 2024, we will still accept any donations made after this deadline to enable those who will not be in a position to donate by today’s deadline to have a chance to donate after.
Please do not wait for the expiration of the deadline as the needs are pressing and urgent.
We know that many supporters of good causes have been affected by the cost-of-living crisis. We are as well aware of the current economic situation of hard landing in boost after the high inflation period and economic growth is very low, which both complicate the way people donate to good causes.
However, for those who can please do not hesitate to support these noble and beautiful causes of peace since the potential beneficiaries of them are trebly impacted by:
a) The lingering economic effects of previous crises (like the coronavirus)
b) The already extremely poor conditions in which they are living
c) The scars of the enduring cost-of-living crisis.
Every support counts to help reduce and end extreme poverty.
Please keep the Gifts of Peace in your mind as the giving season continues.
For further details about these Gifts of Peace and or to support, go to http://cenfacs.org.uk/supporting-us/
We look forward to your support. Thank you!
• Poverty Reduction Show in 2024
Showing that poverty reduction is happening despite the events like the cost-of-living is another extra message we would like to share with our users, Africa-based Sister Charitable Organisations and other stakeholders.
This 2024, we would like our local people and Africa-based Sister Charitable Organisations to show or showcase via a variety of evidences, testimonies, cases, films, videos, news and examples of poverty reduction that poverty reduction has happened and continues to happen despite the lingering ill-fated effects of the multiple crises of recent years.
Poverty reduction show can add value to stories of poverty reduction we normally run.
Through this showing exercise, we hope to build a better picture of these poverty reduction cases with features, similarities, differences, patterns and trends for learning and development experience about our system of poverty reduction. It is about proofing and acknowledging that poverty reduction does happen in real life.
To show or share your experience on how poverty reduction has happened to you or those you know despite the lingering ill-fated effects of the multiple crises of recent years, please contact and share with CENFACS.
• CENFACS’ be.Africa Forum E-discusses Nurturing a High Sense of Poverty Reduction in Africa
Generally speaking, most sensible Africans would like to see a reduction or better an end of poverty in Africa. However, being sensible to see better change does not always mean things will happen in the way one feels or perceives them. Things can only move in that the people’s direction if people develop a sense of achieving them. Because of that it makes sense to discuss ways of keeping a High Sense so that poverty reduction keeps occurring in Africa until poverty ends.
To keep poverty reduction continuous, one may need to have a high sense of perception. But, what is a high sense of perception?
The website ‘spiritofchange.org’ (2) explains that
“High Sense of Perception is perception that extends beyond the range of what is considered to be normal perception”.
The same website adds that
“High Sense of Perception requires that you run energy consciousness through your brain differently than you are accustomed… High Sense of Perception is a dance between the active and receptive states of mind”.
So, to realise more results on poverty reduction, one may need to nurture a high sense of perception.
From the above-mentioned definition and its additions, we are discussing the extent to which Africans can nurture a high sense of poverty reduction in whatever they do and positions of responsibilities and capacities they hold. In this discussion, we are recalling the following:
σ the theories of sense and their applicability in the field of poverty reduction and economic development
σ the methodology to follow in order to develop a suitable sense of poverty reduction
σ the relationships between a high sense in the conduct of private/community affairs and poverty reduction (or sustainable development).
Those who may be interested in this discussion can join in and or contribute by contacting CENFACS’ be.Africa, which is a forum for discussion on matters and themes of poverty reduction and sustainable development in Africa and which acts on behalf of its members in making proposals or ideas for actions for a better Africa. They can contact us at our usual address on this site.
Message in French (Message en français)
• Le Forum ‘Une Afrique Meilleure’ de CENFACS discute en ligne ‘Nourrir un sens élevé de la réduction de la pauvreté en Afrique’
D’une manière générale, la plupart des Africains sensés aimeraient voir une réduction ou mieux une fin de la pauvreté en Afrique. Cependant, le fait d’être sensible à un meilleur changement ne signifie pas toujours que les choses se passent de la manière dont on les ressent ou les perçoit. Les choses ne peuvent aller dans cette direction que si les gens développent le sentiment de les réaliser. Pour cette raison, il est logique de discuter des moyens de garder un sens élevé afin que la réduction de la pauvreté continue de se produire en Afrique.
Pour que la réduction de la pauvreté se poursuive, il peut être nécessaire d’avoir un sens élevé de la perception. Mais qu’est-ce qu’un sens élevé de la perception?
Le site web « spiritofchange.org » (2) explique que
«Le sens élevé de la perception est une perception qui s’étend au-delà de ce qui est considéré comme une perception normale».
Le même site Web ajoute que
«Un sens élevé de la perception exige que vous fassiez passer la conscience de l’énergie à travers votre cerveau différemment de ce à quoi vous êtes habitué… Un sens élevé de la perception est une danse entre les états d’esprit actif et réceptif».
Ainsi, pour parvenir à réduire la pauvreté, il peut être nécessaire de cultiver un sens élevé de la perception.
À partir de la définition mentionnée ci-dessus et de ses ajouts, nous discutons de la mesure dans laquelle les Africains peuvent nourrir un sentiment élevé de réduction de la pauvreté dans tout ce qu’ils font et des postes de responsabilités et de capacités qu’ils occupent. Dans cette discussion, nous rappelons ce qui suit:
σ les théories du sens et leur applicabilité dans le domaine de la réduction de la pauvreté et du développement économique
σ la méthodologie à suivre pour développer un sens adéquat de la réduction de la pauvreté
σ les relations entre un sens élevé dans la conduite des affaires privées/communautaires et la réduction de la pauvreté (ou développement durable).
Les personnes susceptibles d’être intéressées par cette discussion peuvent y participer et/ou y contribuer en contactant le Forum ‘Une Afrique Meilleure’ de CENFACS, qui est un lieu de discussion sur les questions et les thèmes de la réduction de la pauvreté et du développement durable en Afrique et qui agit au nom de ses membres en faisant des propositions ou des idées d’actions pour une Afrique meilleure. Ils peuvent nous contacter à notre adresse habituelle sur ce site.
Main Development
• Halving Poverty for and with Street and Homeless Children in Africa
This appeal includes two items:
a) Appeal summaries
b) How to donate.
• • Appeal Summaries
The following summarises the data, needs, request, use, beneficiaries and outcomes that briefly make the case for halving poverty for and with street and homeless children in Africa.
• • • The data
Although there are estimates in terms of the number of street and homeless children in Africa, many organisations and experts working on this issue in Africa and local sources argue that this number is huge. Our Africa-based Sister Charitable Organisations working on the grounds confirmed this huge number of these children, knowing the conditions and circumstances of many families they are dealing with.
• • • • Estimated number of street children in Africa
Different organisations working on street children matter provide their numbers according to the places of their interest.
The website ‘futureofafrica.org’ (3) states that
“There are 30 million children living in street situations in Africa, according to a 2011 ILO-UNICEF joint estimate”.
Likewise, the website ‘africanews.com’ (4) indicates that
“There is an estimate of 20,000 homeless children in Kinshasa’s streets“.
In October 2023, ‘agenziafides.org’ (5) aired that 15,000 children were living on the streets in Malawi.
The above figures are just a few of examples of data about children being in street situations in Africa. However, if one considers the all Africa this number could be huge as the joint estimate by ILO-UNICEF pointed out.
• • • • Estimated number of homeless children in Africa
The United Nations Children’s Fund (6) provides children statistics which show that in 2021 there were 14,000,000 internally displaced persons under the age of 18 in Sub-Saharan Africa, because of conflict and violence.
Obviously, these persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or leave their homes or places of habitual residence were homeless and needed healthy shelter. Many of them are still homeless as we make this appeal.
Furthermore, the website ‘worldpopulationreview.com’ (7) indicates that the 10 top African countries with the highest homelessness rates in 2023 were the following countries with their respective numbers of homeless persons: Nigeria (24,400,000), Egypt (12,000,000), DR Congo (5,332,000), Somalia (2,968,000), Sudan (2,730,000), Ethiopia (2,693,000), South Sudan (1,542,000), Cameroon (1,033,000), Mozambique (769,000) and Burkina Faso (700,000).
Amongst these homeless persons, there are those under the age of 18. For example, according to ‘goalglobal.org’ (8),
“In Ethiopia, it is currently estimated that up to 600,000 children and youth are homeless because of severe poverty, unemployment, and family related challenges in July 2023″.
It should be noted that the above-mentioned street and homeless are desperately looking for their humanitarian needs of survival and shelter to be met.
Without confusing child streetism and child homelessness, there are cases where the same children are both homeless and in street situations.
• • • The Needs
The needs for emergency life-saving support are 24 times more than average in Africa where the livelihoods of unsheltered children are severely affected. These children need your life-saving and humanitarian help to meet their life-surviving need of shelter.
• • • The Ask
What it has been asked to you is your influence or power to have a positive effect on those who are holding the keys to solutions regarding the problems these unsheltered children are facing, especially for problems that are man-made.
Alternatively, you can donate money to support these children.
Your gift of Positive Influence or Money or both will provide an emergency life-saving and enhancing relief to the Street and Homeless Children in Africa.
• • • The Use
Your gift of Positive Influence or Money will help to address the plight of street and homeless children as follows:
√ to address the problem of street and homeless children, which sometimes get ignored
√ to stop parents who are sending their children to the streets to beg, steal or engage in petty trade
√ to turn and keep schools as a place of learning and education, not centres of violence and crime
√ to support street and homeless children to go back to school instead of working or looking for food to support their families
√ to incentivize parents to send their children to school
√ to enhance social protection of these children
√ to cut the number of street and homeless children
√ In brief, to reduce or end deprivations linked to the lack of access to basic services, violence, abuse, neglect, exploitation and other vulnerabilities.
• • • The Beneficiaries of your Gift of Positive Influence or Money Donation
They include children who are…
σ the victims of a dysfunctional family
σ affected by domestic violence or escaping violence to live on the streets
σ who are on the streets or homeless because disaster-related and conflict-driven causes
σ in street situations because of poverty
σ urban migrant in street situations
σ destitute on the streets
σ unsurprised living alone in urban streets
σ street children as a result of breaking up of family structures
σ generational street children
σ homeless because of economic hardships, natural disasters and other social factors
σ living in makeshift shelters or overcrowded/displacement sites
σ sheltering in displacement camps
etc.
In short, the beneficiaries will be children in street situations, that is children who spend the majority of their time on the streets, either living there or for their livelihoods with or without family. They include the four categories of street children (child of the street, child on the street, part of a street family and in institutionalised care) as defined by USAID (9).
• • • The Outcomes
With the influencing support or money donated, the following changes will be expected:
√ Reduction in the number of street children
√ Cut in numbers of homeless children
√ Better food supplements for children’s well-being and welfare
√ Reduction of malnutrition for these children
√ Increase in the number of street and homeless children returning to education
√ Rise in the number of rescued children from the streets
√ More and better access to healthy shelter for street and homeless children
√ More happy and healthy sheltered children in Africa
Etc.
• • How to donate
You can donate either influence or money or both.
• • • Donating influence
To donate, please contact influential persons (or those having the keys) to reduce or solve the detrimental effects of the crises that the African unsheltered children are suffering from and make these persons reduce or end these negative effects on them.
You can as well influence the things or factors that determine child streetism and homelessness in order to create lasting favourable healthy shelter conditions for these unsheltered children.
Please also let CENFACS know about your influencing work or contribution you are or will be making and its outcome on behalf of the street and homeless children of Africa.
To let us know, you can contact CENFACS as follows:
*over phone
*via email
*through text
*by filling the contact form on this site.
On receipt of your message or influencing donation, CENFACS will contact you for record and thank you for any influencing donation made. However, should you wish your influencing support to remain anonymous; we will respect your wish.
• • • Donating money
You can donate money, pledge and make a gift declaration to support.
• • • • Making a Money Donation
You can make a donation of £5 or more to support Street and Homeless Children in Africa (SHCA).
• • • • Making a Pledge
You can make a pledge of £5 or any amount more than £5 to support SHCA.
• • • • Making a Gift Aid Declaration
You can make a gift aid declaration to support SHCA.
All donations, pledges and gift aid declarations MUST be made payable to CENFACS (the Centre for Francophone African Development).
To avoid fundraising frauds and scams, CENFACS would like to ask to all potential funders and donors to contact us prior to making any donations, pledges and gift aid declarations.
• • • • How to Donate Money
You can donate
*Over phone
*Via email
*Through text
*By filling the contact form on this site.
SHCA will be very grateful if you could donate to their noble cause of accessing healthy shelter. Your support will halve the number of SHCA who do not have a healthy sheltered life.
Please DONATE, PLEDGE AND MAKE A GIFT AID DECLARATION of £5 or any amount more than £5 as a way of supporting this project. CENFACS will enthusiastically accept, on behalf of the beneficiaries, your given support.
CENFACS welcomes any enquiries and or queries about this humanitarian relief appeal.
Please do not wait to donate as the needs are NOW pressing and urgent.
We look forward to your support to make helpful difference to those children in pressing needs of survival and of coping with both child streetism and homelessness.
Thank you for your generosity.
Thank you in anticipation for your willingness to give your Positive Influence or Money and help save the lives of the street and homeless children in Africa.
_________
• References
(1) https://wiserwomen.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/seven-decisions-english (accessed in January 2024)
(2) https://www.spiritofchange.org/practical-high-sense-perception/ (accessed in January 2024)
(3) https://www.futureofafrica.org/site/future-of-african-mission (accessed in January 2024)
(4) https://www.africanews.com/2023/06/08/music-offers-hope-for-kinshasa-street-children/ (accessed in January 2024)
(5) https://www.agenziafides.org/en/news/74286-AFRICA_MALAWI_The_plight_of_Malawi’s_15,000_children (accessed in January 2024)
(6) United Nations Children’s Fund (2023), The State of the World’s Children 2023. For every child vaccination, UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight, Florence, April 023
(7) https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rakings/homeless-by-country (accessed in January 2024)
(8) https://www.goalglobal.org/stories/18,000-street-children-in-ethiopia (accessed in January 2024)
(9) yapi.org/childrens-rights/street-children/ (accessed in January 2024)
_________
• Help CENFACS Keep the Poverty Relief Work Going this Year
We do our work on a very small budget and on a voluntary basis. Making a donation will show us you value our work and support CENFACS’ work, which is currently offered as a free service.
One could also consider a recurring donation to CENFACS in the future.
Additionally, we would like to inform you that planned gifting is always an option for giving at CENFACS. Likewise, CENFACS accepts matching gifts from companies running a gift-matching programme.
Donate to support CENFACS!
FOR ONLY £1, YOU CAN SUPPORT CENFACS AND CENFACS’ NOBLE AND BEAUTIFUL CAUSES OF POVERTY REDUCTION.
JUST GO TO: Support Causes – (cenfacs.org.uk)
Thank you for visiting CENFACS website and reading this post.
Thank you as well to those who made or make comments about our weekly posts.
We look forward to receiving your regular visits and continuing support throughout 2024 and beyond.
With many thanks.
