Evie Grace Foundation is heavily invested in the welfare of street children in Malawi. Previous blogs have examined the entrenched and heartbreaking street cultures that exist in this Southern African nation. In this blog, we focus more closely on the daily reality they experience and the ethos behind Evie Grace Foundation’s on the ground practice to rehabilitate these young people and honour their human rights.
Many young Malawian children and adolescents are dealing with unimaginable levels of trauma due to endemic poverty and unsafe environments. In general, children’s deprivation and poverty are markedly worse in rural Malawian areas than in the cities. Nevertheless, throughout the nation, children on the street are acutely vulnerable. There are complex causes that drive them onto the streets and put their lives at risk: divorce, food scarcity, HIV, child labour, mental illness, physical or sexual abuse, or superstitions about witchcraft. Culture on the street itself involves an entrenched cycle with complex hierarchies that force children into survival mode. Many children are bound to the servitude of chasing cash on the street. They answer to abusive families or ring leaders who demand they beg or commit petty crimes. The main perception that they are orphans without protection is somewhat accurate, given high rates of parental death from AIDS, but it is also common for children to have families or abusive guardians who force them into this way of life.
Many children return to their families at night, but even then, they are deprived of education and are exposed to the threats of rape and violence daily. Evie Grace’s prior work and experience in Kenya inform the therapeutic approach of counselling both children and families to ensure that children can be reintegrated into family life and feel safer at home. Evie Grace also recognises that meeting basic material needs (food and shelter) is essential but that street children have more nuanced socio-economic needs that have to be met – these start with counselling, and later graduate to socialisation and education.
In terms of counselling, Evie Grace Foundation recognises the substantial developmental trauma many Malawian children have experienced. On the ground, social workers are guided by the principles of Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP). DDP is focused on helping children form healthy attachments and rebuild trusting relationships with adults, all while practising compassion for their suffering. It was designed in the West to assist children who were adopted or grew up in foster care. The adult guiding the child through DDP helps them construct narratives around their experience, and with acceptance, empathy, playfulness, and curiosity, enables them to claim their own stories, heal from past complex trauma and start to realise their potential. Therapy is a long road, and many young children are resistant to assistance or trusting therapists or social workers as they are operating in survival mode. Dyadic Developmental Therapy, however, has evidence-based results that can markedly improve young people’s mental health.
Throughout 2021, Evie Grace’s fundraising efforts will be focused on establishing a therapeutic home for these young children and adolescents. The home will be a haven in which Evie Grace can help children can begin their journey, through therapy, to claiming safety, trust, education, and the ultimate goal: happiness.
If you would like more information about our plans to build a therapeutic rescue home for street children in Malawi, see here.
Written by Lucy Oliver
