Street Child Italia Onlus

Street Child Italia is the Italian branch of the UK charity Street Child.

Established in 2008, it aims to create educational opportunity for some of the most vulnerable children in West Africa.

Starting in Sierra Leone, then the poorest country in the world, we have supported over 20,000 urban and rural children to access a quality education.

Together with our local partners, the charity has grown since 2008 from one project for 100 children in Northern Sierra Leone, to one of the most broad-reaching charities currently working in the region with 30 projects in multiple countries.

Street Child's principal focus is upon empowering children by giving them the chance to go to school and giving their families the wherewithal to keep them there.

Street Child has been responding to Ebola since the first cases appeared in spring 2014 but as the impact of the disaster, and scale of unmet need, has become starker, the charity started radically scaling its Ebola response in August 2014.

Street Child is focusing its response in the areas which are currently under served by other agencies and where the charity has the highest level of experience and expertise.

Street Child’s response in Sierra Leone and Liberia is focused on Ebola-affected children and their families. The charity is working with the most vulnerable in both regions including Ebola orphans and quarantined families.

Looking at figures gathered from our own team work, especially in Sierra Leone, we estimate that there are 20.000 children that have already lost their primary caregiver to Ebola.

According to correlated figures from the WHO and UNICEF, there is the potential for them to be 1,000 children orphaned by Ebola every day.

Street Child Italia has committed to supporting at least 1000 of Ebola orphans but the need to do more is huge.

Thanks to the donations collected Street Child will provide:
• trauma counselling
• An emergency response pack which includes new clothing, footwear, medication, baby milk (where relevant), toys, new bedding and food - in most cases, children exposed to the virus will have had their possessions burnt to stem the risk of infection
• Resettlement support, placing the child with a permanent caregiver (typically an extended family member)
• Small enterprise training and grants for the new caregiver to ensure they can care for their extended family Street Child Italia’s objective is now collecting 50.000€ by the safeguard at least 1.000 of the children orphaned by Ebola.