MARRIANE PALLISTER

Rick Mwiinga and his twin brother spent four years on the streets of Lusaka, the Zambian capital. In 2002, the boys were rescued by workers from a project on the outskirts of the city known as Mthunzi - shelter.

They found themselves living with a dozen other boys around their age (at the time they were about 13 years old, although they were uncertain of their exact age). They were given clean clothes, food and sent to the local school in the nearby village of Tubalange.

Over the next few years, the number of children grew to around 60 - a drop in the ocean if we look at the number of street children spawned by poverty and HIV/Aids in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, which is again being highlighted during this Christian Aid week. In the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, it is expected that there will be two million children living on the streets by 2010 and, in Lusaka, there are tens of thousands.

Rick had missed four years of schooling, but he soon caught up and now, coming up for 19, he is at a secondary school and hoping to go on to college or university. Donors in Scotland have helped to pay the school fees for Rick and the other youngsters at Mthunzi.

When he first went to the centre he was told that he could be anything he wanted. He only had to work hard and it would happen.

He said he wanted to be a pilot. Instead, he has become a talented musician and dancer and helps to write dramas about the plight of street kids.

He's a talented member of the Mthunzi culture group which has won awards in Zambia for performances and which gives workshops about avoiding HIV/Aids and child abuse to children who are still living on the street.

Now he has decided he wants to write articles. English, which is Zambia's official language, doesn't come to him easily as a written medium, although he speaks eloquently and passionately.

His first subject choice is about his experience of the streets - as his friend Jack Chisenga, another former street child, says: "Choose what you know."

These are Rick's words: This note is dedicated to those who are still in the street and also to those who feel that they can give help. Possible or not possible, one day you'll realise that street life is not good in any way. You will then believe that everything has its own time. The reason why I am saying this is because I lived on the street for four years so I am talking from experience.

Probably for those who have been in the street before and even for those who are there right now, it is neither their wish nor their parents' wish but circumstances. Children go on the street for different reasons.

For example, they go on the streets through peer pressure - the influence of their friends. They go on the streets because of poverty in the family. When there is a lack of money to go to school, they don't have anywhere else to go.

The HIV/Aids pandemic has also led innocent children into street life, and marriage breakages have also resulted in a poor foundation for children. When a man marries another woman, the step-children will be mistreated in terms of food, not having clothes, no education and freedom.

To avoid this kind of abuse, children will prefer street to home.

Being in the street is not easy but it's good if you don't know how tough it is, or you haven't yet realised that you will be facing a lot of difficulties - nowhere to sleep, no food, no good water and no good clothes to wear.

The only way street children solve their problems is by smoking dagga, sniffing glue and drinking beer, and this is just to help them forget about their problems. They don't know that they are abusing themselves.

Some of the street kids die right there in the street, especially in the cold season in June, and this is because of a lack of blankets to make them warm. This also happens in the rain season because they spend their nights outside and they are always soaked.

Accidents and being beaten up badly also lead to the loss of their lives.

Never say that they have nowhere to go. They still dream about becoming future leaders who'll be respected some time in their lives. It becomes so painful for them when they see their friends being taken to school and this makes them feel bad and neglected.

Probably they'll start thinking of going back home. Unfortunately, they find it hard to leave the street because they're wed to street life.

Because of this increase of children in the street we have suggested what we can do about this problem. It is to build up more centres like Mthunzi.

Related sites: koinoniazambia.org christian-aid.org.uk