Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids

Every Thursday night Strong Hearts does something they call Street Ministry. Last night, Jacob and I joined them for the first time. Although we had been in Addis for a few Thursdays something always prevented us from going. Since this was our last chance we bundled up (it gets chilly in Addis at night) and headed out to the streets.

Street Ministry means a number of different things and changes week to week. They travel to different parts of the city depending on the plan for that night. Sometimes they spend time with prostitutes, other times with street boys. There is no set agenda per se, they are just there to let them know that someone is still thinking and caring about them.

Our friend Dawitt had told us that living on the street is really boring. So one thing the street ministry team does is take a soccer ball or two and sets up a game. Other nights they bring the guitar and everyone sings. Most times they bring some food, bread or bananas and hand it out knowing that it means these boys will get at least one good meal that week.

For the prostitutes they try and educate them on the dangers of their profession. They try and talk about some other options that might be available. Often times they go with tea or coffee to try and warm the girls up. Like I said before, it can get quite chilly in Addis, especially by African standards and these girls aren’t exactly dressed for the weather

Living on the street is a huge problem in Addis. The government estimates that the city’s population is around 2-3 million, the UN’s estimate is almost triple that at 7-8 million (a good example of the corruptness of the government) . Right now, the UN also estimates that around 250,000 of those people are homeless and living on the street. Most of them are boys as there are many more programs aimed at getting girls off the streets and into factories or cleaning jobs. This 250,000 doesn’t include the orphans living in private or state orphanages.

It was interesting to see the streets and the people who live on them at night. Everything is much more subdued than during the day and the boys are in quite a large group during the evening. They stick together to keep each other safe, and more importantly warm. They came running as soon as they saw the van pull into the parking lot and gave up their seats on bus stop benches to welcome us into their home. Most of them sat on the pavement huddled together in front of us We played some music, fed them, those who spoke Amharic chatted and after a couple of hours it was time to go home.

Seeing the boys on the street at night really made homelessness seem more real to me. I was freezing sitting on that bench that night and I had on proper clothes, more importantly I also knew it was temporary. For these boys, girls, women and men, this is day in day out. Even though we only had the chance to experience it once, sitting there surrounded by street boys is definitely an image that will stick for quite some time.