23 March 2010
Aloys Angelo Fungafunga is a secondary school student in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and busy studying for his final exams.
He leads an active life: he has a keen interest in theatre and dance, and is also politically active as secretary and chairman of the Junior Council of the United Republic of Tanzania.
But Aloys’ life was not always like this. He grew up in fear of his abusive father.
“My first memory,” he recalls, “is hiding from my father when he was drunk.”
“I was 6 years old. I could hear him shouting at my mother and beating her.”
Like so many of the street children in Dar es Salaam, of which there are thought to be around 5,000, he ran away to escape this abuse.
On the streets, Aloys’ life was no better. He quickly found himself begging, fighting, taking drugs and drinking alcohol.
Thankfully, Aloys was rescued by the Dogodogo Centre for street children.
The programme, supported by DFID, offers vital aid to boys aged ten to 18. Under the programme they get counselling, rehabilitation, basic primary and secondary school scholarships, food, shelter and sanitation as well as vocational skills.
In 2008, about 160 vulnerable children were enrolled in primary school through the Dogodogo Centre’s support, while 39 street boys received vocational training.
Six hundred others were given food and shelter in Dogodogo’s drop-in centre. When the centre was hit by the global recession in 2008, DFID Tanzania provided a one-off payment of £70,000 to keep its good work going.
Aloys has certainly benefited. “Dogodogo is like a mother and a father to me,” he reflects.
After turning his life around, he is now working to help other children do the same.
The centre encourages the boys to take an active roll in learning about and promoting children’s rights.
Thanks to its work, Aloys has travelled to New York and Dublin to attend forums on children’s rights and children affected by HIV/AIDS.
His ambition now is to become an activist when he has finished his education.