Compared to Kenya’s more rural areas, fewer youth residing in the slums of Nairobi attend the later stages of school. The few schools serving this disadvantaged community are beyond the financial means of most families. UNICEF noted that while Kenya has free and compulsory education, youth in poverty still cannot afford to attend school with nine out of 10 children from poor households failing to complete their basic education.

Gender inequalities remain severe, with women in poverty five times more likely to be unemployed than their male counterparts. In addition, the number of street children and those addicted to drugs is a growing challenge.

With its mandate to serve “the poorest of the poor,” Don Bosco Boys Town is bringing hope while making a real impact—transforming the lives of hundreds of destitute young people by providing a practical path out of poverty.

Established in the mid-1980s, Don Bosco Boys Town is a technical school located in Nairobi. The school provides technical and trade skills training to more than 300 students a year, and has long since opened its doors to girls as well. Its mission extends beyond job training and offers students the opportunity for a life of dignity and good citizenship.

“The school attracts youth that do not do well on national college exams and provides them an alternative opportunity to acquire marketable skills that can help them make a living,” said Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “The tuition cost is highly subsidized to make this training affordable to the low income student population in Kenya.”

While the majority of its students are boys, both boys and girls are provided access to this two-year technical training program. The program offers training in a wide variety of vocational skills, including tailoring, car engineering/mechanics, carpentry, electrical work and welding as well as secretarial and a full spectrum of computer-related job skills. As part of a well-rounded education, additional programs such as sports, music, scouting and prayer groups are also included as part of the curriculum.

After graduation more than 80 percent of the graduates are employed in their fields of study. Many students are also able to move on to establish their own businesses and become entrepreneurs in Nairobi.

One recent student, Luciane Kimasha, began attending when a friend encouraged her to fill out the school’s application. She had lost both of her parents within two years and was constantly on the move from the home of one neighbor or friend to another. Her future seemed bleak until she was accepted into Don Bosco Boys Town.

“I’m going to be a car mechanic. I was the only girl in the automotive program, but I never gave up. In the second year, another girl joined me, so now there are two of us,” Kimasha explains. “From the moment I set foot in here, I got very many advantages. First, I learned my automotive mechanics and I can handle any issue. But I also got spiritual nourishment in the Church and seminars on life choices.”

Kimasha, like many of her peers attending the program adds, “I have learned a lot.”

In closing Father Hyde added, “All youth deserve a chance at a better life. At Don Bosco Boys Town we help youth take responsibility for their own lives by providing them the skills to find and keep a job to support themselves and help their communities.”

To make a donation in support of programs like this, go to SalesianMissions.org/Donate.

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UNICEF’s annual flagship publication, The State of the World’s Children 2012 (SOWC), says that almost half the world’s children now live in urban areas, and it’s calling for greater emphasis on identifying and meeting their needs.

“We’re approaching some sort of tipping point. Already more than half the world’s people live in cities and towns and so do more than a billion children. The day is rapidly approaching when the majority of the world’s children will be growing up in urban environments,” said SOWC editor Abid Aslam.

HARSH ENVIRONMENTS

Traditionally, families and children moved to cities in search of better opportunities, but most urban growth now seems to be the result of children being born to parents who already live in a city. And services aren’t keeping up with this growth.

“Increasingly people are being born into existing urban environments, and what is alarming to us is that, for far too many children, those environments are extremely harsh,” said Mr. Aslam.

Children growing up in slums such as Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya, and the favelas of Brazil are forced to endure violence, exploitation and lack of basics such as clean water and education. They are likely not to have been registered at birth and their families may lack a formal rental agreement or other such protection from arbitrary eviction. This makes their lives extremely precarious.

“They don’t know often from one week to the next, or one month to the next, or one year to the next where they’re going to live, much less whether they’re going to be able to go to school, or whether they’re going to have clean, piped water,” said Mr. Aslam.

LACK OF DATA

The report turns on its head the notion that all children who live in cities are necessarily better off than those in rural communities. It shows that, although disadvantaged children may live minutes away from schools and clinics, for example, they are cut off from them by poverty and discrimination.

It also calls attention to the lack of data on conditions in slums, particularly as it relates to children, and it calls for a deeper understanding of the issues surrounding poverty and inequality in cities and increased political will to improve the lives of the most marginalized.

“One of the things that struck us all is the paucity of child-specific urban data,” Mr. Aslam said. “There are many technical reasons, but at the end of the day it’s a political decision and it serves certain interests to keep the problem under wraps, to keep these children invisible, and that’s something that needs to change.”

The State of the World’s Children 2012: Children in an Urban World notes that the very children and families who are excluded from the opportunities of urban life can come up with improvements that benefit everyone. Examples in cities from Latin America across the globe to Asia show the benefits of greater representation and participation in municipal affairs. Where the excluded have been included in urban planning and decision-making, advancements have followed – in literacy, infrastructure and safety, for example.

“The report contains evidence that when you include the poor and marginalized and the voiceless in decision-making processes, which is their right, then everyone benefits,” Mr. Aslam said.

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See the full report on UNICEF’s website .

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