Day of the African Child

 The Day of the African Child has been celebrated since 1991. It was created to raise awareness for the plight of African children and their struggle for education and basic rights. This year's theme focuses on the estimated 30 million street children in Africa. It's usually celebrated on June 16th, but Kenya celebrated it on June 11. 

Open Arms attended with 26 kids from the village and another 20 or so from the Kambi Teso feeding program. 

 To start the event, there was a ceremonial march of people that came from the center of town to the Tumaini Rescue Center - which is a housing/rehab center for street kids. 

This year's theme: "All together for urgent actions in favor of street children."

There was a tree planting ceremony and over 100 trees were planted around the rescue center. 

 

This little girl was so cute looking for an empty hole to place her tree! =)

The kids' shirts sporting this year's theme. The street kids all got a free shirt also. =)

 They had so many speakers and performers that they actually ran out of time for everyone to perform! 

There were performances by kids from all the represented children's homes (the Open Arms kids danced - see their practice video in my earlier post!) as well as a few speeches by some ex-street children who were helped by homes/organizations and are now going to college. Their testimonies were amazing, but a lot of it was also in Swahili so some of it I didn't understand.

Standing in line for lunch! All the kids got a free hot lunch and their own soda. 

And one more random photo that I liked: