When Street Child’s work began in Sierra Leone in 2008, it was the poorest nation in the world and had been devastated by a decade of civil war. Children were suffering from the war’s legacy of poverty and destruction, and thousands of the poorest children were trying to survive on the streets. Our work began with a small handful of street children, connecting them to families and supporting them to go to school. We quickly expanded our work to include all children who were unable to access education because of poverty, a lack of schools, losing their parents or simply being a girl. In 2014 the Ebola virus epidemic threw Sierra Leone into crisis again. Thousands of children were orphaned and families torn apart. Street Child led the Ebola orphan response, helping over 12,000 children impacted by the epidemic and we continue to support children who are still struggling. Today we work to give the country’s poorest children better futures through education, helping to lift whole communities out of poverty.

Street Child started working in Liberia in 2013, helping street children in the capital of Monrovia. When Liberia was hit with the Ebola crisis, we expanded our work to support the thousands of children impacted by Ebola to go to school. We believe in supporting children in every aspect of their school life: school environment, teachers, parents, the wider community and the barriers to education they face. Our three main areas of focus are: education, child protection and livelihoods. To date, we have helped over 8,500 children to go to school in Liberia, including helping 1,500 Ebola-impacted children following the crisis. With your support, we can help thousands more.

In April 2015, Nepal suffered a catastrophic earthquake which damaged or destroyed more than 50,000 classrooms and left over a million children out of school. Street Child launched in Nepal in 2015 in partnership with UNICEF to help rebuild schools in the communities worst-affected by the earthquake. We are now working to ensure that no child is forgotten and has access to the learning opportunities that they deserve. We believe every child deserves the chance to go to school. With your support, we can give more of some of the poorest and most vulnerable children that chance. 

In addition, Street Child is supporting thousands of conflict-impacted children in North East Nigeria that are deprived of the chance to go to school. Education and emergency support is the key to helping these children to rebuild their lives. In partnership with the Nigerian NGO Intercommunity Development Social Organization (IDS) we are supporting  children of the New Kuchingoro IDP camp in Abuja and providing vulnerable mothers with vocational skills training - including baking and soap making - and business grants so they can setup sustainable businesses; and along side with the Nigerian Gender, Equality, Peace and Development Centre, Street Child is establishing a temporary learning centre in Maiduguri to give children the chance to go to school. 

In June 2017, after conversations with Government departments, international agencies and local charities, Street Child opened a small office in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo, exploring the possibility of expanding our Asian operations in a country that faces educational challenges that we feel we can make a positive contribution to.