It was a remarkable event in the life of the street children in Yaoundé when NM House visited them. The program was titled NM Street Invasion 2019. The goal of this event was to celebrate Christmas with the street kids at the heart of Yaoundé on the 21st of December 2019 at the 20th May Boulevard. We assembled 285 street kids from 8 different locations, fed, clothed and offered free medical services to all the kids.
Talking with the kids one on one, we realized that we have many kids on the streets because of poor parenting. Some kids said they ran away from their houses due to maltreatment from relatives since they lost one or both parents. Some fled from their homes due to the crisis in the North Region and the raging Anglophone crisis. We realized that each kid had a reason for being on the streets.
One of the events was a football match pitting 2 camps of the street kids. The winners including the best players were awarded monetary gifts.
Medical exercises, which ran all through the day involving free consultation, free distribution of drugs, free cleaning and treatment of wounds, health tips etc were dished out to the street kids, which stirred up joy and happiness in them.
We also had Arts and craft activities, such as painting and signing of the NM Cloth in which every participant signed or stamped hands soaked in paint.The activities became more interesting with the sharing of dresses, and other gifts. The most enjoyable part was the sharing of food. They happily scrambled for food and ate with smiles on.
The moment for Pictures was outstanding as the kids displayed wonderful postures. The fun continued with some games, which drew us to the end of the program.
Conclusively, the event was a success as the kids left happy feeling the love and care they got from us as they expressed their joy through words like, "God will bless you people", "Christmas is so sweet thanks to you all" , "If I ate like this everyday, I will be very fresh and healthy. Thank you for helping me add my weight".
Our objective was attained. Endless thanks to our partners who volunteered to serve in diverse ways. In the Medical Department, we had CAMESA; For Gospel-sharing, we had NAV'YOUTH Cameroon, EN CONNECT in Sports and many other partner organizations like Open Dreams, NGALA PHOTOGRAPHY, AMERCITECH, TBM ARTS, NEXGEN TECHNOLOGY CENTER, NM 3MP1R3, UBUNTU and individuals who offered their services in one way or the other.
May God bless us all.