SfD is not

supported by any
established fund
from which it
makes grants to
other charities. It
is just an
organisation which
aims to connect
organisers of
projects aimed at
achieving the
Millennium
Development Goals
for education to
each other, to
potential donors of
funds and
equipment, and to
teachers and
educators around
the world with
experience and
expertise to offer.

The
communit
y enables
contributor
s to
explore
the
projects
posted on
the site
and to
make
direct
contacts
with the
project
organizers
. If you're
a donor,
you can
find out
what the
project
needs; it
may be

Foundation partners other

organizations in promoting and
seeking support for selected
projects. It also provides. on this
website, an online community
through which project organisers
can draw attention to their projects
and seek help and support from
other community participants.

cash but it
may be
books,
pencils,
pens
computers
, transport
or even
building
materials.
It may be
your
expertise
and
experience
. You can
decide for
yourself
what you
want to
support
and how.
Then focus
your
contributio
n directly
on the
project
you
choose.

If you are
a receiver
of help
and
support,
then you
too have
things of
enormous
value to
give back,
your
culture,
your
history,
your way
of life
andyour
friendship.

Youth and crime: Blame it all on

absentee parents and poverty
Whether the youth indulge in crime or not, experts say, is dependent
on their upbringing and parent-child relationships.
This means young people who, during their childhood, are exposed to harsh and exploitative
environments are likely to develop criminal tendencies.
Parental inadequacy, they say, is a major cause of youth crime, and when parents fail to provide their
children with the needed guidance and love, the effect lasts well into adulthood, affecting them both
emotionally and physically.
If a parent is violent or engages in habits that may cause conflict in the family, the child will tend to
copy that behaviour, thinking that since it is practised by the parent, it is what the society expects of
them.
Experts also cite communication breakdown within the family as a contributory factor to youth
misdemeanours.
When the child has no-one to consult within the family about their problems, they will turn to their
friends, who are likely to lead them astray rather than guide them along the narrow path.
In 2008, Carolyne W Gategi, a social worker currently attached to the Kenya Anti-Corruption
Comission, reported in a study, Youth and Crime, that most young people who engage in crime,
especially in Nairobi, are brought up in slums where they are influenced by peer pressure.

The youth in these areas do not have adequate education or

training (and) thus have no prospects for meaningful
employment, wrote Ms Gategi.
The report added that Nairobi, at the time of the study, had the
highest incidence of crime in Kenya.
This may be attributed to the fact that Nairobi is the capital city
and nerve centre of economic activities in the country.
And, given the harsh economic environments most young people
in these zones grow up in, the desire to build a better life for
themselves, to escape the poverty and lawlessness that defines
life in most unplanned settlements, almost always drives them
head-on into the same things they are trying to escape from:
crime and general defiance of the law.

Ms Gategi noted in her report that Nairobis Eastleigh area is the hub of lawlessness in the region,
therefore parents bringing up their children in this neighbourhood are best advised to be on the
lookout for tell-tale signs of deviate behaviour.
Here, she wrote, both legal and illegal businesses merge in a complex way. The shopping area
itself, which is widely quoted as having the busiest commercial avenue in Nairobi, attracts middle and
upper-class shoppers from around the city and other parts of the country.
This area stocks upscale brands of fashion, electronics, and other consumer items, which are
purchased at 20 to 30 per cent below the price in other places.
To reduce incidents of crime in Nairobi, and especially the Eastlands area, Ms Gategi recommended a
deliberate effort to tackle youth unemployment across the country.