The month of December includes some of the best seasons of the whole year.  December means winter weather season; the holiday season; and Giving Season.  As we close in on the end of 2019, there are some great giving opportunities that will make a lasting impact on kids who are currently living on the streets of Nairobi.

Monthly Partners are the Champions of MITS who go above and beyond to considerably impact the monthly operating expenses of loving and serving former street kids who are enrolled in the MADE IN THE STREETS boarding school program.  Monthly Partners can choose a monthly donation level that helps to cover the ongoing costs of food, housing, education, and mentorship, and more for each of the students seeking to change their life in the MITS program.  MITS Partners are paired with a current student and agree to donate monthly at one or more of four different levels ($25, $50, $75, $150).  Some partners even choose to cover the entire monthly expenses for one student ($400).  In addition to the essential financial support, MITS Partners also send and receive letters and updates from the MITS students, along with special news and fun surprises.

Prefer to send a check in the mail? That's great!

Make checks payable to MADE IN THE STREETS and mail to the following address:

Anyway you give, it matters to street kids; thank you for for generosity!

Celebrated globally on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, Giving Tuesday kicks off the season of end-of-year giving. People all over the world come together online to give to others.

This year by December 3rd, MADE IN THE STREETS is hoping to raise $48,000!

Why $48,000? 
$1600 covers all the costs associated with moving a child from the streets to MITS boarding school program. We are trying to bring 30 new students off the streets and into school!

What is this "Never Give Up" thing?
The students at MITS have taught us what it looks like to never give up. We want to join them and share a message of hope to those still on the streets - never, never, never, never give up!

We need your help! Will you join us??

Once you've opened our #GivingTuesday campaign, click the "become a fundraiser" button:

​Create a fundraising team or set up a page as an individual:

​Follow the next steps to set up an account and start fundraising!

Darlene Coulston, Founder

Laurent is here on his leave also – he was in our very first “school” in 1996.  My mom taught him to read.  He has been working in Kenyatta University catering dept. for all those years.  He too is happy to come help.  

I read Narnia tales to the newest students, have for years. While I was gone, an intern, Madeline, read to them – the kids loved it.  I can see a three-month improvement in these students’ manners and especially their English. Wow.  

Last week, we had some of the single MITS Team over.  We talked about the students, told funny stories, and Charles and I shared some early stories of MITS.  We fed our guests hamburgers, and then we wanted them to experience roasting marshmallows.  To start with, our “marshmallows” are from Mumbai.  Then, we didn’t have enough charcoal briquettes and no charcoal lighter (only thing we had was “surgical spirits” – bad idea), and only old files to use as paper kindling.  So imagine lots of smoke, and marshmallows that won’t lightly brown…..!  We still had fun but won’t do that again, ha.

​We love our two lives. This ministry is a joy to us.  We rejoice in the Team; they truly love the students and each other.  They have fun with them.  They know how to do “LIFE.” It is wonderful to see teens come in from the streets, learn and grow, and go out to honor Jesus in the workplace.

When I was much younger I loved sleeping outside.  It was so much fun.  I slept in the backyard, on porches, in treehouses, on trampolines, in state parks, on football fields, in tents, in hammocks – even on the side of a mountain (or two).  Anytime I got the chance, I was so happy to sleep outside.  On balmy summer nights growing up in Texas I was thrilled to sleep outside with little more than a blanket of stars across the sky as cover. As I grew a little older I was lucky enough to travel to places like Colorado and New Mexico and Alaska where warm nights were replaced by much cooler nighttime temperatures and thin quilts were replaced by down sleeping bags and four-season tents.  Waking up on those crisp mornings and crawling out of a toasty sleeping cocoon was the stuff of dreams.  For most of my life sleeping outside was incredible.  It was romantic and exciting and fueled some of my happiest memories.

When I made my first trip to Kenya in 2016, sleeping outside took on a whole new perspective and meaning. It was during this trip that I first came face-to-face with children and teenagers who sleep outside every single night. And not because it was fun or adventurous.  And not inside a nice tent or wrapped in a down sleeping bag.  It was on this trip that I learned and understood for the first time that thousands of kids go to sleep - no, try to sleep - outside on the streets of Nairobi, Kenya (and in many other cities around the world).  It’s not romantic.  It’s not filled with happy memories.  It’s cold.  It’s dangerous. And it’s real.

Each night tens of thousands of kids in Kenya and millions of kids around the world will lay their heads down on cold ground – not because it’s fun to sleep outside, but because there is no inside. They didn’t plan to be there, but because of abuse or neglect or lack of resources or a myriad of other reasons, they are there.  The nights are cold and scary and very dark. They will hopefully find friends with whom they can share the night.  They will huddle close together to increase warmth, and they will take turns staying awake to fend off the dangers that often appear in the darkness. And they will pray.  They will pray that the night passes quickly and that the sun shows itself sooner rather than later.  These precious kids love the mornings.  They love seeing the sun come up and feeling the heat that it brings. And they love seeing people (like the team at MADE IN THE STREETS) who love and care for them.
 
I still really like sleeping outside.  I like camping under the stars and the moon with friends and family.  But now, on every night I sleep outside (and on most nights that I sleep inside) I’m mindful of the many incredible kids that are also out there.  I pray that they find warmth.  I pray that they find friends for protection.  I pray that they find a softer, more comfortable spot than the one they found last night.  And I pray that somehow, someway, with God’s help and all of us working together, more of those kids can find their way off of the streets and into the exciting, fun, romantic, and adventurous life of sleeping inside.
 
For more information about how you can help street kids move from outside to inside check out the Plan A Fundraiser or Serve In Kenya pages on the MITS website.