Since 2010, Railway Children Africa have been supporting vulnerable children who live alone and at risk on the streets and achieved landmark milestones to improve child protection processes.  

In 2017-2022, national commitments were made to reduce the number of street-connected children across Tanzania. During this period, we were able to support more than 2,348 children, empowering them to leave the streets and be reintegrated safely into a family setting. However, despite these efforts, our 2021 headcount showed that at least 4,800 children remained on the streets in six cities, and still our project work tells us that new children arrive alone at major bus terminals every day.

Railway Children Africa have a proud history of affecting change at the national and local authority level, and are widely regarded by the Tanzanian government and within the sector as the lead agency when it comes to working with street-connected children and family reintegration. In 2018, together with UNICEF, we supported the Government of Tanzania to develop National Guidelines on Child Reintegration to ensure safety is at the heart of all efforts to reunify children with their families in Tanzania. We have developed a strong institutional presence in Mwanza and in Dar es Salaam, and in these cities we have forged relationships with government staff involved in social care and child protection. 

In 2022, we embarked on a new five-year strategy with an ambitious goal: to leave no child behind. We are determined to meet this challenge head on and make a deep and lasting impact on the lives of vulnerable children, both now and for generations to come.