Sylvester was 19 when he first arrived at our door. He had been on the streets of Kitale for four years.
Four years is a long time to survive on the streets. Long enough to stop imagining anything different. Long enough to give up on hope. But Sylvester stayed at Milele, and over three months in our Transitional Program, something began to shift.
After graduation, Milele placed him in a welding internship. He showed up every day. He learned. He put in the work. Today, Sylvester manages the very welding shop where he once started as an intern.
But the story didn't end with Sylvester! It never does. Back home, his family was still struggling — economically, relationally. So Milele went to them. His father began Milele's addiction support program, confronting the addiction that had quietly fractured the family for years. His mother joined our entrepreneurship program and is learning how to make the most of their land - farming growing, and selling. The whole family is now receiving parenting support: tools and language they never had before.
What started with one boy leaving the streets became the restoration of an entire family.
Sylvester is one of more than 200 young men who have walked this journey. He is beyond the streets and his family is being made whole.
