STREET CHILD’S STORY

Street Child began its life just before the 2008 holiday season, with a project to help 100 street-connected children in Makeni, northern Sierra Leone. The organization was founded by Tom and Lucinda Dannatt, following a series of trips Tom made to Sierra Leone that year. On those trips, Tom was moved not only by the poverty he witnessed, in what was officially the world’s poorest country at that time, but equally by the commitment, passion and talent of so many local individuals and groups he met. It was in partnership with one of these local organizations that this initial project, for 100 children, was launched. 

In the 15 years that have followed, Street Child has grown beyond reasonable imagination, in Sierra Leone and globally, however, the same two core principles that drove those early decisions remain at the heart of everything we do: a focus on children in the world’s very toughest situations; and a belief in the power of local energy and expertise.