We’ve teamed up with Toybox to deliver our most ambitious project yet, supporting 100 children in Guatemala with food and outreach worker support in an area that has recently been described as “one of the worst places in the world to be a child”(Telegraph).

GUATEMALA
In Guatemala, the number of children living and working on the streets is alarmingly high. Many children are orphaned or forced to escape to the street after suffering abuse and neglect at home. Others have simply been abandoned by families who do not have the resources to care for them. On the street, vulnerable children are met with the daily horror of living amongst widespread violence, in a country with one of the highest national murder rates in the world. Often, these children are no more than 7 years old and are visibly malnourished. Some of them will not have eaten for days. Malnutrition is extremely dangerous. It seriously harms the development of younger children’s brains and damages their future prospects irreparably. Prolonged hunger is also physically agonising – people talk about hunger pains for a reason.

OUR PARTNERSHIP WITH TOYBOX
Kingdom Coffee is a partner with Toybox in delivering this life-changing work in Guatemala. With a donation this year of another £10,000 this will enable Toybox to:
Provide the resources needed for the street outreach team throughout 2018. Conduct 240 visits to the children in the most high-risk areas in Guatemala City.
Deliver 100 children across the city a warm and nutritious meal each week, something they desperately need.
Cover the costs of two street outreach team leader salaries, who can ensure the programme is run as effectively as possible.

Your continued support of Kingdom Coffee means that we can fund vital projects such as this so THANK YOU VERY MUCH! You can follow updates from our charitable partners via our website, Facebook and Twitter feeds.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Street children live in extreme poverty, without food or shelter, and have little or no access to healthcare or education. Often, they are shunned and ignored by society, or receive frequent abuse from local authorities who regard them as a waste of space. These children are forced at an incredibly young age to assume the roles and responsibilities of adults, often both caring for themselves and each other.  The Street Outreach Programme works to rescue children living and working on the streets and prevent those at high-risk of doing so.  
 
Each child has their unique needs and requires support in a different way. Some of them are new to living on the streets and others are long-term often second or third generation street children. Whatever their situation and stage in life, the team in Guatemala help and support them in the best way they can.
Over the last year, working with our partner VIVA Guatemala, Toybox’s goal was to help homeless and at-risk children improve their opportunities to access the services that are key for exercising their rights and getting their long-term needs met. 

The support of Kingdom Coffee in 2018 has helped towards our street outreach team:

• giving immediate support (medical, food, drink, clothing, etc.) to 178 street-connected children.

• Delivering over 450 sporting activities and 130 workshop sessions to over 250 street children.

• providing 443 children with their birth certificates.