Breaking Intergenerational Transmissions of Poverty: Perspectives of Street Connected Girls in Nairobi

This chapter draws on the life histories of young street-connected girls living in some of Nairobi’s most disadvantaged communities. The retrospective research explores, from the perspectives of girls (aged 4-19 years), what strategies have helped them to escape from abuse, crime, poverty and gender inequality on the street in their transient lives and to integrate into education. Strategies of local non-governmental organizations, in partnership with government services, include supporting girls and their families in the places where they live and work, such as the local dumpsite and in street markets. Interventions include providing temporary loans, skills training, information about access to services (including HIV & AIDS), support for family members, and creating temporary safer spaces away from their current situation for rehabilitation and reintegration. The analysis will examine the perspectives of girls to their changing intergenerational and peer relationships and whether they feel that strategies to improve their lives have helped to break intergenerational transmissions of poverty (Moncrieff 2009). The girls’ perceptions of vulnerability and risk have helped to form a new theory of change for the local organization, Pendekezo Letu. This in turn has helped to identify appropriate interventions that take into account the complexity of life in informal settlements for marginalized girls and their families.