Nigeria

Peter (now 15 years old) was born on the streets and could easily have spent his whole life there. His mother was a street–living girl, forced to become a sex worker to make enough money to survive. Fortunately for Peter and his mother, he was adopted by a distant relative while still a baby.

When Peter was around five years old, there was an incident in his home which caused a fire. Because of this incident, Peter was accused of witchcraft and sent back to his mother. She was unable to care for Peter, neglected him and inflicted severe emotional abuse on him. He had no adult supervision and was at serious risk of ending up on the streets permanently.

Born on the streets, Peter could easily have spent his whole life there.

A local NGO found Peter, provided him with food and practical support, and then referred him on to one of Safe Child Africa’s partners: a care home for street-living children.

When Peter first came to the shelter in 2009, he was so traumatised by what had happened to him that he was unable to speak. Now he is living happily with his ‘brothers’ at the shelter, back in school and looking forward to the future. Peter’s family rarely visit him, but efforts are still being made to reconcile them to him.