Metro Kids Africa has turned 20 this year!
In April 2005, the very first Sidewalk after-school programme was held in Gugulethu, a township in Cape Town, South Africa.
Twenty years later, our programme still happens every Thursday at 4pm on that same site. Children of the first group we worked with are now attending!
We thank God for all that has happened in the last 20 years – there have been times of hardship, but many times of joy. MKA has grown each year and now in South Africa and Uganda we reach over 73,000 children each week.
There have been thousands upon thousands of children who have been impacted by hearing the Christian-based life values each week. Over the years, children have learnt that they are loved by God, that they can have faith in Jesus to help them through life, how to make wise decisions, encouraged to work hard at school, learnt to show care and respect for others, and many more lessons.
Children have gone on camps and attended holiday clubs. Many hundreds of children have had a sponsor who has supported them with food, school items, Christmas and birthday gifts, as well as letters and prayers of encouragement.
SCHOOL WORK IN CAPE TOWN
Over the last few years, we have had several attempts to work in schools in Cape Town. For various reasons, this has not progressed as we would have liked it to, but this year we have been meeting with school principals and teachers and have written some new curriculum which the schools are loving. We are now working in 29 schools and reaching 6500 children.
We would value prayer as we continue to extend our programmes into schools. This means we can reach many more children, which we see the urgent need for. Sadly, new statistics show that South Africa has one of the highest rates of sexual violence in the world with rape being the most reported crime against children. There were 86 reported cases of rape in schools over the last 3 months of 2024. Schools should be a child’s safe haven, not their nightmare. We seek through the MKA curriculum, we seek to teach respect and care for one another, which we hope will bring change to many lives.
UGANDAN NEWS
Our Ugandan team continues to reach new schools and are currently working in 203 schools, reaching 66,500 children. We continually hear from teachers about how much they love the MKA programmes and how they see the positive effect it has on their pupils.
