Annual Report 2017–2018: How Street Kids Funds Began

Street Kids Funds (SKF) was launched on 14 August 2017 by a team of three volunteers, with one goal: to give children growing up in slums, who have never been to school, a real path into education. SKF received its 501(c)(3) status in December 2017 as a California nonprofit (EIN 82-1891756).

Not another school, a bridge into one

From day one SKF chose not to build schools or clinics. Instead, SKF sets up small learning centers where out-of-school children aged 4 to 12 are prepared in two to three years to join mainstream public and private schools, with SKF continuing to support their education afterwards.

Highlights

• January 2018: a team of seven university students surveyed slum communities in Lahore to identify children who were not in school.
• 2 March 2018: the first SKF Learning Center opened in Multan, Pakistan, in a single room, with 10 children whose parents could not afford school fees. Many had been sorting garbage, selling goods on the street or working as house help.
• Every child received a uniform, shoes, a winter sweater, books, stationery and a daily snack. Lessons ran six days a week in Urdu and English: reading, basic maths, stories, drawing and play.
• Within two months the class grew to 15 children. In December the children sat their first annual exams and received report cards at an end-of-year celebration.

Finances

In 2018 SKF raised $1,590 from 20 donors in the Bay Area Pakistani community (Zakat, an iftar and a seniors’ lunch), plus $555 carried over from 2017. Of the $2,145 available, $1,707.95 was spent on the Multan center.