VIDEO: Street boys manage hotel in Tanzania

INTRODUCTION

Former street boys in Tanzania running tourist lodge.

SOUNDBITE STIRRING IN PAN

SHOT:
- Wide Lucas Deus in kitchen

VOICE OVER
Lucas Deus is 29 years old, and he is the chef cook at Kibobo Lodge in Arusha - Tanzania.

QUOTE LUCAS DEUS
We have chicken curry. We have fried potatoes and for dessert we have a piece of cake.

SHOTS:
- Wide shot wood bridge Kiboko Lodge
- Lucas Deus walking on the street

VOICE OVER
Nothing reveals that Lucas used to be a street boy for many years.
As a 14-year old he used to live on this particular street in downtown Arusha.
His father couldn’t afford to keep Lucas at home after he lost his job.

QUOTE LUCAS DEUS
I was here for 8 years. Sleeping here, working here and to go to the market.

SHOT:
- Rainy street with cars passing by

QUOTE LUCAS DEUS
- How does it feel to be here again?
I feel okay but I don’t want to flash back in my mind to be come and stay on the street without job.

SOUNDBITE RAIN

SHOTS:
- Wide road junction Arusha with 4x4 vehicle passing by
- Close shot tire covers 4x4
- Driving shot through Arusha with 4x4 vehicle passing by

VOICE OVER
All in contrast with Arusha known as the number one safari hub in Tanzania. Where every 10 seconds a safari vehicle passes by. Bringing millions of Dollars to the region, but that doesn’t reach everybody in the community.

SOUNDBITE 4X4 PASSING BY

SHOTS:
- Slow motion driving on street at night
- Wide shot interior car with Aristide Nshande driving at night

VOICE OVER
It becomes obvious at night when some 500 street children disguised in darkness are roaming around. Lucas was pulled out by a social worker of the Dutch Watoto Foundation.

QUOTE ARISTIDE NSHANGE DRIVING
Few of them they don’t have their parents. Nobody to take care of them. They’re just running from home from their parents. They don’t have anyone to take care of them. So they’re just running on the street hoping to find support or help.

SOUNDBITE ARISTIDE WALKING

SHOTS:
- pan right and tilt down from street to two street boys seated on veranda
- Wide two street boys on veranda

QUOTE ARISTIDE NSHANGE
I am asking them questions. They explain their problems. I am planning to explain to them about the programme we have at Watoto Foundation. That they have to move from street life to go to school.

SOUNDBITE ARISTIDE WITH STREET BOYS
- What is your name?
My name is Daudi Frederick.
- How many years do you have?
I have 14 years.
- Don’t you see yourself as getting old out here?

SHOT:
- Wide Aristide with street boys on veranda

SOUNBITE ARISTIDE WITH STREET BOYS ON THE STREET SEATED ON VERANDA
Talk to me. I’m a teacher. Don’t be afraid.
Maybe it’s this or that. Maybe your father is beating you.

DISCUSSION ARISTIDE NSHANGE AND DAUDI FREDERICK
First problem is that we’re getting cold outside here.
[Second street boy interrupting] - The big ones bully us with knives.
You wait first.
So first we’re getting cold out here.
Secondly we are being bitten by mosquitoes.
We don’t have a place to sleep.
We are being caught.
[ARISTIDE NSHANGE] – By the police?
By the city council and the police.

SHOTS:
- Wide Aristide with boys
- Daudi showing his glue bottle
- Blurred shot car lights on the street

VOICE OVER
The harsh street life has many boys escape into drugs. They’re inhaling a mix of shoe glue boosted with petrol. Although causing irreversible brain damage, it offers them a bit of sun shine at night.

QUOTE DAUDI, 14
We’re sniffing glue to get rid of bad thoughts.

SHOTS:
- Wide Aristide on veranda with children
- Wide exterior gate drop in center Watoto Foundation
- Children seated on bunk beds
- Boy making his bed
- Tilt down tidy wardrobe to boy arranging shelve

VOICE OVER
It takes Aristide time, but eventually several children agree to come to the drop in center of the Watoto Foundation. Here waits them a bed and food, but also strict rules and discipline. Although difficult, not many choose to leave.

QUOTE ARISTIDE NSHANGE
They like to stay here because of the way we are living with them.
I think they feel more comfortable than in other places.
- Like having a normal life.
Yes, because here it is a normal life like in a family.

SHOTS:
- Boys drinking tea
- Boy sweeping floor
- Wide class room with boys
- Boy writing on black board
- Boy digging in garden
- Wide boys digging in garden
- Aristide seated behind laptop

VOICE OVER
The boys have breakfast early in the morning followed by housekeeping duties.
Then they attend classes for primary education they missed during their street life.
The afternoon is reserved for work in the garden.
This is all to discipline them, but there is also fun.
Aristide who is a gifted singer records video clips with the boys.

SOUNDBITE VIDEOCLIP CHILDREN SINGING
Oh solo mio, a wonderful day.

SHOTS:
- Wide shot boys at table and view national park
- Boy watching giraffe from vehicle

VOICE OVER
And because of the festive season there was even a safari for which even many Tanzanian adults wouldn’t have money for.

SOUNDBITE DRIVING NATIONAL PARK

SHOTS:
- Wide class room vocational training center
- Close shot student hammering

VOICE OVER
The boys after 3 years of education go for to the vocational training center of the Watoto Foundation.

SOUNDBITE HAMMERING

SHOTS:
- Wide teacher with boy
- Close turning piece of wood upside down

VOICE OVER
Also here specific attention has to be given to the boys, whose minds can still wander back to the street when lessons are difficult.

QUOTE HERIHURUMA MSUYA
teacher
So what I do first is to focus his thoughts.
Then I’m making sure that everything that I’m teaching is written down.
When coming back here first they have to recall…
what they were taught the previous day.
So that we can go on with the class.

SHOTS:
- Boy giving grass to cows
- Boy giving grain to chickens
- Masai walking into Kiboko Lodge
- Boy walking with serving tray
- Boy serving people at table
- Close Noud van Hout
- Wide people at table
- Exterior cabana of lodge
- Boy writing in note book
- Boy making a table

VOICE OVER
The center provides various courses and takes four years to complete.
The boys are then offered internships, like at Watoto Foundation’s own Kiboko Lodge in Arusha where there are now 10 boys working.
Their supervisor is Dutch entrepreneur Noud van Hout who founded Watoto Foundation 8 years ago to help vulnerable children in Africa.
Although the lodge is doing well the boys sometimes find it hard to stay motivated on the work because of a survival instinct they took from the street.

QUOTE NOUD VAN HOUT, founder Watoto Foundation, Dutch
That they think I am able to take care of myself.
I think that it’s still in the back of their mind.
That if I fail this job I will find something else anyway.

SHOTS:
- Wide shot street boys in kitchen
- Lucas serving soup in bowls

VOICE OVER
But with a lot of patience most of the boys stay and overall Noud van Hout considers the Watoto Foundation a success.

QUOTE NOUD VAN HOUT
Because we have good examples of boys we achieved something with.
Who have good jobs. We now have the first who’s going to university.
We have a carpenter who makes English furniture.
He’s very successful in the company of a Briton.

SHOT:
- Low Lucas stirring through cooking pan

VOICE OVER
Lucas surely feels he has achieved what he wanted and now has peace on his mind
.
QUOTE LUCAS DEUS
When I was smoking marihuana five minutes you would fight me off since I was always angry. So now I am a peaceful man.
- You have a good life?
Yes I have a good life with a wife and children.

SHOTS:
- Tourist seated with drinks, pan left to view
- African sun dawn
- Pan left former street boy serving a roll to child

VOICE OVER
The Watoto Foundation is expecting more tourists to come and enjoy the peaceful environment with real African sun dawns and will employ more former street boys to serve even the most demanding clients.