“I don’t want to be a street boy, pray for me”- Boy To Pope In Kenya

Local village resident struggled through the narrow and muddy streets in the rain long before dawn, all determined to see Pope Francis as he came to their church in the Kenyan slum of Kangemi.

The first people arrived more than two hours before dawn, with the church of St Joseph the Worker already packed before sunlight crept over the crowded tin roofs of the shanty town, home to more than 100,000 people on the outskirts of the capital Nairobi.

Fourteen-year old Kelvin Mutwiri, who lives in the slum, came with a drawing of the pope in white and gold as a gift for the 78-year-old pontiff.

“Pope Francis I don’t want to be a street boy, pray for me,” read a set of prayers, beautifully drawn and framed by a group of a dozen children, who were rescued and supported by the church. “Pope Francis, pray for me, I am sick,” read another.

People sang, some danced inside the crowded church, with the doors at the back left open to allow those who couldn’t fit inside to at least catch a glimpse of the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics.

Although the street directly leading to the church was clear apart from school children, thousands thronged the surrounding streets.

“They prepared for this mass, they wrote messages and prayers,” said Catholic priest Father Vittorio, who runs a programme supporting the street children.

Mutwiri’s gift, he explained, was made during a project in which painting is used a tool to help rehabilitate the youngsters.

“We try to offer them some help — we have a school of painting so they can start to connect with themselves,” Vittorio said.

“We start directing them for rehabilitation. They’re being reintegrated. They feel the dignity of being a person again. Before they were rejected, now they participate in the life of others again.”