Mombasa has its share of approximately 60.000 orphans in the age group between 0-14 years old. In Kenya the total amount of orphans is 1.7 million. Most of the children are victims of the increasing HIV/ AIDS problem which is most parents’ cause of death.

Mombasa also counts 3000 street children in the age group between 7 to 18 years old. These streetchildren also come from the neighbouring countries Ethiopia, Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda. The children became street children because of problems at home e.g. divorce, poverty, abuse and violence. The street children face a lot of dangers such as drugs (opium and glue sniffing) alcohol, crime, abuse and violence.
They have never been to school, have lost their families and have to survive on the streets every day. Their days are filled with confrontations with fear and hunger. The situation on the streets is very unhygienic, which easily causes diseases and infections. The local government and citizens treat the street children very badly. Regularly the police destroys their street camps with bulldozers and they take the children to prison.

The Kenyan-Dutch couple Matheka and Ria Munyasya care for these children and they started projects aimed to help this group.  Shoulder 2 Shoulder Foundation was founded to financially support these projects.