Street children are found in many parts of the world included the developed country like the United States. These children in some parts of the world have the local names they are given. In Nigeria for instance, these children are sometimes called the Almajiri. The wandering about of these children on most streets of Nigeria has Islamic religions link. They are seen on the roads in northern parts of Nigeria begging for foods and money from one street to the other. Because of this, they are sometimes exposed to danger like accident and health challenges.
Children on the street are oftentimes products of broken families, unwanted pregnancies and runaway delinquents from abuse parents or relatives. They are generally left off to fend for themselves in the streets and to provide most for their family living in squatters and shanties no one could ever imagine.
Children who live on the streets are unable to receive an education or proper Healthcare.
These children usually have little to no supervision from adults and of desperation, many of them are forced to do things like beg and steal in order to survive.
Children on the street need us to stand up and give them a voice to help change where circumstances have left them and give them a bright future to look forward to. Today is the International Day of Street Children, is our duty to speak on behalf of the rights of street children around the globe, and to show them compassion and kindness.
According to the World Health Organizations, there are three types of street children.
1. A child "of the street" - these children have been abandoned by their families or are Orphans with no surviving Families members. They are solely responsible for their own survival. They have to find shelter and food however they can.
2. A child "on the street" - these children have families and are in regular contact with them. Many of them spend their days on the streets in order to escape abuse or because of overcrowding in their homes. In some instances a child "on the street" is responsible for bringing in additional income for the family.
3. A child of a street family - these children live on the streets with their families. Usually these families have come up against a traditional or hardship like war, natural disaster, or simply unemployment.
According to research, the phenomenon of street children has been documented as for back a 1848. Alan Ball, in the introduction to his book on the history of abandoned children, And Now My Soul is Hardened: Abandoned Children in Soviet Russia, 1918 - 1930, States:
Orphaned and abandoned children have been a source of misery from earliest times. They apparently accounted for most of the boy prostitutes in Augusta Rome and, a few centuries later, moved a church council of 442 in southern Gaul to declare: "Concerning abandoned children: there is general complaint that they are nowadays exposed move to dogs than to kindness".
In Tsarist Russia, Seventeenth - century sources describe destitute youths roaming the streets, and the phenomenon survived every attempt at eradication - thereafter. In 1848, Lord Ashley referred to more than 30,000 "naked, filthy, roaming lawless, and deserted children" in and around London, UK. By 1922, there were at least even million homeless children in Russia due to the devastation from world war 1 and the Russian civil war. Abandoned children formed gangs, created their own union, and engaged in petty theft and prostitution.
What Causes Children to Leave Their Homes... According to Lugalla and Mbwanbo, 1995; there are lots of causes for this problem, some are natural and others are man-made. Children have lost contact with their parents or families, which results the loss of the children in the streets. Some children are the offspring of prostitutes. Some families rejects their children if they are handicapped. Some "respectable" parents disowned their own child because he/she is an outcome of an affair.
Research shows the cause of children leaving their homes are often related to domestic, economic, or social disruption, but not limited to poverty; breakdown of homes and/or families; political unrest; acculturation; sexual, physical or emotional abuse; domestic violence, lured away by pimps, internet predators, or begging syndicates; mental health problems; substance abuse; and sexual orientation or gender identity issues.
Children may end up on the streets due to cultural factors. For example, some children in parts of Congo and Uganda are made to leave their families because they are suspected to be witches who bring bad luck upon their families. In Afghanistan young girls who perform "honour crimes" that shame their family and/or cultural practice - like adultery (which may include rape or sexual abuse) or who refuse an arranged marriage - may be forced to leave their homes.
The Story of a Street Child From New Zealand... Aaron was only 11 years old when he became a street child. His brother and sister were both killed on the street. Here are their stories as told by Aaron...
Life was good when I was young. I lived with my parents and our home was relaxed, but then things changed. My dad started drinking heavily and his behaviour grew aggressive. It seemed like the alcohol had taken my dad and replaced him with a different person; someone mean and angry one - day dad beat mum so badly that she was left in a critical condition. When mum recovered, she left us. That was the last time I saw her. Not long after that my sister left too, she was running from our father's beatings. Dad didn't like being alone so he ended up re - marrying , but my stepmother wasn't too fond of us. Sometimes she blamed us for things we hadn't done to provoke dad into beating us. My brothers didn't put up with it for very long before they decided to run away. I would have left too if I'd known where to go instead I was the only child left at home.
When I was ten years old, my dad and step - mum abandoned me and moved to a different district. As dad was walking out he said that I'd have to fend for myself. The neighbours occasionally fed me but most of the time I was hungry and had to steal to eat. Eventually i was caught and in keeping with our custom the village forced me to leave. They would have killed me if I'd tried to stay; that's what happens to thieves. The only place I could go was to my maternal land (my mum's family), but when I arrived my uncle refused to take me in. He said that he had no wife and was struggling to find food for his own family. My uncle told me to go back where I had come from, to my dad's land, but I don't think he knew that I'd been expatriated for stealing. With nowhere to go, I followed the roads to a small trading center. I found a coffin workshop which closed overnight and figured out how to sneak inside to sleep in their coffins. i was the only person in their coffins. I was the only person inside that building at night. I used to wake myself up before dawn so that the main city to find food and water. I got to know many of the street children but they thought I had a home to go to; I didn't tell them that I slept in a coffin.
I was eleven years old when I arrived on the street and I lived there for two years. Eventually I started sleeping with my new friends in the city, underneath the market stalls. Most of the other street kids had jobs so they helped me find work in an abattoir. I nursed to hold the cows legs while they were being slaughtered and in exchange the owner gave me small pieces of meat. Sometimes I would roast the meat over on fire and eat it, other times I would sell it to buy water. Hunger was part of our daily lives; our jobs didn't pay enough to eat. Often we found ourselves stealing from market stalls - sometimes bread, sometimes cassava. I never did big burglaries though and I never pick pocket. Those things sacred me; the community kills anyone who is caught in a burglary. I used to pray that God would provide food to keep me from having to do that. I'm not a thief by nature, I was stealing to survive. After a few months in town I found my older brother. He was earning big money doing robberies with this gang and sometimes he shared his profits with me. He once gave me 1,500 shillings to start a business selling plastic bags I purchased a box of bags then sold them individually to shop owners, which doubled the money I had. The business was successful and finally I didn't have to steal; until one night while I was sleeping someone robbed me and left me with nothing. Once again i couldn't afford food. I gave my best effort to not return to stealing, but as my hunger grew my resolve faded and eventually I joined in one of my friend's endeavours. We stole from a woman and made 13,000 shillings (USD $3.60), of which my share was USD $0.80. I used half of it to buy plastic bags and with the other half I bought myself dinner.
When I was twelve years old I found my sister on the street. she was doing prostitution and had given birth to three children. She was only fifteen years old, one of the kids was still with her, so I started sleeping beside them and helping with the child. One day the other prostitutes sent us away, but that turned out to be a good thing because my sister ended up with a hotel job washing dishes. The owner always gave to the child. In the cold season we often built fires to keep warm. If anyone had water we would boil it to drink, and occasionally someone would have meat to roast. One evening a stranger approached us while we were talking around the flames. All of my friends ran away, but for a reason that I can't define, I stayed behind. That man was my uncle Tom (Hope Street's Social worker). He stayed with me for a long time and I ended up telling him everything. Uncle Tom slept on the street with us that night. When he left next morning we made an appointment to meet up during the day. Things didn't go so well when I met Tom in daylight. The community thought he was up to no good and they formed a mob to beat him. They thought he was going to traffic us, because he was interested in us street ID which calmed the mob, but the whole incident must surely have shaken him somewhat. He kept meeting with me though. A week or so later Tom brought Lillian to see me (another Hope Street Social worker). When we first me, she gave me the same type of big hug that my mum used to give.
Three weeks after I met Tom, when I was thirteen years old, I came to live at Hope Street. From my dormitory at Hope, I worried a lot about my sister and her kid. Shortly after I moved here I snuck out to visit her in town. When I arrived on the streets I couldn't find my sister anywhere. I wonder if she was back in prostitution or if she had found a home, but when I asked around the news was the worst imaginable: apparently my sister had been killed. I didn't know whether to believe it, no – one was able to give me any details or tell me where she was buried.
The Hope Street staff really wanted to know where my village was. I didn't tell them because I knew what they would take me there – all the other kids had been home for background checks, and I was scared at the thought of going back to dad's land. The neighbours had threatened to kill me when they caught me stealing, so for six months I kept my secret, until trusted uncle Tom enough to let him take me home. When we arrived at the village all the neighbors ran away! They assumed uncle Tom had come to collect a debt, that I had stolen something and he was there for retribution. Tom and Lillian waited for hours but not a single person came out of hiding. eventually tom came up with a different strategy; he spoke to the village leaders, who listened to our story and asked the community to come. That's when I received confirmation of my sister's death. The community told us that the police had brought her body to our village. They didn't give her a proper burial; they just threw her body in the bush. They couldn't tell me why she was killed or if her children are still alive. Recently, I found out that my older brother also died on the streets. He was fourteen years old. I was told that he was caught stealing a solar-panel and beaten to death. Most people believe it was my uncle who killed him, because he was causing too much trouble for our family. My brothers gang used to leave town for a few months at a time to do burglaries in places where they couldn't be recognized. They had friends in Congo who would scope out places for my brother to rob, and in exchange he would give them information to commit burglaries in our city. My brother stole a lot of things from many people. I heard that he didn't get a proper burial either, that his body was thrown in the river. I'm the only one of my siblings who survived the streets; one died from sickness and the other two were killed.
Tom and Lillian (Hope Street's Social workers) have been working to reconnect me to my father's land. The only relative of mine who still lives there is an uncle but he wouldn't co-operate with Tom, and he wouldn't even give out his phone number. My uncle told Tom that if I try to move home he'll kill me for being a thief. Tom has been back to visit him three times; apparently he's warning up and has now given Tom his number, but he still won't visit me at Hope Street. My uncle was right: I was once a thief, but what he doesn't understand yet is that I've changed. When I first came to Hope I often misbehaved. Sometimes I wagged school to sneak to town, and one I stole a phone which Tom had to pay for. But now I'm enjoying life at Hope and my behaviour is good. I've been here for three years now and the staff say I'm a good role – model for the younger children.
One of my favorite things to do at Hope is play football, we have a game most days after school. In the holidays we learn tailoring which I really enjoy. i think I want to be a welder when i finish school, it's a good job and will let me stand on my own two feet. I'll be able to pride for my family and maybe I can even help street children. I'm happy with my life now and I'm so grateful that I'm not on the street anymore. If I was still there I'd probably be dead like my siblings.
I'm so grateful that God used the Hope Street staff to find me. I'm also grateful to the people in New Zealand who give their money so that we can have this opportunity.
According to Harding, 2010; for every cause there is an effects, and there are devastation effects on street children themselves and on the society they belong to. Children without education are without future, which means that they will not be able to defend their future and they might face lots of difficulties to have a better life in the future. Moreover, being undernourished from such a very young age causes bad side effects on their health like malnutrition which effects their immune system and as a result shorter life expectancy. There are approximately 48 million young ones whose are not registered in the country's archives, which represents around 47% of the child population around the world. 20 out of every 100 births in Latin America never registered. That means that all of those 47% are not an on paper which means they do not exist. This is a huge problem as those poor kids do not have identity, which exclude them from other right like the right to vote or the right to have a proper education or even low-level education. Moreover, criminal gangs which really represent a huge disaster, as they use those unregistered children to do criminals and violence. Those children have no criteria to know what is right and what is wrong. They may expose themselves to every cruel situations like prostitution, sexual violations, drug consumption and other forms of modern slavery.
According to stolenchildhood.net "Street Children in the third world, having no access to basic needs always become an easy prey of flesh traders. The demand of street children is high among the pimps and the brothel owners because these children sell themselves at a cheap rates. These children are at high risk because they neither use contraceptives nor ask the clients to use them. Thus the chances of getting pregnant or catching a sexually transmitted disease is high". A finite circle is a problem, because when children grows to be adults. They will be the best shape for crime; there will be evil walking on his/her feet. There will be individual illiterate adults with low moral beliefs, with damaged psychology. Those lovely poor children in the past will be the evil which will oppress other helpless and innocent children. All of this means that street children of today will be criminals of tomorrow.
ESCWA helps developed good Solutions to help solve street children's problems.
1. To understand better the situation of street children through research in the following areas:
a.) Quantitative data at national level to access the magnitude of the problem. The statistics need to be dissaggregated by sex and age.
b.) Qualitative and quantitative live research to examine the root causes that put girls and boys at risk, among the street children. This research will need to examine the link between poverty, inequality, exploitation, violence and exclusion.
c.) Quantitative research to examine the everyday lives of the street girls and boys and the attitudes of society and the government towards them.
d.) Policy level research examine the effectiveness of existing policies, planning and legislation and institution arrangements and budgetary allocation targeting street children.
2. To shift the approach to street children from legalistic to preventive, protective and rehabilitative interventions, through a focus on:
a.) Root causes and not only on symptoms.
b.) The economic and not only the social sector.
c.) Mainstreaming as well as specific institutions and actions for street children.
d.) The rights of street children as citizens and not as charity cases or delinquents 16.
e.) Street children not only as victims but also as citizens with the agency to participate in decisions which target them.
3. To enforce and monitor all international and national commitment to children.
a.) To review that all items of international conventions such as those pertaining to children's right and elimination of child labour are translated into legislation and no other procedures.
b.) To review that all enforcement procedures are in place and are implemented.
c.) To strengthen all monitoring and reporting systems relating to relevant international conventions.
d.) To review and further amend the 'child law' 126/2008 by removing all clauses that undermine its effectiveness and to put in place all the necessary procedures and monitoring mechanisms.
e.) To review and amend articles pertaining to corporal punishment in a way that prohibits all physical violence whether at home, school, work or any other institution.
4. To establish clear mandates and lines of institutional responsibility for street children.
a). Strengthen - Entities
i. To strengthen the establishment of a unit or department in the new ministry for family and population with a clear mandate for responsibility for street children. This entity would be a catalyst advocating, legislating and monitoring the situation of street children.
ii. To review and strengthen the role of what was previously the NCCM Technical Consultative Committee. iii. To strengthen the 'Child Protection Committee'. According to the amended 'Child Law' through appropriate budget allocation, establishment of clear guidelines and protocols and awareness raising and training for the committee members.
iv. To establish surveillance system such as a children's Ombudsman.
b). Establish responsibility of line ministries.
i. To strengthen the role of economic sector ministries in addressing poverty, such as the creation of jobs for poor women and men.
ii. To strengthen the monitoring systems of the ministry of labour in the area of child labour.
iii. To lift all exclusionary condition from access to education such as the rising cost of education, forced private tuitions by teachers, mistreatment of poor children in schools, corporal punishment and gender discrimination.
5. To establish effectiveness internal and external mechanisms and multispectral interventions to identity children at risk and design suitable and sustainable interventions to reduce and eventually eliminate the risk factors.
6. To formulate a new social protection strategy with the full collaboration of all relevant state institutions and NGOs that focus on the rights of the 117 children, with a dedicated budget and clear roles and responsibilities. For its implementation and monitoring.
7. To devise a comprehensive child protection system that addresses the issues of all categories of vulnerable girls and boys in all their diversity of age, class, religion as well as family and regional background.
a.) To devise a social protection policy for vulnerable girls and boys.
b.) To devise a social protection strategy translated into cross and sectorial programmes and projects and procedures.
c.) To create realistic budget lines for the implementation of the various components of the social protection system.
d.) To create clear institutional responsibility for monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the strategy.
8. To devise a National strategy, programmes and projects specifically for street children.
a.) To evaluate the implementation of the "National strategy for the protection, rehabilitation and reintegration of street children" of 2003, as well as all programmes and projects directly targeting street children.
b.) To build on lessons learned and design a new strategy in collaboration with key state institutions and NGOs.
c.) To design innovative and participative programmes and projects that address the conditions and circumstances of children already living on the street taking into account that:
i. There is more chance of succeeding by helping children get off the street through early intervention, before they establish their new "Street Kid" identity.
ii. For those who have been a long time on the streets, it is possible to use participative methods and consult them in the design of the most effective activities.
d.) To strengthen all programmes and projects that helps the integration of street children into mainstream society.
e.) To put place actions that address negative attitude of both the general public and state employees towards street children.
f.) To work directly with the police to address the way they perceive and treat street children.
g.) To solicit more resource allocation for items listed in recommendation 5 above from government and from bilateral and multilateral organizations.
9. To strengthen the advocacy role of civil society organizations working with street children.
a.) To strengthen CSOs ability to establish channels of communications with street children and to help make their voices heard.
b.) To raise the capacity of CSOs working with street children in the area of advocacy and lobbying of policymakers and politicians.
c.) To support civil society networks and strengthens their roles as advocates of the rights and needs of street children.
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