The Phenomen Of Street Children And Their Life On (1) [605941]

1 The phenomen of street children

Department: Education and Psychology
Course: Master of Arts in Childhood Studies and Children’s Rights
Module: Children out of place -socially and cultural disavantages and marginalized
children and their rights
Studies :Social Worker
Lecturer: Markowka, Urszula
Semester: Summer 2016/201 7

Hotea Alina -Daniela
Hotea_a @yahoo.com
Berlin 10961
Matriculation Number .:5040808
Words:4965

2

T a b l e o f c o n t e n t :
1.Abstract……………………………………………………………………………2
2.Introduction………………………………………………………………………..4
3.Defin ing the “street children” ……………………………………………………..6
4.Let*s meet the concepts ……………………………………………………………7
4.1.The practice of “fostering” children …………………………………………….7
4.2.Parenthood among street children ……………………………………………7
4.Street children who migrated from other countries………………………………8
5.The street children rights…………………………………………………………9
7.Support care for street children …………………………………………………..11
7.1.What support project for a young woman in a situation of prostitution? ……11
7.2. Reinforcing the systemic nature of care for street children …………………11
8.The m arginali zation through life on the streets and associated challenges ……..11
9.Risks of living on the streets and associated challenges ………………………..12
10. Drugs and substances abuse in the street……………………………………..12
11. Street children and schooling …………………………………………………13
12. A story about witchcraft ………………………………………………………14
13.Something about street children from Philippines ………………… ………….15
14.Street children cases……………………………………………………………16
15. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….17
16. Reference………………………………………………………………………18

3

The phenomenon of street children

Abstract

One of the big problem in the word, today, i s the growing number of the children
who are excluded from meaningful participation in the economic, social, political,
cultural and educational life of their communities . The current strategies and the
programs are insufficient or inappropriate for childr en who are excluded from society.
Education for all, must take account of the need for children who are making part of
vulnerable , marginalization and exclusion group.
In this paper we can see that children is facing with many problems and
challenges livin g on the street. Also we will getting closer to the understanding of
Parenthood among street , and The practice of “fostering” children
Latter we can find about a holistic approach to the protection and promotion of the
rights of children working and/or liv ing on the stree t.
The education, marginalization risk, and drug abuse it will be present too.
One interesting thing that I found is about a story “ about witchcraft “ and I listed
some concepts.
Some information about street children of Philipine, and so me cases can be found
here.
One very important part of this paper are the conclusion about street children.

Key words: street children, education, children rights, witchcraf t, parenthood among
street , “fostering” children .

4 Introduction

The street children exist everywhere in the word. All the experience and the
challenges they need to face in the street are like in developing countries. The
discrimination, poverty and social exclusion make to grow the number of street
children. The street life is no t a easy choose, but can be much better of stay in the
family. The response for improve something in their life it can be found in their rights.
Most of street children are excluded and” invisible”. The health system, school and the
police are not doing not hing for this children. Sometimes the life on the street can be
so hard and we need to speak about violence, abuse, and drugs.
The number of street children can*t be found exactly. Approximately forty million
street children are found in South America, te n million in Africa, cases in Asia, 25
million cases Easter and Western Europe .
The death or the absence of the parents makes very hard the life of the children and
they prefer to live on the street. The life on the street reduce the possibility to go at
school and the lack of knowledge is nowhere.
The most present factors who push the children to go on the street are the divorce of
the parents, domestic violence, strees, death or the absence of parents.
They work on the street like bagging, and consumm al l the money just from them.
The system is discriminated this children and they coming with a good reason: “we
can*t to nothing for them”.
One case from Georgia inform us about the number of the girls who life on the street
is more high that the number of the boys.
There are children who are living temporal on the street and they have visible
disabilities, physical trauma or abuse of the substance. The most of the children don’t
have contact with that family from a month or more longer. The street -and-home
living children could be considered to be in transition from street -active behavior to
becoming street -living . Some street -and-home living children are going at school, but
the most of them are let the school and moved permanent on the street.
The street ac tive children are the children that spend only the day on the street.

“They become premature adults and develop behaviour patterns which can be
summarised in a rejection of authority, aggressiveness, an absence of limits,
independence and a lack of affect ion. They are also … characterised by problems with

5 drug addiction, alcoholism, delinquency, prostitution and moral and physical abuse”
(Unicef, 1984) .

6 Defining the “street children”
We have many definitions but is hard to find them in accurate count .
A basic definition of the term is “a homeless or neglected child who lives chiefly in
the streets” ( Oxford Dictionary )
Raffaeli and Larson (1999) argue that the street children term conceln enormous
variation in the experi nces of youngsters who share the common condition of being
“out of place” is street enviroments, spending their lives largery outside the spheres
typicall considered appropriate for children, such as home, school and recreational
settings”.
Another defini tion is from The United Nations: “any boy and girl….for whom the
street in the widest sense of the word…has become his her habitual abode and souce
of livehood, and who is inadequately protected, supervised or directed by responsable
adults.”
According to UNICEF: there are some definitions which have categorized street
children but which can be problematic:
On the street: those who are engaged in some king of economic activities including
begging or vending. Majority of these children leave for their homes when the day
end and contribute in the family income. Attenting school and keeping sens of
belonging to a family is not uncommon. These children may ultimatly have to choose
for permanent street life due to the poor economic condition of family.
Of the str eet: Those who live on the street. Fragile Belongingness :the family may
exist and occasitional maintained. (Snglguy,2008).
The definition on/of the street can be a problem because is ignorase the potenitial of
the children,in the family and in the street also.The child is reduced to “an object on
which interventions are carried out according to modalities disconnected with the
child’s opinion” . It is consider the child as an actor of his or her own destiny.

7 Let*s meet the concepts :
The practice of “fostering” children
It is belong to the West Africa. Fostering is about the parents who placing a child with
a close relative or friend and then, according to tradition, taking no further interest, at
least directly, in the child’s fate as long as it rem ains with the foster family. It is not a
legal practice,very different from legal adoption with lack of formalities , but similar
in practice. The child lives with the foster family as one of its children , but does not
take the name. This custom requires a family to accept a child offered to it for
fostering and the form take place without the prior consent of the biological parents,
or that of the foster parent . This lack of consent represent the most horrible form of
abuse and of the neglect suffered by ce rtain foster children. It may subject to a time
limit. The child may be fostered until the death illness, divorce or separation . In such
situations, it provides a form of family solidarity or a means of renewing bonds
weakened by family quarrels. In recent decades, economic crises have impacted
heavily on West Africa and have further undermined traditional social systems . The
education of the child imposes a major financial burden and the family is struggling
under the weight of economic constraints . The ch ildren are placed with a Koranic
master or marabout are known as “talibés”. This child talibé is contributi ed to the
children’s education: he go from door to door at meal times and beg food from the
community .

Parenthood among street children :when we me t with post -partum depresion at girls
who have been unable create a mental construct of their child .The pregnacy can be a
motiv wich girls change the status in her grup .Theose girls are not prepared for have
children,:they don’t know to “picture”, to “en visage” the arrival of her child and, in so
doing, to create a space in her life for the child . If the girl is adolecent her status is
change form o “girl” in the status of “prostitute” . Protecting the mother in her
relationship with the baby, can create a risk to exposed of the psychological and social
vulnerability of the mother .Sometimes the mother should decide if she need help in
her maternal rol .She can have visits for positive positive experience for her and the
children also.

8 Street children who m igrated from other countries
Natural disasters, economic crises, poverty, and other pressures have helped
create a new kind of Latin American migrant . This traveler, who may be as young
as 12 years old, is part of a growing population of street children in a region
where the World Bank estimates that 90 million children — almost half of all
minors — live in poverty.
Child advocates say the number of Central American migrants who are children
has grown dramatically since Hurricane Mitch, with the numbers fro m Nicaragua
and Honduras up to several thousand a year. The late -1998 storm killed thousands
of people in Central America and increased the subregion's social, economic, and
ecological vulnerability. Honduras and Nicaragua, two of the poorest countries in
the Western Hemisphere, have hardly begun to recover from the devastation.
The migration group of street children, are most likely complain about health
problem in the family, and some of them are making money from begging which
represent a survive strate gy. The children who are survive from bagging are called
“gypsy”. Gypsy simple have in their culture to live such a life, and no one is capable
to change that.
One of the problem of immigrant street children is the fact that are not registered
anywhere an d that is the reason they can*t receive the own health. Most of them have
the parents dead. It is present the apparition of health problem: visible disabilities,
physical traumas and/or abuse toxic substances . In some cases, children are in the
street just during the summer, during the day, and in the night they are come back at
home.

9 The street children rights
The children should have the same rights like aduts : rights to health, to education, to
protection and to equal opportunity – without rega rd to gender, economic status,
ethnicity, religious belief, disability or geographical location.
The Convention unequivocally recognizes that these rights are “the foundation of
freedom, justice and peace in the world .”
To do something good for this chil dren it means that we need good intentions and
strategic investments. The social change can be achived through inspire.
The Convention offers a wision of the word in wich the best interes of children is
given:the children have the right to healty, educat ion, nediscrimination, the right to
express himself, and pay attention how children are treath by the word.
Children need to be seen diffrent now: they have the own rights to health care,
adequate nutrition, education, participation, freedom from violence and exploitation .
Unfortunately we have lack of essential services that can improve the acces to
improved water and sanitation, increased access to HIV prevention, treatment, care
and support services .
I want to present a holistic approach to the protect ion and promotion of the
rights of children working and/or living on the street (UN Human Rights Council,
2011) :
Article 2: Non -discrimination -CRC shoud pay atention to the implementation of
children’s rights at the domestic level.
Article 3: Best interest s of the children -that states parties have a positive
obligation to ensure the child protection and care necessary for his or her well -being,
also taking into account the rights and duties of the child’s parents or legal guardians,
and that states shall ta ke all appropriate legal and administrative measures to give
effect to this.
Article 4: Protection of rights child -specifies that states need to i mplement
economic, social and cultural rights within the framework of international
cooperation.
Article 6: Sur vival and development -states should pay atention to the maximum
extent possible, survive and develop.
Article 7: Registration, name, nationality, care
Article 8: Preservation of identity -some street children live in situations
separated from their families, their identity may be made vulnerable, and states should

10 thus ensure that street children’s identities are preserved or re -established where
necessary.
Article 9: Separation from parents
Article 12: Respect for the views of the child
Article 20: Children deprived of a family environment
Article 23: Children with disabilities
Article 24: Health and health services
Article 27: Adequate standard of living -governments will provide material
assistance and support, particularly regarding nutrition, clothing and housing .
Article 28: Right to education
Article 29: Goals of education
Article 31: Leisure, play and culture
Article 32: Child labour
Article 33: Drug abuse
Article 34: Sexual exploitation
Article 36: Other forms of exploitation –
Article 37: Detention and punishment -recovery and reintegration shall take place
in an environment fostering the health, self -respect and dignity of the child
Article 39: Rehabilitation of child victims -recovery -every child who is deprived
of their liberty shall be treated with hu manity and respect for the inherent dignity of
the human person, and in a way which takes into account the needs of children of his
or her age .
Article 40: Juvenile justice -juvenile justice respects the rights of the child, such
as that governments set a m inimum age of criminal responsibility .
http://media.leidenuniv.nl/legacy/kidsreport -street -children -have -rights -too.pdf

11 Support care for street child ren
What support project for a young woman in a situation of prostitution?
It represent a complex issue where it is need to change the way for acting,
thinking and being. Based for the princ iple “protect and accept, without judging” ,it
can be possible to combine child protection with campaigns to prevent certain sexual
practices by providing a range of services and support to these girls in a situation of
prostitut ute. T he girls includes can have access to health care and psychological and
social support ;create self -confidence as a means towards social reintegration and
personal reconstruction .It is more about to become more independent and take
responsibility .
Reinforcing the systemic nature of care for street children :working to promote the
development of a region whilst also dealing with the causes of its fragility . The
program include the mobile teams patrolling six nights a week in the areas where the
children live, and vocational training leading to qualifications to help with
reintegration into societ y.
The m arginali zation through life on the streets and associated challenges
Street children are marginal ized through spending the majority of their time
living on the street,and sometimes they need to face the problems.
They find very hard to get ac cession to basic nutrition, healt h, they don’t have
protective cloths and shoes, are having particular injuries and p hysical pain, be cause
they need to walking to along distance. Also they have may be vulnerable to
infections and diseases . Where diseases such as dysentery, hepatitis, malaria, scabies,
polio and tuberculosis are present, street children may suffer from these (Behura and
Mohanty, 2008: 78)
The active sexual children are having unprotected sex, it exist the po ssibility to
contracting sexually tr ansmitted diseases, including HIV and AID s. The street
children are using substance abuse and they can have serious and damaging effects on
health . Sometimes they got disease . Street children may feel that they cannot trust
adults to ask them for help (OH CHR, 2012: 19) .
Street children maybe sometimes don’t pay attention to the serio usly problem of
disease , or maybe they have a lack of knowledge about the hygienic lifestyle ,and
also not recogni zes when they are seriously sick .

12 Risks of living on the stre ets and associated challenges
In the street children are exposed to very harsh and dangerous elements. T he
most o bvious problem are sickness, abuse, and exploitation . The girls are most
vulnerable to maltreatment, sexual abuse and exploitation. 30% of str eet children are
girls.
Among the street children are child workers , working and/or living on the
streets and engaged in vending, car washing, scavenging, begging, peddling drugs,
prostitution .
When children are living on the street exist the po ssibility to find abuse and
violence :eighty -seven percent of children on the streets reported being beaten at least
once. Eighty percent of children reported being beaten more than once, while 28% of
children said that they were beaten almost daily .
thttp://www.psyc h.utah.edu/people/people/fogel/jdp/journals/5/journal05 -05
Other perpetrators of violence against children included police officers. Twenty -one
percent of children who reported being beaten frequently said that they were beaten
by the police.

Drugs and substances abuse in the street
Drug use is public health issue for children a cross the globe .
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that in 2010, nine percent of
people aged 12 and older had used illicit drugs. Homeless youth, in particular, can get
out of hand with these substances.
http://www.medicaldaily.com/drug -use-among -homeless -children -92-some -countries –
most -using -inhalants -247612
Legal substance are present like: tobacco, alcohol, and inhalants . Inhalants represent
the easy way too escape from a difficult quotid ian life but have lasting effects,
including brain damage. Another drugs that are used are drugs injection. This drugs
causes p hsychal harm and psycological distress.
Researchers found that children are soliciting money for sex and drug abuse. Thirty
percen t of the male children studied in Pakistan reported that they exchanged sex for
drugs, and 71 percent of those exchanges were with strangers .
Living on the street and use drugs affect very bad the health of these children.
Many of them have painful urinati on, denital sores or irritation. The use of drugs
made them more likely to contract HIV.

13 A major of the children sufferes depression, and it is happened very frecvently.
They used drugs to forget sometimes about issues they were having, to feel pleasure,
or to be to confident an less scared.
In the end the health problem of street children is as much of a public health issues
as the use of illicit drugs in the rest of the population.
The researchers have therefore identified a serious issue in a large d emographic and
hope that their findings will awaken policymakers, communities, and other
researchers to help these children avoid drug use as well as homelessness.
Street children and schooling
The majority children of street they don’t heard about the sc hool. The fredom of the
street it is offer more good things that school. UNESCO’s work have two objective of
developing basic education for street children and prevention: – raising awareness of
the general public about street children and the non -enforceme nt of the right to
education for all; -providing technical support for organizations and institutions in
order to meet the basic needs of these children;
Identification, mechanism and criteria, and the social support it is needed to ensure
program for the most disadvantaged groups like street children.
In India and Nepal exist the alternative school which help the street children to learn
income -producting and survival skill and offer training to them.

14 A story about witchcraft
Belief in wi tchcraft has a long history and is a widespread phenomenon
throughout the world (Behringer, 2004) . It becomes a problem,when the belief in
witchcraft leads to accusations that ignite acts of persecution, including psychological,
emotional and physical abus e (AFRUCA, 2009).
Philip Alston affirm that witchcraft can be an issue of particular importance because
there have been numerous cases in recent years in which those accused of witchcraft
have been persecuted and killed .
(Alston, 2009). – The Encyclopaedia Britannica gives a definition of witchcraft as “the
exercise or invocation of alleged 4 supernatural powers to control people or events,
practices typically involving sorcery or magic” (Encyclopedia Britannica,2010) .
The research argue that persons at ris k of witchcraft accusations are women, the
elderly and children or those “who are somehow „different,‟ feared or disliked”
(Alston, 2009). Poverty, lack of access to basic resources and services, instable
governments and the onset of HIV and AIDS are frequ ently mentioned as root causes
of witchcraft accusations (Ballet, Dumbi and Lallau, 2007) .

profile .http://www.unhcr.org/research/working/4d346eab9/breaking -spell -responding –
witchcraft -accusations -against -children -bussien.html

15 Something about street children from Philippines

It it is difficult to know exact the numbers of street children in the Philippines . There
are an estimated246,011 street children in the Philippines (UNICEF, 2011:84 )
The same study estimated that of the 246,011 estimated street children, there are
22,556 highly visible children (those considered to be in most urgent need of help) on
the streets in 22 major cities throughout the Philippines (UNICEF, 2011: 84) .
The Committee is concerned about street children limited access to adequate nutrition,
clothing, housing, social and health services and education. Furthermore, the
Committee is concerned about health risks faced by street children, including
environmental health risks, such as toxic and hazardous wastes and air pollu tion
(CRC, 2005, 21)

It was a time when Nicole -Scherzinger, spend a day with the UNICEF team
encountered children living in poverty in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. She
speak with a mother who tell about her husband job. The man work is n ot one
agreeable one, he is collecting trash from houses and the local area.Her wife it is scary
about his job especially when he collect rubbish from the beach and near the water.
Nicole visited a pre -school centre in Baseco and she was inform about the i mportant
educations,which means to learn and develop, but also keeping them safe and off the
street. She plays some educational games with the children and they sang songs about
their rights.The kids loved playing Rock, Paper, Scissors too which they all f ound so
funny.
Nicole vis ited a pre -school centre in Baseco and she was inform about the
educations,which means to learn and develop, but also keeping them safe and off the
street. She plays some educational games with the children and they sa ng songs about
their rights.The kids loved playing Rock, Paper, Scissors too which they all found so
funny . The children been so friendly with her :they took her hand and place it on their
forehead. The children been so comfortable with her and some of them called she
Nicole’ which translates as ‘big sister Nicole. She met a girl with the same name like
she. In one article Nicole says: That’s why I’m supporting Unicef UK’s Children in
Danger campaign, so that children like little Nicole have a safer world to grow up in.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity -news/nicole -scherzinger -my-heartbreaking -vis
it-5744254

16 Street children cases :

Cases from Bucharest:Laurentiu is a child who had lived on the streets for years,
surviving via drugs and prostitution around the railway station, before he established
this subterranean colony and laid out the rules of "th e hole" . Later Laurentiu moved in
a caravan which calls home with the help of the manager. He had guaranteed to the
manager that he will find work, more better work that others. He was helping a
women with 2 kids, and a boy called Mircea who had 9 years. M ircea was abandoned
from his mother, he never know his father, he was consumed drugs and sent to a
gypsy. It was so proud because he is working from himself.

R. A., aged 12, was from Marrakech. The child is pending the time on the street
with no identit y documents, and he don’t know nothing about his family. He moved
on the streets of Casablanca, where he remained for six years. After a long time from
surviv ing by begging and petty theft, he finally obtain his identity documents with the
constant person alised support from Bayti over a period of years and rebuild links to
his family thanks to a process of mediation and parental education. He took a training
with remedial classes to catch up on his education, and after found a job with a
company. He became independent and married with a child and a homeowner.

http://www.afd.fr/webdav/shared/PUBLICATIONS/THEMATIQUES/savoirscommu
ns/12 -Savoirs -communs -VA.pdf

17 Conclusion
The children need to be helped on the street. We need to find people who can
training them no -formal education and provide basic needs. With this help maybe
some of them can go to the school. For this program we need financial support and
monotorization frecvently.
We can trained them to became street educators themselves. They can be the one
theachers for their groups on the street.
Maximum participation of children in the work is a sign of best practice. Non –formal
education on the street is an indication of this.
The media show to us that the procent of children street are increa sing day by day,
because of the decrease in the standard of living. The system of social security for
children and for family is not developing fast enough to deal with the bad economic
situation.
Identification, mechanism and criteria, and the social supp ort it is needed to ensure
program for the most disadvantaged groups like street children.
Organization and programs working with street children need to be used.
The state should pay attention to the family which can work, and give to stayed in
preparatio n for working.
Social benefits should be modified for street children to have accession to education,
health system.
The current legislation make some supporting for a divorced mother and children to
provide a place for living and child support from the fa thers .
The state should create mechanisms that allow for the monitoring of children
situations within a family .
Programs working with the children need to cooperate with street children and help
with the social things that has happened in the community.

18 References

Aptekar, Lewis (2000) , A Global View of Street Children in the Year 2000, San Jose
State University Press

Milne, B., (March 2007) , Assessment of the Situation of Street Children in Georgia;
Research Design and Programme Planning; UNICE F

United Nations Children’s Fund. The State of the World’s Children 2006 : Excluded
and Invisible. New York, NY: Brodock Press; 2006

Hollander D. For some newly homeless youth, living situation and substance use are
linked to risky sexual behavior.

De Moura, S.L. (2002) ‘The Social Construction of Street Children: Configuration
and Implications’, British Social Work Journal

Connolly M, Ennew J. 1996. Introduction – Children out of place. Childhood -A
Global Perspective

Peacock, R. (1994) ‘Street Childr en’, Africa Insight 24(2): 138 –43

UNICEF, State of the World’s Children 2006: Excluded and Invisible, 2006.

• Alston, P., Promotion and Protection of all Human Rights, Civil, Political,
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Including the Right to Developm ent: Report of
the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions,
Addendum, Mission to the Philippines, A/HRC/8/3/Add.2, 2008.

• UNICEF, Fact sheet : A summary of the rights under the Convention on the
Rights of the child, online htt p://www.unicef.org/crc/files/ Rights_overview.pdf (last
accessed 14 August 2012 )

19
United Nations Human Rights Council, Rights of the child : a holistic approach
to the protection and promotion of the rights of children working and/or living on the
street, A/HRC/RES/16/12, 2011.

Behringer, W. (2004). Witches and Witch -Hunts : A Global History. Cambridge,
UK: Polity Press

All Africa (2008). Angola: Unicef Publishes Study On Impact of Witchcraft‟s
Accusation Against Children . Retrieved 31 January 2010 from
http://allafrica.com/stories/200812110970.html

http://www.afd.fr/webdav/shared /PUBLICATIONS/THEMATIQUES/savoirscommu
ns/12 -Savoirs -communs -VA.pdf

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/aug/09/romania -street -children -revisited

www.ilo.org/ipecinfo/product/download.do?t ype=document&id=2604

www.unicef.org/ social policy/index_ socialprotection .html

http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity -news/nicole -scherzinger -my-heartbreaking -vis
it-5744254