Have you ever visited a city and been followed down the street by a scrum of children asking for money or pens, or desperately trying to sell you gum or some limp flowers? Our visit last week from UNICEF Laos Child Protection Officer Amy Delneuville got me thinking about one of the world's saddest, most overlooked groups: street children. Here in the U.S., there aren't many street children but in developing countries, poor countries, countries fractured by conflict, there are many.
|
| © UNICEF/ HQ07-0072/Giacomo Pirozzi |
| A boy sleeps on a cardboard box on the street in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic. |
It's impossible to know for certain just how many children spend their time living in the streets. Not surprisingly, it's a very difficult group to track. An estimated number that often pops up, though, is 100 million. If accurate, that's 100 million kids living, working, struggling and sleeping on the streets of cities. I can't imagine what it must feel like to be a kid and not know where you'll sleep that night. Or whether you'll be safe.
Children end up on the street for a whole host of reasons. They may have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS or by war. They may be fleeing abusive households or homes where there's not enough food for the whole family. Maybe it's something simple: in Karachi, Pakistan, the number of street children is on the rise because it's off-season for fishing and there are few other ways for their parents to earn a living. Sometimes it's a reason that, for us, is unimaginable: in Angola, families abandon children because they've been accused of being witches.
UNICEF creates and supports programs around the globe to help street children. We make safe spaces where they can continue their schooling and can also learn practical skills—things like sewing and hairdressing—which they can use to make a living. Of course we also encourage them to have fun; we organize sports events, art projects, plays. When my colleague Adam Fifield recently visited Angola, he went to a center for street children and other vulnerable youth where they learn Capoeira—a complicated blend of dance and martial arts. I saw a tape of them performing, and it was just amazing.
UNICEF will always work to help these children and to give them a clear path away from the bleak and often scary street existence. If you want a sense of what life is really like for street children, I encourage you to watch a remarkable (though—alert—depressing) documentary about Romanian children called "Children Underground." Also, in the course of researching this post I found a great blog, World Street Children News, where you can read stories about street children all over the world. I encourage you to take a look.
Comments (1)
Jen, thank you for this report. As deeply disturbing as it is, UNICEF excels at bringing attention to these forgotten crises.
The tragedy of street children (I will not call it a "problem") is deeply rooted, with a history that stretches back through multiple millenia. It is everywhere.
My older brother, a musician, has travelled the world. He has seen street children in Italy, in Russia, in Brazil, and many other places, as well.
My younger brother, a historian, has seen street children in Ghana, in Cote D'Ivoire, in Uganda.
And I, a writer and filmmaker, have seen street children in not just in London, Liverpool and Edinburgh, but in Los Angeles, in San Francisco, in New York, in Seattle.
Sadly, there are 1.3 million street children in the United States --- not UNICEF's charge, of course, but I did want to mention that this is not just a small problem here, in this wealthy nation.
Reading this story, I think of my own nephews, some just a few years older than the children mentioned here. I think of them at 9, at 11, and try to imagine them digging through trash, begging for food, sleeping on the open streets, hoping to survive another day.
I have no children, so ALL children are "mine." This is personal to me. I wish I could do more, but I refuse to turn away and do nothing.
My deepest thanks to all who are working to provide a safe environment for these children. I know the horrific circumstances under which they live seem intractable, but the children are only lost if we forget them.
Posted by mmberkeleyca | July 11, 2008 5:00 PM
Posted on July 11, 2008 17:00