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Friends-International
has adopted the following definitions:
Street
Living Children: children who have completely
cut ties with their families and have made the streets their
home.
Street
Working Children: children who are working on
the streets, but have kept ties with their family and return
home either regularly or irregularly.
Street
Families: children
who are living with their family on the streets.
Various
factors support this increase:
Urbanization:
an increasing percentage of the rural population migrates to
the cities, which are unable to absorb the sudden increase,
forcing the migrants to slums and squatter areas, where basic
services are unavailable. Children and youth have no access
to education and spend most of their time on the streets.
Under-employment:
a large number of adults are without employment or under-employed.
All the members of the family must, therefore, seek income,
forcing children to work on the streets at a very young age.
HIV/AIDS:
as parents become sick from AIDS related diseases, children
become the sole providers for their family, working for food
and money. Once their parents have passed away, these children
remain on the streets and live there permanently. This phenomenon
is very acute in Africa and in Asia (Cambodia)
Family
Dysfunctions: children and families are victims
of the weakening of traditional social structures. As instability
increases and the families break up, children are left without
support.
Attraction
to the cities: as the countryside remains poor,
cities are getting richer. Young people perceive a better future
by living in the cities, a message reinforced by the mass media.
Peer
Pressure: young people often leave in groups
to go to the cities, supporting and encouraging each other.
Unrest:
many children and families are victims of civil unrest and wars.
As violence erupts, children are force to migrate and end up
on the streets of large cities, often after being separated
from their families.
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Once
on the streets, these children and young people are exposed and
vulnerable to a number of risks:
Drugs:
a high number of children use drugs to escape their daily lives
and problems Many are also using because of peer pressure.
Sexual
Abuse: children are the prey of adults in search
of their immediate sexual gratification. Girls are especially
at risk of rape. A substantial number of children turn to prostitution
as a means to make an income. Additionally, some children are
kidnapped and sold to the international sex trade.
HIV/AIDS:
because of the risk of abuse and because of early sexual
activity, children are at high risk of HIV infection. Contamination
rates among this segment of the population are usually proportionally
higher than the national averages (for example in Cambodia, 15%
of street youth are HIV positive compared to the national average
of 2.6%)
Violence:
living on the streets inevitably leads to daily violence: physical
violence (by police, sellers, gangs etc), emotional violence,
psychological violence…Why it is important to work with
street children?
Street
children are both the thermometer of the economic and social situation
of a country, posing a significant loss to future advancements of
local societies. By entering adulthood without a formal education
or vocational skills, street children will have a notably negative
effect on the development of a country. Furthermore, the life of
living on the streets can be cyclical; teenage street children bearing
children, spurring the next generation of street children.
It
is common for street children to become involved in criminal activities.
They are often controlled by organized gangs, which invariably affect
the security of communities. Such activities can lead to and attract
violent causes, feeding off the children's distress and frustrations. |
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