World Street Children News

School teams up to help the street kids

A WOMAN who works with children in Africa has met youngsters from a Preston primary school who have been helping her project.
Judy Westwater, 61, works with street children to improve their quality of life.

Pupils at Longsands Community Primary School in Fulwood became involved with her work through parents and now pass on their old uniforms to the African children.

Judy, an acclaimed author, has just seen her new book, Street Kid, reach number four in the best sellers’ list.

She has visited the Longsands Lane school at the end of term to meet the children who have formed friendships with their African counterparts and regularly write to each other.

Judy said: “This partnership will last through the children’s primary school years, so the children will grow up together. The African children are delighted to have friends in other countries. It is working wonderfully for all those involved.”

The Evening Post played a part in the link, when reader Karen Massicotte saw an article four years ago about Judy’s work. She contacted Judy and the pair soon became friends. After reading the piece, Karen was eager to help raise money for the Pegasus Children’s Trust and getting her six-year-old son Reiss’s school involved seemed like a great way to help.

She said: “I really wanted to help, so I send my son’s old clothes over to Africa. The children over there sent Reiss a thank-you card, which he took into school. The teachers saw the card and rang me and said they were interested in helping, and that’s how it started.”

Judy’s autobiographical book gives details of her life as a street child. Street Kid tells her inspirational story about how she was treated by her father and had to scavenge in bins to find food. It is published by HarperCollins, priced £12.99.
30 May 2006

Rwanda: Poisoned Street Kids Discharged

The New Times (Kigali)

May 30, 2006
Posted to the web May 31, 2006

Daniel Sabiiti
Kigali

Twelve street children aged between 13 and 17 years reportedly poisoned at ‘Total’ a restaurant in Remera suburb, were discharged on Friday May 26, according to reliable sources at Kigali University Central Hospital (CHUK).

‘The street kids who were admitted in critical condition on Thursday immediately were attended to by our medical experts. Some of them suffered from severe stomach upsets, running stomachs, fever, but we were able to treat all of them,’ disclosed a nurse at the hospital who preferred anonymity.

The discharged kids were identified as Emmanuel Ntirenganya, Claude Mfurayange, Paul Niyonsenga, Emma Cyabera, Emma Ngeninshuti, Ismael Ndagimana, and Jean Claude Dusabe. Others were only identified as Sibomana, Nshimiyimana, Niyoyita, Nshimirimana and Claude.

According to the reliable sources, the street kids were given food that had the unidentified poison after they allegedly tampered with some restaurant facilities.

Efforts to reach the hotel management or the Remera Police Post for comment were futile by press time."

Street kids are entreprenuers and should be encouraged

May 29, 2006 

Amid intense debate over employment and unemployment, Prof. Stephen Adei, Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) is pushing for society to encourage kids who sell to develop their entrepreneurial skills.

Prof. Adei argues that rather than chasing them off the streets, streets kids who engage in selling to make a living should be assisted to develop their skills and become big time business men and women. In his view, the kids should be encouraged to go to school and be allowed to sell after they close from school. Prof. Adei’s was giving his closing remarks at the just ended silver jubilee celebrations of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana. Prof.

Adei’s comments come on heels of the 2005 Afrobarometer report, which ranked unemployment high on the list of pressing problems facing Africans. As a regular feature of the Afrobarometer, respondents in 12 African countries were asked about their development agenda. According to the report, unemployment has overtaken education as the most pressing need many households would want their governments to solve. Fourty-six percent (46%) of all the 56, 000 respondents in the 12 countries, including Ghana said they were worried about job creation in their countries. That perhaps, explains why the government recently launched a 1.5 trillion cedi Job Corp Fund to create more jobs for the youth. The government had made a number of attempts to address unemployment since 2001. One attempt was the registration of about 950,000 people, mainly the youth who needed employment. But the government soon realized that many of them did not have employable skills.

Dr Charles Brempong-Yeboah, Deputy Minister of Manpower, Youth and Employment last week explained that the youth employment programme would ensure a significant proportion of the Youth are actively engaged in productive ventures. The Deputy Minister noted that the programme would help the youth to develop good character through hard work and discipline to develop economically into responsible adults.

“This will be done through holding leadership, motivational, civic education, religious, moral and ethical-based seminars, as well as training activities.” To ensure sustainable development, Dr Brempong-Yeboah cautioned that while satisfying the employment needs of the present generation, it would not be compromised for the needs of the future generation. He said that all the activities of the National Youth Employment Programme should be environmentally friendly and take cognisance of socio-cultural interests of communities and ensure gender equality. Dr Brempong-Yeboah said various forms of training including orientations, briefing sessions, on-the-job training and refresher courses, would be conducted to enhance the capacity of the different levels of people and stressed that efforts would be made to pool funds together for easy disbursement and monitoring.

On the Afrobarometer report, the next most pressing issue on the public agenda is health care, including control of HIV/AIDS. It is noteworthy that health now outranks education as a popular priority. This, the report says represents a generational shift, because at the time of independence, and for a couple of decades after, Africans tended to emphasize access to education as their main concern. But persistent unemployment and rising cases of communicable disease have cast doubt on the assumption that having a high educational qualification is a passport to guaranteed employment. Many respondents also see poverty and hunger as the continent’s fastest growing problems.

On the popular development agenda, poverty is up 18 points, while hunger is up by 20 points over the last six years. The largest decrease in food poverty was reported in Lesotho, where the gross domestic product grew steadily after 2000. Hunger is the least common in Ghana, where, in 2005, only 35 percent reported a food shortage of any duration. By contrast, food shortage rose sharply in Nigeria and Malawi and Zimbabwe, where the shortages were rampant, according to the report.

Author: Amos Safo

Street kids warmed 

BY TIMES REPORTER 03:50:40 - 29 May 2006

A group of passionate leaders calling themselves Malawi Interaction Leaders Network (Milnet) on Friday donated jerseys and coats to street kids in Lilongwe.

Representing Milnet, Effie Tambala said she was particularly concerned that winter is approaching and street kids, who are most of the times orphaned, have no one to turn to for warmth.

“That is why I suggested to my friends that we have this initiative and call it ‘Warm the Street Kids’,” Tambala said.

She explained that Milnet is a baby born out of the British Council Interaction Leadership Network.

“The British Council equipped us with strong leadership skills and we only thought it right after our training to give back to our societies and help reproduce passionate leaders in our communities,” she said.

Tambala also pointed out that the old popular saying that the youth are leaders of tomorrow is “a bit out of tune” now. She suggested that people should advance that the youth are the leaders of today. “Leadership starts at any age. Even those kids who are monitors in their classes are leaders and we need to nurture that leadership,” Tambala said.

Principal Secretary of Gender, Child Welfare and Community Services Andrina Mchiela, who was also present at the handover ceremony, praised Milnet for the good work and urged Malawians to follow its example.

“I am sure that if many Malawians were to come up with similar initiatives for street kids and orphaned children, some of the problems in our society would be lessened,” Mchiela said.

Milnet members raised the money for buying the warm clothes and they also mobilised resources from other well-wishers like Coco-Pina and Village of Hope.

Night school for street kids

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Jamshedpur, May 26: Studying in a school may no longer be a far-fetched dream for children begging on streets or for child labourers in different organisations.

Authorities at Jharkhand Education Project (JEP) have decided to start a night school scheme in the district by the end of June.

According to their plans, about 60-100 night schools will be opened throughout East Singhbhum for children who are unable to attend regular schools or are working as child labourers.

“This project will begin at the end of June and will be one of the most innovative activities taken up by the JEP to promote education among the masses,” said J.K. Mishra, district superintendent of education, East Singhbhum.

The project is for students in the age group of 6 to 14 years and children studying from Class I to VIII.

The JEP sources said 2,000 such students have been identified in Jharkhand.

“These classes will start in existing schools or the various block resource and community centres. Classes will be held from 6 to 8 pm,” said an official. The JEP has, however, ruled out the possibility of including girls working as domestic help under this project.

“This project is mainly for children living on footpaths and moreover it would be difficult to convince parents to send their female children to such night schools,” said a senior official at the department.

“A bridging course will first be conducted to identify the students’ learning capacity and it’s only after that the child would be put into a particular class,” said the official.

The move comes as a result of the fact that most students who are likely to join these night schools would not have attended schools at all and moreover most of them are likely to be disinterested in studies.

The district education department has also decided to appoint para teachers in these schools to take up the classes. “We would like to request unemployed educated youths to take up classes in these schools,” added Mishra.

Art Exhibition Helps Street Children

By Observer Staff
May 27, 2006 -

SANA’A– An art exhibition was organized on Wednesday in aid of street children, run in cooperation with the French Henri De Monfried Center and the World Children Organization (WCO). Yemeni other Arab artists took part.

Ghislaine Pauilhec, the WCO representative in Yemen, said the organization was working to train workers to help children, and the needs and challenges they face.
Pauilhec, speaking at a press conference held in the French cultural centre, said that the organization’s mission is to “enlighten people about the rights of children around the world” and the agreements to protect the rights of children.

She said that the organization, in cooperation with Ebhar Corporation for Childhood and Creativity organized the show in the French centre to help street children.
Pauilhec added that the organization was working with other international organizations, such as United Nations and European Union, as well as local Yemeni organizations including the Ministry of Social Affairs and Ministry of Planning to help street children.
She pointed out that Yemen had signed human rights agreements in August 1991.

However, there are 3 million Yemeni children living on the poverty line, she said, and 5000 children forced to beg in Sana’a city. Another 700,000 are working in different
areas to help provide food for their families.
She said the organization wanted an “open door for contributions” to help street children in Yemen.
The organization has organized a concert with the Yemeni singer Faisal Alawai, with the sales of tickets going to raise fund for street children.

Zamboanga’s street children live a harsh life

"Friday, May 26, 2006
By Al Jacinto, Correspondent

ZAMBOANGA CITY: At the young age of eight, Nul Jumadi is already a family breadwinner. Selling cigarettes and candies on dangerous streets and sidewalks in Zamboanga City, Nul said helping his family is the his biggest achievement.

“I want to study of course, but I need to help my poor family. I only finished second grade and I don’t know if I can go back to school again,” he said, biting his lips and a little nervous during the interview.

“I am a Muslim, and I live just on the other block. I am helping my mother sell these cigarettes. I have brothers and sisters, too,” Nul said, breathing deeply whenever asked about himself and his family.

Nul’s mother, who has returned from the market, said her boy will go back to school. “He will study; my boy will study again. He finished second grade and he will study again, I hope,” she said.

Nul is only one of many children in Zamboanga City forced to leave school to earn a living and help their families.

Street children are a common sight in Zamboanga. You often see them on sidewalks, sniffing “rugby” and smoking crack to get high.

Despite occasional government efforts to take the children off the streets, authorities seem helpless to stop their growing numbers.

Street children often say they find happiness in the company of other waifs.

“My family is not good. My father and mother had abandoned us and my sisters and brothers are thieves. I live on the streets and I am happy now. I don’t want to go to school. I would rather stay here with my friends,” Maco, 10, said.

Some street kids, like those in the Lumbangan village in the eastern coast where the government dump is located, left school to dig for scrap and help feed their family.

There are no sustainable livelihood programs for the poor here, and Lumbangan children are often ill because they live near the dump. Rarely, if ever, do politicians visit the area to check on the situation.

Children as young as two years old have become regular scavengers at the dumpsite, about 10 kilometers from downtown Zamboanga.

Rodel Cabayacruz, 13, has spent half of his lifetime in Lumbangan scavenging for scrap—papers, tin cans, rotten food—to survive.

“I come here every day and I don’t mind the stench. What is important to me is I bring a little money for my brother’s milk. We are so poor that my mother cannot even send me to school,” Cabayacruz said."

TV star reunites runaway & family

Reena Thapar Kapoor and Santosh Andhale

A14-year-old boy who had run away from his home in Jaipur when he was just eight, is being reunited with his family after they saw him interacting with a contestant on a reality-based TV show.

Mohammad Sayeed was at his house in Jaipur watching a talent hunt show Ek Main Aur Ek Tu when he spotted a boy who looked like his runaway brother Rafiq chatting up with one of the show contestants.

Ek Main Aur Ek Tu participant Sharib was visiting the Spark Street Children Centre at Dadar, as part of the show promotion and there he began speaking to Rafiq and discovered that they both hailed from Jaipur. Rafiq’s brother and other relatives could hardly believe their eyes as they watched the show and this interaction.

The very next day, they found out Sharib’s Jaipur address and got in touch with his mother requesting her if he could help them verify if the boy was indeed their child and how they could reach him.

‘They told ammi (mother) that they’d seen Rafiq talking to me in the promotional clippings of the show and if I could help verify a few things,’ says Sharib. ‘I found out that Rafiq used to live at Maulana Ziauddin colony which is quite close to my house at Subhash chowk and from thereon things worked out.’

When we visited the children’s centre on Thursday, Rafiq said he was both excited and apprehensive about going back to Jaipur. While he was happy, he said, at being reunited with his family, the prospect of leaving his ‘family’ at the orphanage with whom he has spent the last six years was making him sad.

Rafiq said that he ran away from home because he was fed up of the constant shouting and nagging of his step mother and grandmother. "Nani beat me up ruthlessly because I was weak in studies so I left home and headed towards the railway station. Once there, I did not know what to do so I boarded the first train that came on the platform," disclosed Rafiq.

Though he does not remember which train it was, he said he realised he had reached Mumbai as the sign board read Mumbai Central and he was told that the train would not go beyond that.

Without any relative or friend in Mumbai, Rafiq started begging on the trains for the first two months and slept on various railway stations.

However, after falling off a train at Bhandup and fracturing his hand, Rafiq was brought to Dadar station where he was spotted by Gopal Sharma, the manager of Spark Street Children Centre, Dadar. Sharma took Rafiq to the centre which was to become his new home.

According to Sharma, Rafiq adjusted well at the centre and was soon sent to a BMC school at Matunga, He is in class VII and also work at a lottery stall near the Centre. “I have a good friend here and I get better food,” said Rafiq.

“Most of the time we do try to get the children reunited with their parents but we never force the children to go home. If they insist they do not want to leave we let them be,” says Sharma.

That doesn’t seems to be Rafiq’s case. His family is eager to welcome him back. “I just want to bring him back though I am still not clear on the legal procedure if any, and thank God I was watching TV,” says Rafiq’s brother Mohammad.

When asked about allegations of mistreatment Mohammad says that Rafiq when he ran away was “too small to understand what was happening. Yes, my father did raise his hand on him a few time but it was only because of his bad habits. He had got into bad company and would come home late. As a father he has right to spank him. Running away doesn’t help.”

• Most of the time we do try to get the children reunited with their parents but we never force the children to go home. If they insist that they do not want to leave, we let them be— Gopal Sharma, manager of Spark Street Children Centre, Dadar

Viet Nam works to reduce number of street children

05/25/2006 — 17:16(GMT+7)

Ha Noi (VNA) - Relevant agencies and localities of Viet Nam have exerted efforts to reduce the number of street children in order to help 30 percent of them return to their homes this year and the remaining find stable lives.

According to the Viet Nam Committee for Population, Family and Children, a project on preventing children from leaving their homes and assisting street children with earn a living has been carried out since 2003, beginning in Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh City, and later expanding to 38 cities and provinces.

Ha Noi showed the greatest progress, with the estimated number of street children dropping to 230, most of them coming from outside the city.

Meanwhile, Ca Mau, Kien Giang and Thanh Hoa provinces have coordinated with the local Fatherland Front chapters to build houses for poor families with the aim of preventing their children from leaving home. Some other provinces have provided families with absent children with loans to develop production and improve living conditions.

Vocational training courses for street children, especially techniques for animal husbandry and agricultural production, are also being employed as measures to help street children.

Viet Nam also cooperated with international organisations like the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Plan International to carry out aid projects in Ha Noi, Thanh Hoa and Hung Yen provinces. Meanwhile, the European Commission financed a 1.5 million Euros project to assist street children in 10 districts in Ha Noi, Ho Chi Minh City and the central city of Nha Trang and 50 communes in the northern provinces of Hung Yen and Vinh Phuc, Central provinces of Thanh Hoa, Quang Ngai, Ha Tinh, Phu Yen and Thua Thien-Hue.

In 2005, about 5,770 street children and children of high-risk groups were sent to school or vocational training courses. Of these children, 2,000 returned homes and 1,900 went to school.

As a result, the number of street children was reduced to 7,700 in 2005 from 9,400 in 2004.-Enditem"

Project gives aid to street children

"(23-05-2006)

HA NOI — Truong Tu Son, a 12-year-old homeless boy working as a shoe-shiner in Ha Noi, lost his left leg in a traffic accident last year. One of more than 2,000 children to receive help from a State project on assisting street kids, Son was treated at a city hospital and then went to Ha Nam Province’s Social Sponsoring Centre.

The street children project kicked off last year, following the approval of the Prime Minister’s Decision 19/2004/QD-TTg. The project, aimed at helping kids in Ha Noi and HCM City, was tied to this month’s Action Month for Children.

According to a report by the National Committee for Population, Family and Children, late last year there were about 7,700 street children in the two cities.

HCM City now has 1,225 street children, compared to 8,500 in 2003, while Ha Noi has basically wiped out homelessness among children.

However, the lack of trained grass-roots social workers and collaborators has limited awareness on the issue in the community, said Nguyen Dinh Thiet, chairman of the Children’s Department.

The committee has co-ordinated with the ministries of Finance, Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, to establish an inter-ministerial circular that was promulgated in March, 2003, aiming to provide assistance for needy children at the community level.

Some effective models included a social rice shop under the Red Cross in Da Lat City in the Tay Nguyen region, a programme of young volunteers who took part in educating street-children in HCM City, and the establishment of a living skills education centre for street-children in Kien Giang southern province.

Chairman Nguyen Dinh Thiet said that the success of the projects was due to the increasing involvement of grass-roots authorities, who contributed in reducing the number of street childen and worked on creating jobs for those who returned to their villages.

Among 5,800 children in danger of being homeless who received support from local authorities, 1,890 returned to school, 300 were sent to social centres, 1,450 received training, 420 were provided with jobs, and 1,400 received financial assistance.

International help

International organisations such as the European Committee provided 1.5 million euros for a project to assist street children, while a co-operative project between the committee with UNICEF, and PLAN organisation was effectively implemented across cities and provinces.

With funding of VND500 million from the Viet Nam-Australia Steel Company, the committee co-ordinated with authorities in Ha Noi’s outlying district of Soc Son and Thanh Hoa Province’s Hoang Hoa District to help street children return to their home towns. A VND1 billion vocational training centre for street children was also built in Ha Nam Province with the help of the Vietnamese Children Sponsoring Fund.

Difficulties ahead

According to chairman Thiet, city authorities are facing difficulties in settling the increasing number of homeless Cambodian children in HCM City and Dong Nai Province because "although we handed over 1,000 street children to Cambodia, later these children come back again."

Additionally, the low and unstable income of many rural families and general lack of employment are threatening to result in a further increasing of street children, he said. — VNS"