Sabah building shelter home for immigrant street children

By RUBEN SARIO

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah is building a RM1.9mil shelter home and vocational training centre for immigrant street children, Assistant Minister of Community Development Jornah Mozihim told the state assembly. 

She told Mohd Kamil Datuk Mohd Kassim (BN-Tanjung Batu) that the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry would provide the funds for the shelter in Inanam. 

She said the government would not ask the Philippines and Indonesia for funds for the shelter that would house Filipino and Indonesian kids.

18. April 2007, Swissinfo
		Swiss extend help to Ukrainian street children Ukraine has experienced strong economic growth since independence in 1991, but still faces a mountain of social problems inherited from the Soviet era.
		Switzerland has been supporting the training of Ukrainian social workers who are on the frontline in the battle against poverty, Aids and other social issues. Ukraine’s best side is reflected in the magnificent 19th century buildings lining the Primorsky Boulevard in Odessa, proudly overlooking the Black Sea. The freshly painted edifices stand in stark contrast to the desolate Pioneer Park situated close by, right next to the famed Potemkin Stairs. It is in the empty park that Oleg, Igor and Sergey live : in a building that formerly housed an electricity transformer. They are three of around 120,000 children who, according to Unicef, live on the streets in Ukraine. Many are orphans. Their families are among those that lost out following the break:up of the Soviet Union. "Many parents were and still are forced to work in other countries. The children remain, in the best of cases, with a relative, but often they are left with a neighbour," said Tatyana Bassyuk. Bassyuk instructs social workers for the Child Well:being Fund Ukraine. The fund offers advanced training and operates seven resource centres in the country. It is supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). Critical period There is a great demand for social workers and social pedagogues, as these professions are only as old as the country’s independence. The social and economic changes brought about by the end of the Soviet Union resulted in huge social problems that the country struggled to deal with. With Swiss help, the Child Well:being Fund brought over instructors to teach their Ukrainian counterparts. Universities did offer study courses in social work. "But even the lecturers were not familiar enough with the subject," Bassyuk remarked. The programme has now overcome the initial difficulties. The fund has 52 trainers who teach and give seminars around the country. "We are now trying to make this new knowledge as systematic and accessible as possible," Bassyuk said. Seminar programmes are making the work of local social workers easier. The SDC has earmarked SFr180,000 ($148,000) for this phase of the project. Ueli Müller, the agency’s representative in Kiev, is satisfied: "The project is coming to an end, and yet it is clear it will go on." In fact, the foundation is expected to operate without any support from the SDC in future. Problems remain Today, Ukrainian towns including Kiev, Lviv and Odessa are as European as Prague or Budapest. The strong economic performance has led to an increase in the number of the middle class. But many problems remain. Natalya Trozenko, who runs the Child Well:being Fund resource centre on the outskirts of Kiev, sees around 400 to 500 social workers every month. Trozenko has managed to cram more than 4,000 books on social issues into the centre, probably the biggest collection on the subject in Kiev. She is also involved in the Way Back Home project in Odessa that looks after street children and offers them shelter. Oleg, Igor and Sergey come here frequently during the day. Many of the children are drug dependent, injecting themselves with stimulants, which they can obtain easily from pharmacies. This is how Oleg became HIV positive. swissinfo, adapted from an article in German by Erik Albrecht in Kiev and Odessa

Huge rise in number of children living on Mandela Bay streets

By Lynn Williams

THE growing number of street children in Port Elizabeth has come under the spotlight as residents accuse them of housebreaking, theft and petty crimes in different residential areas.

Members of the South African Police Services and non-profit organisations described the increase of street children in the city as disturbing.

The areas where an increase in street children has been noted are Central, Humewood, Summerstrand, Greenbushes, Kabega Park and Newton Park.

Director Ronald Koll, head of the Humewood police station, said more than 10 street children were arrested only a few days ago.

He said the children were committing crimes like housebreaking, snatching handbags, breaking into motor vehicles, pick-pocketing and stealing beach-goers‘ belongings.

“I don‘t know exactly how many kids there are but they live under the Humewood bridge, and the groups are getting bigger and bigger,” Koll said.

“They have to fend for themselves so they become involved in criminal activities. Children as young as 11 already have criminal cases against them.”

Numerous complaints had been received from residents and tourists.

“The police can arrest the children for doing something wrong but then they are back within a few days,” he said.

“A solution would be if the courts sentenced them directly to a place of safety. Our social workers are working on ways to handle this problem.”

Constable Patrick Gqwa, of the Kabega Park police station, said there were more than 50 street children lurking in the area.

Most of them were from Barcelona in Helenvale, and they hung around mostly at Macro, Game, McDonalds, Spar and Engen.

“The police are working closely with social workers to get these kids off the streets,” he said. “We have already started profiling them.”

Claims that girls under 18 were prostituting themselves in the Greenbushes area were also being investigated.

The girls allegedly waited for “customers” along Tembani Road in Greenbushes.

Kabega Park police face similar problems of child criminals in the area.

The department of social development will hold an urgent meeting in Port Elizabeth tomorrow to address ways of curbing the rapid increase of street children in the city.

Dr Trudy Basson, director of non-profit Maranatha, said she hoped solutions would be found at the meeting.

“It‘s very difficult to determine how many street children there are because they are constantly moving around,” she said. “More than 170 street children moved through the Siyakathala shelter last year.”

Basson said all efforts to get the children back to school had failed as the streets were where they earned their living.

“They become involved in criminal activities because there is no role model on the streets and they have to survive,” she said.

Gcobani Maswana, spokesman for the provincial department of social development, could not give statistics for the number of street children in the province. He said the problem could be solved with the help of the health and education department and NGO‘s.

Imagine a world
A film about what life on the streets in Uganda is like for so many children.