Nepalese football academy rescues street children
    
31 May 2008 01:18
Three years ago, Mahendra BK was a 12-year-old boy living on the street in Pokhara, a middle-sized Nepalese town with a population of about 200 000. His mother died when he was still an infant and his alcoholic father died of tuberculosis when Mahendra was only eight.

Mahendra lived in extreme poverty with his sister and grandmother for about a year. At the age of nine, he left them and ended up in Kathmandu, the capital, where he was living a high-risk life on the street, collecting garbage and selling it for petty cash to recycling factories.

Mahendra’s story is all too common among children in Nepal where, according to the local NGO Child Workers in Nepal, an estimated 5 000 children live on the streets without a family.

But Mahendra BK (a two-letter family name is common in Nepal) was lucky. Today, he is one of just more than 20 boys in the Sahara Football Academy in Pokhara. Sahara (the Nepalese word for "support") is a social welfare organisation that provides street children with lodging, food, education and something to do — playing football.

Mahendra is the goalkeeper in the Sahara team, and he explains that joining the football academy has changed his life and given him hope for the future.

"When I was living on the street, I was sleeping under empty rice sacks in many different places. The police used to come around and chase me away. So I was really happy to come to Sahara. Here, we practise football every day and I hope that one day I will be good enough to become an international footballer … like Oliver Kahn, my favourite player," he says.

Of course, not all of the 20 boys will be able to make a living by playing football.

"I think that perhaps five of the boys we have here possess the talent to go on to play in the Nepalese A division and on the national team in the future," says Keshab Bahadur Thapa, Sahara general secretary. "Even if they go on to play professional football, they can’t expect to become rich that way. There isn’t very much money in Nepalese football right now, but it is slowly getting better."

That is why the club also tries to provide vocational training for the boys when they turn 16 years old. After that age, the club helps them establish their own life outside the academy.

"Firstly, we try to place them in other football clubs where they will receive a small salary, but we also give them training as mechanics, electricians, plumbers and carpenters," Thapa explains.

While the academy was established as a regular football club in 1998 by members of the local community, the idea for social work and the combined orphanage and football academy developed later. In 2004, the club was made a reality, largely through the inspiration and fund-raising of Nepali expatriates such as Navin Gurung who lives in the United Kingdom.

Gurung relates: "I was already involved in organising sports events in the UK. One day a friend told me about the activities of the Sahara club and I was really touched. From there the connection started. Now many of my personal friends, Nepalese acquaintances and business connections have all assisted me in organising various fund-raising programmes to support the valuable work that Sahara is doing."

In addition to funds raised abroad, the Sahara club also receives money from the local business community in Pokhara and through ticket sales at the tournaments it arranges every year.

The Sahara club isn’t the only home for orphans and street children in Nepal. Indeed, there are many such homes. But the quality of the Nepalese orphanages varies a lot and they often lack proper management.

The United Nations Children’s Fund spokesperson in Nepal, Rosanne Vega, says: "Since there is no proper monitoring of orphanages, the quality and conditions for the children vary a lot. Almost anybody can start an orphanage here, including people completely lacking experience in this field."

Indeed, it is common for street children to stay in an orphanage for a while but then run away and end up on the street again, as the conditions in some of the orphanages are even worse than living rough.

Rajesh Thakuri, aged 11, is one of the many street children in Kathmandu. He was staying in an orphanage but ran away because, as he says, "They didn’t like me. They hated me there!" He now sleeps on the street and begs for money outside a hospital.

Another street boy, 12-year-old Raivi, has lived on the streets for the past two years. He is a rag-picker, going through other people’s garbage and collecting glass, metal, paper and plastic that he can sell to recycling factories.

Raivi sleeps every night in relative safety in the no-man’s-land behind the airport perimeter fence. Every morning he goes around town and searches the garbage piles before the sun heats them up and makes them too smelly.

According to International Labour Organisation statistics, the thousands of rag-picking children in Nepal work an average of six hours a day, making about 87 rupees a day — just short of €1. But living on the street, there is always the risk of losing the day’s wage to gangs, junkies, bigger boys or even police officers.

At Sahara, staff say, with some pride, that in the three years since the academy started not one child has run away.

The children’s programme in the academy usually starts at 5am when they get up and have a snack before taking a five-minute walk to the local stadium, where they have two hours of football training. Then it’s back to the hostel for breakfast and school.

When school is out in the afternoon, they again practise football for an hour or two before doing their homework. The two assistant trainers in Sahara work as tutors and help the boys with their studies.

In the evening, after dinner, they sometimes watch English Premier League football on TV, wash their clothes or play in the garden across the street. They don’t really have toys, so they just play with whatever they can find, as is normal for Nepalese children. Once a month, they play friendly football matches against some of the local school teams.

Although the dormitory at Sahara is crowded and the facilities a bit rudimentary, there is little else that the boys really need here. They have good food and warm beds, form strong friendships and there is always an adult around to help them with their problems.

The goalkeeper, Mahendra, expresses a single wish: "I would like to have a pair of goalkeeper’s gloves for the winter football training."

A brief, brutal existence

    May 29 2008 at 01:53PM

By Vivian Attwood

Street children’s activist Tom Hewitt has compiled a terrible list of names. Whenever he looks at it he is overcome by memories of special young women - most still girls - whose lives ended prematurely on the streets of Durban.

He knew each girl well, the circumstances that had brought her to the city, her idiosyncrasies, strengths and fears.

Remembering Sarafina, Yoniswa, Nelly, Samke and many others strengthens his commitment to reintegrating Durban’s street children into caring communities.

Although street life is brutal for all those forced to endure it, girls are the most vulnerable, said Hewitt.

He questioned whether the word "vulnerable" is far-reaching enough to encompass their condition.

"To be vulnerable means to be open to emotional or physical danger, or to be exposed to an attack or possible damage.

"What terms are relevant to the street child experience if this ‘possibility’ is realised and realised often, even perpetually? Street children in Durban, particularly the girls, often live in a state of affliction rather than vulnerability."

Driving through a residential area of Durban recently, Hewitt noticed three street girls with whom he has a longstanding friendship through the Umthombo Foundation.

The children ran up to his car excitedly, and he queried why they were so far from their normal turf.

"We are running from Isaac*. He is raping us. We are afraid," said one of the girls. Isaac is a man in his 20s who has just been released from prison.

When he is drunk he terrorises the street children, beating up the boys and raping the girls.

"When girls who have been living on Durban’s streets, particularly in the Point area, are tested to determine their HIV status, the results are seldom negative," Hewitt said.

"They live in one of the highest possible risk categories for contracting the disease. When you examine their reality it is not hard to see why."

Hearing stories detailing the suffering of girls on our streets, it is difficult to comprehend that they are vilified by mainstream society when they are so helpless to change their fate.

When we cruise past these children windows wound up "just in case" we might more charitably be thinking "there but for the grace of God go I".

Scorn

Accompanying Bulelwa, Hewitt’s wife, on one of her regular visits to a group of street girls near Addington Hospital, I expect them to be as scruffy as the boys, and equally mock-brazen, in an attempt to deflect the scorn they receive from most passers-by. I am wrong on both counts.

Two teenage girls in pretty but threadbare dresses - too thin for the chill wind lancing down the street - lean together, heads bowed.

When they speak of their lives, they glance up only briefly, clearly ashamed of experiences they could not have avoided.

A third, in shorts and a cutaway shirt, clasps and unclasps her boyfriend’s hand as she describes how her baby, born prematurely at Addington Hospital, was taken into foster care.

She is keen to return to her mother’s home in the Eastern Cape, but is determined she won’t leave the streets without her child.

"The foster mother they took my baby to has changed her birth name. That makes me so sad," Phumla* said.

"When I take her little presents, the woman throws them away. Sometimes she chases me away, too. I am afraid she is trying to keep my child for herself."

Umthombo is currently working with social services to make sure Phumla will return to a stable environment, and that her baby will be taken care of.

She has promised to go into rehab to tackle her drinking problem before she starts her new life.

"Zodwa* fled to the streets of Durban because her mother sold her to a stranger for sex. She was nine years old. Two years later, she tested positive for HIV.

"Over the years she has learned to survive through prostitution and the support of fellow group members," Hewitt explained of another street girl.

"She learned to sniff glue very early on to smother fear and physical pain. She lives on a corner near the harbour with the members of her group. Truck drivers stop at night and beckon her and her friends to their vehicles.

"For Zodwa, ‘work’ involves performing sexual acts on truck drivers and local men, letting them penetrate her fragile body. If you ask her about this ‘work’ she is ashamed. She sees herself as the dirty one.

"Sometimes she gets really sick. She rolls herself into a ball under a pile of old clothes and cardboard on the street corner, shutting the world out for days on end. She gets thin. Sleep is an escape. She is bright and informed. She knows exactly what happens when you have full-blown Aids. She waits, just her and her glue bottle."

In the first part of our series on street children, printed on Tuesday last week, Bulelwa spoke movingly about growing up on a waste dump in East London.

She managed to scrounge enough food to survive. Some of her friends were less lucky.

Abusers

"I was misquoted in the media some time ago, and it really exasperated me. I had been speaking to a reporter about my experience as a young girl growing up on the streets, and I’d mentioned the tragedy that reduces some girls in that position to allow abusers access to their bodies in order to keep alive.

"When the report was published, the headline screamed: ‘Former street child prostitute speaks out’.

"It wasn’t that I minded being labeled a former prostitute erroneously. It was the fact he was demonising a certain sector of street children without any idea of what they endure to reduce them to that position, which really infuriated me." In his zeal to secure a scoop for his newspaper, the reporter was buying into the prevailing stereotype that all girls on the street turn to prostitution.

It is true that the majority are sexually exploited in some way, but the label "prostitute" is an unfair one.

Hewitt says: "When a girl arrives on the street it is not long before she attracts interest. Usually it is a boy or young person living on the streets who sees the opportunity for a girlfriend.

"This can mean rape, coerced sex or even fully consensual sex. Often the boy is not sinister but simply acting on normal teenage impulses, albeit in a very abnormal and anarchic environment. This can result in sexual activity almost immediately.

"At other times when a girl arrives on the streets she falls victim to older youths and other men. She is hungry, disorientated and desperate and will do literally anything to survive or feel ‘protected’.

"For many, the first night on the streets is a new chapter in the rape experience of their lives. There is always someone there, ready to prey on new arrivals."

# * Names have been changed

          o This article was originally published on page 10 of Daily News on May 29, 2008

Botswana: BCC Caters for Street Children
Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)

29 May 2008
Posted to the web 29 May 2008

Tumelo Setshogo

The number of street children in Gaborone has compelled the Botswana Council of Churches (BCC) to propose programmes to help them become part of the society.

The street children, according to BCC general secretary, David Modiega, are dropouts from primary up to senior secondary schools.

He said one of the reasons why these children are giving of why they have left school are, difficulties in understanding some subjects especially mathematics while others just left without any problems.

The organisation developed street vocational programmes such as re-education where they are taught construction, carpentry, social studies, computers, English and mathematics. lessons are done at Tsholofelong Project situated at Old Naledi.

Modiega told Mmegi that they have at least 56 children who are going through these programmes.

There are eight girls and 48 boys from Old Naledi.

He said the programme is aimed at encouraging them to go back to school to continue where they left off. Apart from the re-education component, Modiega said they rehabilitate students from drugs and re-integrate them into the society and "their parents".

"We are also imparting fund raising skills to them where we encourage them to save by helping them to open accounts at post offices," noted Modiega, adding BCC users Marimba instruments to raise funds.

However, the BCC spokesperson revealed that not all children are willing to go back to school as some fear stigma from their colleagues. "Stigma attached to them is that they are called ‘bo bashi’ and things like they are the BCC children," said Modiega.

To avoid this stigma, he told Mmegi that students should instead go to schools where they are not known and "they excel".

Meanwhile, Modiega said they are not indoctrinating the street children into any religion, but they are just doing their social responsibility programme as the churches. He also said it is difficult to convenience them (street children) about their programmes as they are used to the life of the street. "We have to first develop trust with them and propose to them nicely," he noted.

Modiega revealed that they have young people within their staff members who are helping in the recruitment exercise. He said as young people they have what it takes to talk to the street children and develop some form of friendship with them.

"We have to have a lot of patience as sometimes they run away when approached," said Modiega.

BCC also is developing their plot in Tsolamosese where they will build a hall and two classrooms for carpentry for girls. "Livestock and horticulture are some of the projects we will include at this plot," note Modiega.

The funds they are using for their Tsholofelong project are from Botswana National Youth Council (BNYC), Department of Culture and Youth (DCY) and rentals they get from Kopano building.

In other issues, Modiega told Monitor that before they parted ways with a Dutch NGO, ICCO, a few years ago, they managed to build approximately 50 two-roomed houses for families in Old Naledi.

He said their agreement with ICCO fell apart when Botswana was declared a middle income country "but we are looking at reviving the programme. We have identified OIKCREDIT Programme International for assistance".

OIKCREDIT is an international cooperation of churches which funds projects like "the one we used to build houses for the needy people. If funds could come through, we will want them to revolve so that more people can benefit".

Opposition complains about ‘army of street children’ Juhel Browne jbrowne@trinidadexpress.com Friday, May 23rd 2008

Abused and abducted children have been shamefully neglected by the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) as it is yet to proclaim legislation created eight years ago to protect them, says Opposition Senator Dr Jennifer Jones-Kernahan. The package of children’s legislation was originally laid by the Opposition United National Congress Alliance (UNC-A), when it was in office as the UNC, in 2000.    "What we have in this country, Mr Vice President, is an administration that is guilty of the most unconscionable, cynical neglect, shameful neglect of the children of this country over the past seven years," Jones-Kernahan said. She made the assertion during Tuesday’s sitting of the Senate as the Government sought the passage of a bill that is meant give The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction the force of law in Trinidad and Tobago. Jones-Kernahan said the issue of international child abduction in itself should be dealt with in separate legislation but should comprise a package of bills to address serious issues regarding the welfare of children in Trinidad and Tobago. Her fellow Opposition Senator, Mohammed Faisal Rahman, agreed, "We have a growing army of street children in this country," Rahman said. In laying the bill, Attorney General Bridgid Annisette-George laid the case that specific legislation is needed to deal with cross-border child abductions, especially those carried out by parents in custody cases. The bill seeks to establish a Central Authority to Child Abduction, the functions of which would be discharged by the Attorney General. "Several thousand children are the victims of international parental child abduction each year. In fact, Mr Vice President, we in Trinidad and Tobago have not been spared such a development," Annisette-George said.

Fuelled by the desire to make a difference

    May 23 2008 at 03:27PM

By Vivian Attwood

Val Mellis, the Senior Public Prosecutor at the Point magistrate’s court, has pretty much seen it all.

In a career encompassing many years’ involvement with child welfare and, more recently, taking a particular interest in the rights of street children in the Point area, she has been exposed to the underbelly of a society that still places a low premium on the safety and wellbeing of its
youth.

By rights, she should be hardened to much of what she encounters. Not so.
‘The rights of the child shall be paramount’

Although colleagues wonder how she can shoehorn everything she does into her working day, be a mother to two young daughters and still be on call 24/7 for people in crisis, she is fuelled by the desire to make a difference in her jurisdiction. The issue of street children is a passion.

"It’s pretty much an all-encompassing job," she concedes.

"I took my present position in 2007, because I like the idea of a fresh challenge."

The Public Prosecutor was challenged immediately - to attempt to keep her fury under control when, on May 25 that year, the provincial department of welfare blew the budget it had been allocated to assist the homeless, on a massive street party.

"To me, that was nothing short of criminal," she said.
‘It’s absolutely crucial that a first-phase shelter is established’

"I hate those so-called event days. Instead of lavishing money on something with no long-term benefit, we need to put continuous programmes in place for the homeless, particularly the street children.

"Some provinces - the Western Cape being a case in point - have legislation on street kids, and a functional, well-regulated system. It is up to the provincial department of welfare to draft similar legislation for KwaZulu-Natal and submit it to parliament."

Mellis is adamant that government stakeholders have to be held accountable for the fate of the street children.

"Section 28 of the Child Care Act states: ‘The rights of the child shall be paramount’," she said.

"We are committed to putting their interests first."

Commenting on the controversy that has flared each time Metro Police officers rounded up street children to remove them from the gaze of those attending events to promote the city, Mellis said: "The round-up approach simply doesn’t work. We need a co-ordinated effort and a task team where every member knows the mandates of the others. At the moment it’s hopelessly disparate."

The prosecutor said that while the Metro Police and the street kids don’t see eye to eye, the Point SAPS take a more sympathetic approach to issues concerning street children.

"I can guarantee you that since February last year the Point SAPS have not conducted a single round-up of street children. They are concentrating on building bonds with the kids to avoid problems."

In 2007 Mellis’s department ran a project targeting homeless adult men. They were taken off the streets, put up at hotels on Marine Parade, and given jobs with the Department of Parks and Recreation for three weeks.

A proviso was that they did not abuse substances during that period.

"The project produced encouraging results, but the most problematic participants were those who had grown up on the streets," she said.

"They were all over 18, but lacked birth certificates and ID documents. In many cases there were no families to contact for details of their date and place of birth. They were battling with addictions.

"One young man struck me in particular. He was a lovable rogue. We were grooming him with the hope of getting him off the streets, but then he blew it by committing a crime, and ended up in prison. I was agonising about why he’d thrown away his chances, when another member of the team explained that he’d not been able to kick his glue-sniffing habit."

Mellis decried the public tendency to dehumanise children living on the streets. Sadly, she said, the children can all too easily internalise the belief that they are subhuman.

"It is scary to contemplate, but if you don’t have an ID book, you literally don’t exist. You are a nothing in society, and therefore you have no self-worth. Why not turn to crime? The guy who doesn’t in those circumstances is a pretty remarkable individual."

The loss of family to HIV and Aids, poverty and abuse are some of the reasons children end up on city streets. Mellis related a recent incident that brought her to tears.

"It was pouring with rain and I found a small boy huddled in a doorway. His face wasn’t familiar, so I stopped to question him.

"He said he was 13 years old and came from Umlazi. Both his parents had died, followed by the aunt who was caring for him. He had no one left in the world."

Mellis identified two critical areas that need to be addressed to ensure that street children do not fall through the cracks.

"It’s absolutely crucial that a first-phase shelter is established. Not at the Point, though, because there is too much temptation and the children will backslide. The second pressing need is to co-ordinate efforts to help the street kids. I want to convene a meeting with all the stakeholders so that they can explain their mandates and begin pooling efforts."

She praised the work done by Umthombo and I-Care in particular: "They are doing an excellent job and I support them in their efforts. They are working within the legal system and following the processes so that the kids are assigned a social worker and are properly assessed. The city has tended to have a poor reputation in that regard."

Apart from the other forms of degradation street children are subjected to, Mellis is greatly concerned by the prevalence of sexual assault on both male and female children on the streets.

"Sometimes they endure the exploitation because of a financial incentive, but that is by no means always the case," she said.

"Cars stop at night and lure the children in. Law enforcement is not keeping track of these sex offenders, although Umthombo is attempting to compile a database on the issue."

Sadly, even when sex offenders who prey on children are identified and arrested, it does not follow that they receive jail terms, said Mellis.

"In every case where we have tried to prosecute these offenders, the cases collapse because the kids are too terrified to testify, and run away," she said.

"My job does get very intense, and the after-hours demands are tough, but you have to be available to help, because you might be the only chance some child has."

          o This article was originally published on page 10 of Daily News on May 23, 2008

Putting street kids’ needs first

    May 22 2008 at 07:02PM

By Vivien Attwood

Tom Hewitt was raised in Britain, where he enjoyed all the benefits of a First World economy and went on to obtain a degree at the University of San Francisco in California. However, when he began to work in Africa, he quickly discovered that his calling lay with those who had grown up with no benefits at all; the most marginalised sector of our community, the street children.

"They are not at risk, or vulnerable. It has gone beyond that," he wrote in a recent article on Umthombo’s website.

"I think about these words ‘vulnerable’ and ‘at risk’. How sanitised they sound. Why are we afraid to use more suitable words and phrases like ‘brutalised’, ‘crushed’, ‘manipulated’, ‘expendable’, ‘afflicted’ or ‘oppressed’?

"For the sake of the children, and our own humanity, let’s join together to bring about a revolution in the way street children are perceived and treated."

When Tom and his wife, Bulelwa, were searching for a name that would encapsulate their organisation’s aims, they knew they had hit pay dirt when they found "Umthombo", the name of a tree that grows in desert areas. It is a symbol of hope; a symbol of life sustained despite the harshest of conditions. The group offers support and friendship to street children.

As well as running outreach and aftercare programmes, Umthombo is partnered, in the running of a drop-in centre, with I-care who are contracted by the municipality for this purpose.

Employing the services of 18 former street children on their staff (Bulelwa herself lived on the streets as a child), they have complete understanding of the children’s position; the reasons why they ended up on the streets; the painful stigmatisation they endure; the risks they are exposed to and their longing to be reabsorbed into a more caring community.

Since Umthombo’s inception, the organisation has helped hundreds of children to leave the streets and find safe homes.

Tragedy

"Despite the tragedy unfolding on our streets, you can’t become hardened," said Hewitt. "You do see a lot of hope, and you have to hold on to that. We are mindful of the negatives, but committed to the positives.

"First off, you have to accept that you won’t get all the children off the street, and concede that their rehabilitation is a process, not something that can be effected overnight.

"Poverty is the underlying reason why kids live on the streets, compounded by the issue of HIV/Aids. However, we are not seeing the ’sea’ of orphans that was predicted.

"There is a small but steady increase in numbers. Currently, there are in the region of 1 000 street children in Durban, 400 of whom live at the Point. Naturally, we want to reduce their numbers, but it isn’t about statistics. Every one of these children is important."

Umthombo is part of the KwaZulu-Natal Alliance for Street Children. Other affiliates to this umbrella body are I-Care, Youth for Christ, Streetwise and Zamani.

"We are all fully registered Section 21 non-profit organisations that believe in building partnerships and devising and implementing city-wide strategies," explains Hewitt.

"Durban does not have a proud history with street children. Over the years there have been a number of articles in the press highlighting issues such as abuse, maladministration and wasted resources. Street children are constantly dehumanised in the media, yet a negligible amount of crime is attributable to them. Criticising is all very well, but we need to find city-wide solutions we can all buy into."

Although a number of non-profit NGOs have dedicated themselves to improving the lot of street children in KZN, the mandate for the management of issues pertaining to the children is held by the provincial Department of Social Development.

While criticism has periodically been levelled at that department, Hewitt feels that all role-players can make a significant contribution, provided the needs of the street children are paramount.

"You have to be in it for the kids, not because you’re serving your own agenda," he stressed. "Personally, I’d be delighted if, someday, I was out of a job. It would mean all the children were safe and happy in strong, supportive communities."

Skewed

The children’s activist says that while the media might sometimes distort issues for its own agenda, it is a vital means of educating the public and altering skewed perceptions.

"Readers need to examine the issues of why the children come to the city, and what happens to them on the streets. The popular misconception is that: ‘Kids like it on the streets’. In our experience they always run from something. There is always a ‘push factor’."

Umthombo sees reintegration as the only viable future for street children. The organisation provides both temporary support and long-term assistance to help former street children find new families or mend fractured family relationships. Their new environment is regularly monitored to make sure it is conducive to healthy childhood development.

"Aftercare is the most crucial aspect of our strategy," Hewitt asserts. He shatters the common myth that providing shelters will magically resolve the issue of children living on our city’s streets.

"Child and youth shelters are not the be-all and end-all. There are other important emerging services. These shelters are not always located within communities. When they are in the heart of the city, it is all too easy for the children to continue to access drugs. Their fundamental outlook does not improve.

"When the government subsidy dries up as a child turns 18, he or she has no option but to return to street life. If they had been reintegrated into communities instead, they would have a greater sense of purpose and belonging."

While Umthombo, together with I-Care, is contracted by the municipality to run a drop-in centre on Victoria Embankment to provide a place where children can receive assistance in crisis, or get food, Hewitt and other street child advocates are deeply concerned by the lack of rehabilitation-based child and youth care facilities, dubbed "first phase shelters", in the city.

"It is not just drugs that the children have to be weaned off," Hewitt explains. "They live in a state of constant trauma. This sort of facility is hugely important. It isn’t an institution housing children until they turn 18, but a shorter term, a loving and compassionate environment where the children can heal before they are reintegrated into communities."

Parallels

Responding to the contentious issue of the removal of street children whenever there is a major function in the city that will be attended by international delegates, Hewitt said there were parallels between the way South America and South Africa dealt with street children.

"I spent a lot of time in Brazil, observing approaches to street kids. The strategies employed in the two countries are disturbingly similar.

"We’re fully committed to ensuring that Durban makes a great success of hosting the 2010 Soccer World Cup, but not at the expense of street kids. If we are assisted to get the children off the streets in a caring manner, it will be a feather in Durban’s cap, and will show that the city truly cares about their fate."

# If you would like to make a contribution to the valuable work done by Umthombo, and at the same time assuage your guilt at the plight of children on our streets, here is the organisation’s banking details: Umthombo Street Children Action, First National Bank: Davenport branch, account number is 62077976656, branch code 220226.

          o This article was originally published on page 12 of Daily News on May 22, 2008

Hope is something to live for

    May 21 2008 at 11:51AM

By Vivian Attwood

With the help of I-CARE and Umthombo, two local NGOs that are achieving exceptional results in their outreach, rehabilitation and reintegration programmes for street children, the Daily News has been able to interact with street children without arousing their fear or suspicion. They bear battle scars, but they are not completely broken.

Commander*, 15, followed his elder brother on to the streets a number of years ago. He wants to return home, but the pull of the streets is strong. He expressed doubt that he would be able to be reintegrated into his community.

"The streets are no good, though. There is no respect and you cannot learn," he said.

"Many of the children sniff glue to take away stress, but it hurts our legs and knees. It’s not easy to quickly leave glue because it is in our blood.

"It is dangerous for other children to come to the streets, but they are always running away from something. Some run because their mothers are not interested in them. That is my story. I have hope. One day I will go home. One day I will go to school again. Yes, I will go to school!"

Addiction

Bongani* is 17. His parents left him with his grandfather a long time ago, and disappeared. He is crippled from years of sniffing glue and walks in the disjointed way that the children call "Thobela", after a dance song.

Although his body is severely damaged, he dreams of leaving the streets and beating his addiction.

"I want to go to school. Then maybe I can be an aeroplane pilot," he said.

While there are fewer girls on the street than boys, their lives are, if anything, harder than those of their male counterparts.

They are extremely vulnerable to sexual predators, and may form a relationship with a youth simply in order to be awarded some degree of protection.

Sindi*: "I am 16 now and I have been on the streets since I was 12. The police chase us. They spray us with teargas, they take away our clothes, they hit us and sometimes they just lock us up for nothing.

"I was abused when I lived at home, by my stepfather. He would hit me, sometimes, if I came home but I had no food. Then he wouldn’t let me into the house. I became pregnant by my boyfriend. I couldn’t get any medical help. I discovered I was HIV-positive. I had my baby but my mother took her away."

Sindi’s baby subsequently died of unknown causes. No autopsy was performed and the young mother grieves for the daughter who was hers so briefly.

"I would like to go back to school but my Zulu is not good. If I can go back to school then I can get a good life. I could live well. I could live to a hundred years old, even though I am HIV positive," she said, eyes shining as she pictured those utopian circumstances.

Simphiwe*, 15, went on to the streets because his family was impoverished and his mother, who drank heavily, was unable to support him and his younger sister. The two children used to sleep on the streets of KwaMashu. Later they came to the city.

He says: "The streets are not good because many things are happening like people being stabbed, being knocked down by cars, getting sick with TB. There is no one to support you.

"Many people get old on the streets and still find no way to survive. Babies are born on the streets, but still nobody cares. The streets are bad. Our time has been long on the streets."

The story of 17-year-old Thembi* is a source of great encouragement for other street children. She went on to the streets at 12, after her mother died, and lived under a tree in the city with a group of other children.

Umthombo has helped her to return to school and pays a family to take care of her. They also provide books and school uniforms.

"The street taught me to fight. Now I am only fighting with my pen," she says with great pride.

"I am happy now I am at school. I would like to help other street kids so they don’t have to sleep on the streets. I would like them to have a better life than me."

Street survivor

Gift* is one of 18 former street children who work with I-CARE and Umthombo. Originally from Johannesburg, she came to Durban to seek work. What she found, instead, was exploitation and fear.

"I had seen Durban on the TV and thought there were lots of opportunities," she explained.

"At first I did get a job, cooking and cleaning for R10 a day. But my boss, a Sri Lankan, wanted to marry me so he could get citizenship. When I refused he threw me out on to the street.

"I was 18 and a lady told me about Tong Lok, a place in Point Road where many homeless people lived. We looked after ourselves, but I saw many bad things - many deaths. People died of HIV/Aids; people died when they were hit by cars on the street, people died when they got into fights and were stabbed."

Gift does outreach work among girls on the streets. She finds her job enormously fulfilling.

"The best thing about my job is taking a child back home and that child not coming back to the streets again. The worst thing is a child being raped by the police.

"It doesn’t happen that often, but it can happen to both girls and boys. We have a team member who specialises in investigations when something like that happens."

The soft-spoken outreach worker will always be haunted by memories of life as a street child.

"What I try to do is give hope to the children on the streets. Hope is something to live for."

* Not their real names

          o This article was originally published on page 10 of Daily News on May 21, 2008

True cost of Scotland’s cocaine: Street children are the victims

May 20 2008

COLOMBIA’S street children are exposed to a distressing daily diet of drugs, prostitution and violence.

Kids as young as six sleep on the streets of Medellin and huddle together in a desperate bid to stay warm.

Largely ignored by locals and known as "disposables", their harrowing stories will chill the blood of every parent.

They are victims - of the killings, poverty and corruption that surrounds the cocaine business.

With so many orphaned by violence, they end up sleeping rough and, with a sad inevitability, soon end up taking drugs and falling into prostitution.

One girl who has been robbed off her childhood is 11-year-old Juanita.

She was playing with her little brother Enrique, at Casa Walsingham, the HQ of charity Let The Children Live! when Father Peter Walters introduced her.

Juanita was too embarrassed to talk until Enrique, eight, was put out of the room.

Nervously, she said: "I used to sniff alot of glue. I was introduced to it by a friend when I was 10.

"I then became involved in prostitution. About three months ago, I was very concerned that I was pregnant but it turned out I was not."

Last month, Juanita was stabbed in the arm by another girl on the streets.

She also deliberately cut her own wrist in a bid to kill herself.

Juanita’s harrowing story began when she moved from the countryside to Medellin after her father was murdered.

He was a victim of the drug-fuelled violence which plagues Colombia and, like many thousands of others, his family fled to the city to safety. But their hope turned to despair.

Martin Gonzalez, the charity’s chief street educator, said: "When I met Enrique, he was seven and going to different day centres.

"But they got fed-up with him because he was a tremendous handful and he kept getting expelled for fighting and bad language.

"He started sniffing glue when he was seven and he always had a bottle with him."

Project workers managed to tame the tearaway and even arranged hospital treatment for him recently after he suffered an ear infection.

Both children are now back living with their mother.

Jose is one of the best examples of the difference the charity can make.

A shooting in the street had left him with a large scar and one leg 7cm shorter than the other.

He said: "I was selling sweets in the street. I don’t know if it was a stray bullet or aimed at me. I lost feeling in my leg and fell to the ground."

Today, Jose, 14, is one of eight children who live at Casa Bannatyne.

He has a plate in his leg and, with the support of the charity, has since had surgery to correct the difference between his legs.

The residential home was bought by Fr Walters after Dragons’ Den star Duncan Bannatyne donated £60,000 to the charity in 2004.

Half the charity’s £400,000 income comes from kind-hearted Scots.

Fr Walters and his 50-strong team are helping around 800 people, many of whom they have found during weekly dawn patrols, where they hand out rolls and hot chocolate.

Gabi, 17, was taken under the wing of the team last year when she was seven months pregnant. She now has aseven-month-old baby.

She first tried marijuana at the age of seven and was using it seriously by 11. Then it was glue and cocaine.

She said: "I became involved in prostitution when I was 12. I was hooked on drugs and I had to pay for my habit."

This went on for four years and, on agood day, she would earn £11.

The Gomez family, who were displaced from the countryside as a result of the violence, were also helped by the charity. They had spent eight years living under a bridge in Medellin with their four kids.

After being found by the charity last year, they were given a flat - the first time their eight-year-old son had lived in a house with a window.

Fr Walters said: "The youngest children we have found living alone on the streets are six-year-olds.

"We consider ourselves the organisation of last resort.Our idea is that we never give up with a child."

But his job is getting harder and a lack of funds has meant building work on an extension to Casa Walsingham has been stalled.

But his first and last concern is the children - and right now he is worried that the speed with which they are going on to hard drugs is quickening.

Fr Walters said: "Children who go on to the street generally go through a process.

"They start sniffing glue and that is almost compulsory because if they don’t sniff glue, the other children will reject them.

"They will go from glue to marijuana and then bazuco, which is the by-product from cocaine and heroin.

"It used to be a gradual process and once a child gets to the bazuco stage, it is very, very hard to help him or her.

"But a process that used to take months or years is, in some cases, only taking weeks because there are many more places they can find it."

Fr Walters has an affinity with Scotland. His mother, who died last May at the age of 92 while visiting him, was from Corstorphine, Edinburgh.

But he wants more users to realise the heartache their habit is causing.

Fr Walters said: "We feel very strongly that the people who buy drugs in countries like Scotland are fuelling the violence and corruption that causes so much misery here.

"They are the ones who I hold accountable for the suffering and death of so many children over here.

"Colombia gets a very bad press but most Colombians in no way benefit from drugs.

"They just suffer from all the violence and the poverty and the corruption that it causes."

Arley Hernandez was the first street kid Fr Walters met when he started working in Medellin.

Arley, who the priest called his "eldest son", spent seven years with the charity and managed to break away from drugs and street life.

But, while working in the town of Arauca, on the Venezualan frontier, he was shot 23 times.

No one was ever charged over his killing. Fr Walters carried out his own inquiries and, the next day, someone he had spoken to was killed.

Arley’s ashes were interred in the chapel at Casa Walsingham.

A plaque to commemorate his life features a quote from a Colombian song.

It reads: "If you want me to improve my failures and my errors, give me time and see if I can fly."