Vulnerable and helpless on the street

December 20, 2006 By Amir Zia We see them daily on almost every major road, every busy traffic junction — begging, washing cars, selling flowers, roaming idly, being chased and harassed by policemen and bullied by petty criminals and thugs. Some of them are barely six or seven-year-old. They earn, eat, sleep, and live on the streets. The traffic choked roads are their playgrounds and footpaths their homes. The world gives them lessons about life, relationships and the society in the hardest possible way. Those of us, who pity them, toss a few rupees on their extended palms, but most just ignore them. Many seem oblivious to their very existence, others appear afraid to see them eye-to-eye. Perhaps the guilt of living in such a callous society sometimes becomes burdensome even for the most thick-skinned among us. However, the public apathy or occasional burst of sympathy, hardly make any difference for these wretched souls. They cling to their miserable life — if it is one — on day-to-day basis. Yes, the plight and suffering of the street children of Pakistan is hardly news now. These little tragic stories float around us unnoticed in every major city — be it Karachi, Lahore, or Rawalpindi-Islamabad. A vast majority, or perhaps the collective will of the society, has accepted them just as another fact. The debate whether is it pleasant or unpleasant one does not seem to matter at all. Therefore it should not come as a surprise if one is told by some of the stalwarts of rights groups that there is no reliable data available even on the approximate number of these children who live on the streets. The number of this floating-population is increasing as fresh homeless children keep trickling down to their ranks. In Karachi alone, the number of street children is estimated somewhere between 15,000 and 25,000. They could be less or more — but mere statistics, fudged or accurate, conservative or exaggerated won’t bring any smiles on their faces or more tears in their eyes. For these are children not just numbers. And let’s be clear that these street children do not include the ones involved in manual labour with the consent of their parents. The children who are into labour under the supervision of parents are certainly better off. At least they are more protected. But those who live on the streets are among the lowest of the low and the most vulnerable. They have nowhere to turn to for protection, emotional support and comradeship except the members of their own band in which often a bully — who himself could be a victim of physical and sexual abuse — treats the young or weaker ones as once he was treated as a child. A vast majority of the children who end up on the roads are driven away from their homes because of domestic violence, corporal punishment, abuse, and poverty. They are usually members of divided or single-parent families. In some cases, simply bad company, the desire of unrestricted freedom, and the pull of the hustle and bustle of cities, prompt them to leave homes in rural areas and low-income localities of our cities, especially belonging to southern Punjab and parts of North West Frontier Province. Some limited surveys and interviews conducted by various non-government organisations show that an alarming 80 to 90 per cent of the street children are victims of sodomy, sexual and physical abuse not just by elders but older children within their own gangs. A majority of them are drug addicts. The most popular and affordable of the durg is a type of glue — used mostly in home repair and maintenance — which these children inhale by putting it on a piece of cloth. One can see young boys sniffing this glue openly on the streets and pavements that according to one user, "tingles nose and make one slightly drowsy." The use of other drugs including hashish, and even heroin are also rampant among many of these streets children. Organised gangs of criminals — peddling drugs or operating begging rackets — take these children under their wings and use them in criminal activities. Many children also resort on their own to begging and petty crimes, raising enough money to buy themselves food and favourite drug. There are a few small NGOs working for the rehabilitation of these children, but their network is much small given the enormity of the task. Some NGOs operate a few small day-care centres, but they are closed during the night when these children are most vulnerable. As far as the authorities are concerned, the less said about them the better. The issue does not seem to exist on their radar. There seems to be no awareness about this festering problem in the official quarters. There is no government initiative to protect and rehabilitate these children, who grow up on the streets, amid extreme forms of abuse, harassment, and violence. Establishing state-run shelters where these children can have food, clothing and education, does not require mega-bucks, foreign currency, or a vote of two-third majority in parliament. It needs a little sensitivity, consideration, and above all channelling of efforts to help these miserable souls, who are not asking for the moon, but only a right to live and lead normal lives. We, as a society, need to take this responsibility and attempt to pull these children out of the deep pit of crime, ignorance, and exploitation. If we allow them to live as they are, tomorrow they would be justified in returning and inflicting the same violence on others that our society has perpetuated on them. Yes, these children can live and die on the roads, turn out to be petty thieves, hardened criminals, or even terrorists. After all what options do they have? What options the society has given them? What have they to lose? Let’s all help these children to get back their precious childhood. It should not be denied to them. But are we willing? Let’s try to find this answer in our hearts — perhaps we can find some light. We need it badly. The writer is a senior Karachi-based journalist. Email: amir.zia@gmail.com

District government setting up drop-in centres for street children

RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi district administration will establish drop-in centres to eliminate child labour present in the forms of children who beg or collect garbage, said District Nazim Rawalpindi Raja Javed Ikhlas on Monday.

He said this while talking at a ceremony held to mark the Universal Children’s Day by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA). He said that the centres would provide education to the children to make them a useful part of the society, adding that the government and non-government organisations should coordinate their efforts to eliminate child labour from the country and to safeguard the future of the younger generation.

“The children are our most important assets and their education is imperative for the development and progress of the country,” he said. He said that it was a “criminal act” to deprive children of their rights and force them to do manual labour. He said that the Rawalpindi executive education officer would soon submit a summary of the estimated expenditure and other requirements of the centres. He said that the district government would provide all funds for the project and would run the centres.

He appreciated the efforts made by the ILO and ITO for resolving the problems being faced by homeless children despite their small financial resources and said that the Rawalpindi District Coordination Committee had been directed to cooperate with the NGOs to eliminate of child labour. He said that local government representatives would extend all their support to the ILO representatives in implementing the project.

ITA Chairperson Baela Raza Jamil said that street children who made a living either by begging or selling garbage were leading a “miserable and inhuman life”. She said that the government should set up a special commission to check violence against street children and take stern action against people who were involved in the crime.

Lahore’s street children find alternatives at UNICEF-supported centre

© UNICEF Pakistan/2006

At the Nai Zindagi drop-in centre in Lahore, Pakistan, a UNICEF-supported project is helping street children get off drugs and return to a normal life.

By Mary de Sousa

LAHORE, Pakistan, 8 November 2006 – “Nobody, not even the police, dares to touch me,” says Rehan, a sharp, funny teenager with roughly cropped hair, dressed in a dirty shalwar kameez (the traditional South Asian trousers and tunic) and an oversized man’s wool jacket.

“I might look weak, but God has granted me the strength to fight,” Rehan adds.

Rehan, who may be “nearly 18,” does not have the physique of a teenage boy. That’s because Rehan is actually Rehana, a girl disguised as a boy to survive on the streets of Heera Mandi, Lahore’s red-light district.

“Can you imagine what would happen to me if I dressed as a girl?” she asks.

Life on the streets

There are few girls on the streets here. Rehana is one of only 2 among the 100 or more boys who regularly visit the UNICEF-supported Nai Zindagi drop-in centre, which offers drug addicts help with recovery. The centre also runs Project Smile, providing street children with a safe haven as well as health and social care, food, clean clothes, counselling, informal education and referral for advanced medical and drug treatment.

Rehana has suffered a brutal life. “I have been on the streets since I was born,” she says. “My father only wanted me to work and sent me to look after children and clean houses. When he started to sexually abuse me, I left.”

She was found on the street by Smile’s outreach programme. Now she has stopped injecting heroin and is trying hard to decrease her dosage.

© UNICEF Pakistan/2006

A homeless teenager takes refuge at the Nai Zindagi drop-in centre, which provides medical care, counselling and support to street children in Lahore.

From addict to mentor

Azar is another regular at Smile, and his life offers a parallel to Rehana’s. He thinks he may be 18 and ran away when he was “less than 10” because his parents died and he was badly beaten by his older brother. 

“I joined a gang of runaways and started taking charas [hashish] and Samad Bond,” he says. (Samad Bond is a solvent that children spread on material and sniff.) Azar eventually began offering sex in exchange for drugs.

A friend brought him to Nai Zindagi and now he is a peer mentor responsible for marking down the names of children who arrive and checking in their drugs at the centre, where no drug use is allowed.

‘I learned to communicate’

“We help them to understand why they take them and how they could stop,” says staff training manager Bushra Rani. “When it comes to transactional sex, we teach them how to negotiate themselves out of the situation and protect themselves.”

Azar is happy with the changes in his life. “I have stopped drugs, and here I learned to communicate with people, to look neat and tidy and to have safer sexual practices,” he says. Smile counsellors have started negotiating for Azar to return to his family.

“I want to be a motor mechanic or have any job where people don’t call me a charsi [drug addict],” he says. “I want to live a healthy, happy life.”

As for Rehana, the girl masquerading as a boy to survive on the streets, her hopes for the future are modest but clear. “I want to work at weaving chairs or coats,” she says, “and I want somewhere I can live all on my own.”

SPARC starts campaign for street children’s rights

Friday, October 06, 2006
Staff Report

PESHAWAR: The Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) has started a campaign to raise awareness about the rights of street children in collaboration with Save the Children, Sweden and the United Kingdom (UK) in Peshawar.

“The project aims at raising awareness among children about their rights, protection issues and empower them to protect themselves as well as other children in the area from abuse, exploitation and providing access to psycho-social support, education, recreation, health facilities and reintegrate street children into their homes and parents,” said Jahanzeb Khan, the SPARC regional manager.

“We (NGOs) require a law on the pattern of the Punjab Borstral Schools Act and Sindh Bortsal Schools Act to protect children from violence, exploitation and abuses,” he said.

He said that the government had the responsibility to provide protection to all children, especially street children, which, he said, were the victims of various social evils. He said that according to the UN convention on children’s rights, government were required to make all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect children from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse. He said that the society was trying to promote and protect the rights of children.
Courtesy DailyTimes.com.pk

The Peninsula On-line: Street children in Pakistan at risk of contracting Aids

Web posted at: 9/4/2006 4:53:22
Source ::: Internews

ISLAMABAD • The phenomenon of street children in Pakistan poses a complex social challenge, and these children are at the high risk of a myriad of physical and psychological problems as a result of both the circumstances that preceded their homelessness and the direct consequence of life on the streets.

This was the conclusion of a study on “Street children in Pakistan: A group at risk of HIV/Aids” carried out by Azad Foundation, a non-governmental organisation.

A total of 1,151 children living on the street, aged 10 to 18, were interviewed in 10 cities, where their maximum concentrations were reported.

According to the study the maximum proportions of children were 13 and 14 years of age. A high percentage of children (72.6 per cent) had never attended school.

It said 79 per cent of the study population was Pakistani children, followed by Afghani (10 per cent), Bengali (8 per cent) and Burmese (3 per cent).

The maximum proportions of the children were Punjabi speaking (41 per cent), followed by Pashtun (29 per cent), Sindhi and Urdu speakers (9 per cent), while only 8 per cent had Balochi as their primary language.

The study said physical violence with in the family, which included parental fights as well as physical punishments to the child, were the prime reason for children to leave their homes. This was followed by poverty (22 per cent) and a non-caring attitude of parents (10 per cent).

Approximately 78.5 per cent of the children stated that they stayed within a larger group of fellow street children. These groups are usually controlled by a group leader who is usually an elder either the strongest boy or the one who owns the place.

More than half of these children had been sleeping on streets or footpaths (57 per cent), in parks (33 per cent) during the last thirty days. About 5 per cent of the children said they had been sleeping at various mazars or shrines.

Approximately 4 per cent children said they slept at either their own work place or at the place where their friends worked.

Over 67 per cent of the children complained of at least one medical problem that they were currently facing. The major problem included GIT upsets (34 per cent) followed by respiratory tract infection (25 per cent), fever (21 per cent) and skin infections (14.5 per Cent).

Other complaints included headaches, flu, cough, generalised weakness, unspecified aches and my alias, etc.

Using the provided estimates, an approximation of the average monthly income was found to be Rs2,190, which is mostly spent in buying cigarettes and drugs. The primary source of income for the majority of children was scavenging garbage (27.2 per cent) followed by cleaning and washing cars (21 per cent) and minor jobs in hotels."

Pakistan Street Children Documentary Shortlisted For Grierson Award

Written by North West Vision

Monday, 07 August 2006

Aneel Ahmad’s short film Waiting For Sunrise has been shortlisted for the Best Newcomer award at the prestigious Grierson Documentary awards.  Waiting For Sunrise first came to wider attention at the Sheffield Documentary Film Festival, since when where it won a UNICEF award. The final four Grierson nominations will be announced on 9th October 2006.   An outspoken extrovert with an all-consuming passion for making films, Aneel Ahmad started off his filmmaking career by making low budget zombie films with his mates. He was recently selected to make the Northwest’s first ever Core Digis film with a budget of £18,000, and he has come a long way. In fact he has been all the way to Lahore, Pakistan. You have just been out to Pakistan to make your new film as part of North West Vision’s Core Digis scheme. How did it go? Really well. I applied for funding from North West Vision to make a short film entitled Boot Polish. It was shot in Pakistan and the post-production is being done in the UK. It is about a boot polish kid and a courtesan. People from England came with me to work on the film and we had a really good crew in Pakistan. I had a fantastic time. The budget was a lot but it’s ambitious to try and make a film abroad. There was a dance sequence in the film, which we had to shoot in the Himalayas, we drove about 17 hours to the Himalayas, it was a nightmare trying to get up there. We pulled it off and it was probably the best experience I’ve had. You learn all the time when you make films anyway, and I’ve learnt more now. Overall, I’m very pleased with how the film has come across. You are the first person to make a Core Digis aren’t you? How does that feel? I’d been trying to get funding (about ten grand) for about four years and never got it. I finally applied for the Core Digis scheme and I was successful. I’m very honoured my film got chosen for that scheme. Did you write Boot Polish yourself? Yeah, I sent the script around to some big filmmakers and got some really good feedback from them, so I knew the film was good enough to make. I think the UK Film Council’s worry was that I wouldn’t be able to make it in budget. I said, ‘I’ll make it for £5,000 never mind £18,000′. I had already made Waiting for Sunrise (North West Vision Digital Short film) for £2,500 including the tickets so I knew I could go out with the same crew to make Boot Polish. I went to them and said, ‘I’ve got this much money and I need to make this film’. They believed in the film as well. What made you choose Lahore? Pakistan? Mainly because that’s where I did Waiting for Sunrise. I wanted to do a documentary about street kids, so Waiting for Sunrise was kind of like a research project for Boot Polish. With Boot Polish, I wanted to make a film that pushes the boundaries. I wanted to take a risk, so we were at multiple locations shooting this film in seven days. We travelled a lot, and I was determined to make it work. What are you going to do next? My whole aim is to make a feature film, maybe not this year, but in the next two or three years I’ll probably be ready to do it. I did a Mini Digital Short last year and I did a Virgin Short, so I followed the whole process of making films with North West Vision. They (NWV) helped me out a lot; they gave me the opportunity to work with the funding from next to nothing (like a grand) right up to the £18,000 for Digital Short Plus. Has this process developed your skills? Yeah. All of my films are different. My first film, A Man’s World, I did it all on my own really, working with mates. Then when I did Waiting for Sunrise, I worked with an independent crew. Now with Boot Polish, I worked with over a hundred people on set. It was a big epic film, I wasn’t scared of it because I knew what I needed to do, but for a guy who’s only made a couple of shorts and documentaries, jumping into a massive film (even if it is a short) is a big experience. The help that I got from the UK Film Council and North West Vision, has given me the tools to go on and work on a feature film or work with different people. I’ve warmed to working with people instead of just trying to work on my own and trying to be a control freak. Tell us a bit about your background. I’m one of those filmmakers who has got no education, no qualifications, I think I’ve got one GCSE in Art and Design. I learnt from getting small cameras and making films that way. I never got the opportunities because people just thought, ‘Well you didn’t go to University so maybe you don’t know what you’re doing’. I’m honoured because I know there are lots of filmmakers who want to get their film made, but I know this script is good.   I always wanted to be a director and a writer.   What is your advice for people starting out in filmmaking? The first advice I give people, whoever they are, regardless of colour or what qualifications they’ve got. Everyone gets rejected and it is a hard life.   I got rejected for probably the first five or six years but I never gave up hope. Believe in yourself and your work and believe that people are going to take you seriously. You have to be confident, people think I’m arrogant, and in a way I am, because I’m really confident about how to make films.   I would say for any filmmaker who is genuinely serious about making films, try and make some short films and then from there try and apply for some schemes in your area. Make your film with a grand if that’s all you are offered, just make it better than the ones that took more money to make.   When you are making a film, be very professional, - don’t swear, don’t hurt people’s feelings and don’t be one of those idiot directors that get so absorbed. Making films is not just about working on your own, if you work in a team and you are respectful to everyone on your set, then they’ll do good work for you.   What is your technique to get the best out of actors? Our actors were non-professional actors; we worked with proper street kids. We were in one the poorest areas in Lahore and we hired a hall out and then we did a lot of workshops with the kids. The only advice I give to any director is to make sure you that you prepare your actors. As long as you work honestly with them and you tell them what you see in the film, and they tell you what they see in the film, then you’ll make a better film.   What motivates you? My happiness is in the process of making films. When you’re in the thick of things there’s a romance in making a film. If I make a film and someone likes it or can relate to it, or the team has worked really hard in the film and they get something out of it, then that makes me happy. Because I got money from North West Vision and the UK Film Council, I knew in my heart that I wasn’t going to make a cheap film with Boot Polish. I wanted to make a film that looked like it cost about £50,000 - £60,000 to make. So when I was on set, I was thinking I have got someone else’s money, and I’ve got to make the best film that I can make. That’s what kept me motivated. If you continue working harder and harder you’re always going to make a better film.   Who has influenced you? Well I have a few role models - Mike Leigh, Ken Loach.   Satyajit Ray (the Indian director for Boot Polish) is a great influence in my life. For me, his films show an ingenuous authenticity for the portrayal of his characters. The reality of poverty, escapism and fantasy.   I also love Stanley Kubrick. Stanley Kubrick always says that when you make films, you should always try make a miniature film (of two or three minutes) and figure out the mechanics. Later on the process is always the same. So if you’re working on Titanic, and you’ve got, god knows, about 10,000 people on your set and then you’ve got a film that you’re making with 50 people, the principals are still the same.   I love loads of directors; I like loads of period dramas, and romantic films. Funny enough I’m making a serial killer film after this.

 (Blog entry)

Pakistani street children

Pakistani street children sit on a sidewalk in Karachi. Megalopolis Karachi has the largest number of Pakistan’s street children. According to an estimate there are about 14 to 15 thousand in Karachi and growing. The Pakistani government announced to spend a record 415 billion rupees (6.92 billion dollars) in measures to fight poverty and to maintain a growth rate of more than six percent……

Number of street children on the rise in Karachi

KARACHI: Living on rough and tumble streets of Karachi, 12-year-old Ashique knows all too well the harsh reality of life.

“I’m not afraid. I sleep with my friends,” says the dark-haired youth, who was abandoned by his parents. He said he dreamt one day of attending school. But after five years on the street, despite putting on a brave face, prospects for this slender youth are poor. He earns his living by washing passing cars in the Clifton Beach area and his life couldn’t really be more bleak.

“The situation with regard to street children in the city is getting worse. The numbers are multiplying,” said Naveed Khan, chief executive officer for the Azad Foundation, a Karachi-based NGO. The Azad Foundation has been working to raise the profile of street children in Pakistan for the last five years. The sheer numbers substantiate the grim story.

Estimates put the number of children living on the streets of the former capital at 8,000 in 2003. The foundation places the latest figures at closer to 12,000, an increase of 50 percent. It is believed there are some 70,000 children living on the streets nationwide. Lahore is estimated to have 7,000 children living on the streets while in Peshawar there are a further 5,000. Khan said there were another 2,500 in Quetta and 3,000 in Rawalpindi.

According to the NGO statistics, in Karachi 54.1 percent of the street children left their homes between the age of 10 and 12. They also estimate that 45 percent of street children are involved with criminal activity to survive while 49 percent are at a high risk of HIV/AIDS through intravenous drug usage and sexual abuse. But accounting for such a complex problem in Pakistan’s largest city is not easy. Poverty is the driving force behind the phenomenon, followed by domestic physical and mental abuse, along with peer pressure and drug abuse.

“These are the key factors that lead children to begin a life on the streets,” according to Farah Iqbal, the foundation’s research head and a trained psychologist at Karachi University.

“They abuse solvents more than drugs, such as glue,” Ms Farah said, because of the cheapness. Yet the problem of street children goes far beyond solvent abuse. They have no access to basic amenities such as health, education or food.

The back streets of Karachi’s bustling Sattar district is filthy and permeated by the stench of urine. Yet here children as young as five, huddle in groups of eight to 10 for warmth and security at night.

“My friends are my family now,” said one boy, his face blackened by the filth of the street. “I feel safe here.”

According to the foundation, four out of every 10 street children examined were infected with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Sexual abuse is not uncommon. Many street children offer to provide a ‘massage’, a euphemism for sex, for as little as a dish of rice.

It is this that that prompted the foundation to open the Dastak drop-in-centre for street children in Sattar. It is the only facility of its kind and here they can receive rudimentary healthcare, a hot meal along with basic reading and writing tuition. Perhaps more importantly they are also offered moral support.

“Basically, we try to introduce life skills to them and eliminate anti-social behaviour,” said Amjad Rasul, Dastak’s programme manager. “They have negative attitudes towards society and need our love and affection.”

In a further effort to reach the children, a mobile dispensary, complete with a doctor, visits areas where street children are known to congregate. “Wounds, fever, weakness, stress and STDs are the most common complaints,” said Dr Rajesh Kurar.

Ziaul Haq, originally from Bangladesh and named after Pakistan’s former president, is a daily visitor to the centre. “I don’t feel safe on the street. Here I am among friends,” he told. “My family wanted me to earn money. When I didn’t they beat me so I left,” he said. “Living on the street is difficult, but I dream of one day becoming a teacher.”

Whether his dreams will be realised is difficult to say but resources for this desperately vulnerable sector of society are scarce especially when over 47 percent of Paksitan’s population lives below the poverty line. irin

Restoring smiles of Pakistan youth

(Archive)
The Navhind times

Eleven-year-old Aamir, with teeth stained a dirty yellow, gives a full smile and asks: “Will you send me back (home)? Can you?” This is a common request the boys at the Atique Stadium (situated in Lahore’s famous market place, Heera Mandi) make, when anyone meets them for the first time.

About 30 boys live inside the stadium, mostly an arena for wrestling matches. Most are addicted to inhaling Smad Bond, a cheap petroleum-based shoe adhesive, easily available at hardware, or even stationery shops. The boys carry bottles of the solvent all the time. The glue appears to be the cheapest and most accessible addictive escape for the boys. “You forget the pain, you feel on top of the world and nothing and no one bothers you anymore,” says Waseem, 14, when questioned why he inhales the glue.

Some boys beg or work as car cleaners to earn a living. About 40 per cent are pickpockets. All the children (most are between 8 and 14) are part of the SMILE project, initiated in September 2003 by Nai Zindagi (NZ), an NGO. NZ aims at helping children with de-addiction and leading a more safe and secure life. It has also started an HIV/AIDS prevention programme. “This (SMILE project) came about naturally as a response to the need expressed by the street children themselves,” says the project officer Muhammad Ayub. About 569 street children (with only 20-25 girls) are registered with SMILE, a project funded by AUSAID.

Dr Shaikh Muhammad Saeed, who visits the boys regularly to take care of their health needs, says almost 2 per cent of the boys suffer from sexually transmitted infections (STls). The boys are often abused - by gang leaders (older boys), adults looking for sex on the streets, and the police. “Most of the boys suffer from chest infections caused due to sleeping in the open and sniffing glue. Skin infections are also quite common. `Cutting’- a term, which indicates the practice of boys inflicting cuts on themselves - is also common. The boys suffer from depression and have very low self-esteem,” says Dr Saeed.

Azad Foundation, a Karachi-based NGO, estimates there are at least 70,000 street children in Pakistan. About 13,000-15,000 are in Karachi and about 5,000-6,000 in Lahore. According to their study, ‘Solvent Abuse Among Street Children in Pakistan, June 2004’, about 66 per cent of street children were involved in homosexual activities in Karachi alone, and 90 per cent were sexually abused by strangers. Further, the study says, there are about 5 per cent girls among the street children. But once they reach adolescence, they become ‘invisible’ as they land up in brothels.

According to Ayub, these children run away from their homes due to poverty, domestic violence, broken homes and parental negligence. Azad Foundation’s study says that most street children are from poor families that are very large. “One interesting aspect of runaway kids is that they are almost never the eldest or the youngest child in the family They (the ones in-between) crave for the love they have never been given and thus the other children on the street become their family,” says the study.

NZ’s attempt has been to give these children a sense of belonging. “We play with them, listen to them, provide them with what they need, which is very basic…that is all,” says Ayub.

NZ’s team visits the boys every day (except Sunday) at four locations - Bilal Ganj, Lahore Railway Station, Atique Stadium and Lakshmi Chowk. The team members arrive in an autorickshaw which displays the SMILE logo - a black and yellow, bright smiling face - painted on it. The vehicle is equipped with medical equipment, medicines, food, clothing, bedding, drinking water, soap and anti-lice shampoo.

All the five SMILE team members are former drug users. “We know what stigmatisation is, what it feels like to lose the trust of loved ones. We know exactly how it feels to be really down in the pits. The fact that we’ve gone through all this qualifies us to take on this responsibility,” says Ayub, a post-graduate.

“My predicament was far worse than theirs (the street children) - I didn’t even have clothes on me,” says 23-year-old Kamran Farrukh, one of the team members. “I ran away from home after my mother died. I was in Class 9 then, and had started mingling with boys who were experimenting with drugs. I started living off the streets and experimented with everything - marijuana, opium, heroin and alcohol. One day, I decided I wanted to get away from all that. if I can do it, so can these kids. These kids are lucky…they have people who care about them, who don’t moralise or judge them.”

Once Ayub and his colleagues are confident that the children have accepted them, they start the interactive activities and guided discussions to educate them. “We play games like cricket and football so that they remain distracted and don’t sniff the glue. We also have counselling sessions where we talk to them about everything under the Sun - from personal hygiene, self-grooming, to etiquette and even STls,” says DrSaeed.

“This helps improve their knowledge and can lead to reduced drug use. They are also educated about safe sex, employment prospects and how to relate to people and the police. During this process, we also choose the natural-loom leaders who will be trained as peer educators and will take our cause further,” says Ayub.

So, why are the children not sent back home?

“Many do go back but they return after a month or so. They have become so accustomed to the freedom of living on their own that it is difficult for them to settle into their own family,” says Ayub. Navaid Hasan, Chief Executive of Azad Foundation, says in their study, “They are misfits in their family unless they have undergone psychotherapy. The family must also meet them halfway and understand why the child left in the first place.” (Courtesy — Women’s Feature Service)

SOURCE: The Navhind Times

Thousands of Pakistani Street Children Addicted to Glue

LAHORE, June 29 (OneWorld) – They may not have access to drugs like heroin and marijuana, but that doesn’t stop thousands of street children in Pakistan from getting high — with easily available glue that often destroys addicts’ health.

A study by the nongovernmental organization (NGO) Pakistan Society in the bustling southern city of Karachi found that 83 percent of 10,000 impoverished minors sniff glue to get high, mainly because of its trouble-free accessibility and low cost.

There are thousands of such glue addicts in cities like Lahore, Rawalpindi and Peshawar as well but the exact number of addicts is unknown because there have been no detailed studies on the extent of the problem.

Glue is usually bought from hardware and stationery stores, reveals the study, "Glue Sniffing Problem in Karachi."

The favorite of addicts — aged between 8 and 19 years — is a brand known as Samad Bond, used to bind items like leather, rubber, wood, textiles and glass.

They spread glue on a thick paper or piece of cloth, roll it and then light up, or pour the sticky substance into a shopping bag and hold it near their faces. Some addicts simply eat the glue to get high.

These children, called sniffers, also use substances like paint, petrol, varnish and benzene for intoxication. Glue sniffing is considered the most popular form of addiction after tobacco and alcohol.

The children who were profiled lived in places like footpaths, public parks, railway stations, shrines and shopping centers.

At least 40 percent of the 10,000 solvent abusers earn their living through odd jobs, begging and car washing, while 30 percent are engaged in criminal activities and 25 percent are garbage scavengers, according to the study.

Around 45 percent of the children say they are keen to kick the addiction while 40 percent show little interest in doing so and 10 percent are indecisive.

Aslam, a runaway 13-year-old boy, says he sniffs glue to fight off hunger and memories of his family. Aslam, who lives at a popular shrine in Lahore, adds that glue is easily available and nobody questions its frequent purchase.

Agrees advocate and member of the Lahore High Court Bar Association Suhail Raza Aarbi, who points out that there are no laws to check the abuse of substances like glue, petrol and paint. He suggests the government amend the Hadd Order governing prohibition to include addictives like glue, petrol and paints.

Doctors caution that the effects of inhaling these substances can be as damaging if not more than alcohol and tobacco.

Says Dr Zulfiqar Shah, a psychiatrist at a government hospital in the eastern city of Lahore, "Such substances are highly injurious to the health and can cause mental illness and serious respiratory disorders within six months of regular usage. An exceptionally high single dose can cause brain damage and memory loss."

He explains, "Inhaling glue by covering the face causes the displacement of oxygen in the lungs and subsequently the central nervous system, causing breathing to cease."

The immediate effects of inhaling are euphoria, after which tension is released and the user feels relaxed, Shah says.

With the passage of time, addicts develop problems like stammering and constant hallucinations. Prolonged addiction affects the heart, kidneys, liver and body movement.

Government efforts to stop the growing abuse do not seem to be making much headway. Health official Mohammad Saeed says glue addicts are treated at state detoxification centers and then released but they often resume the habit in the company of friends.

A shopkeeper in a red light area in the city of Lahore where there are several addicts, Shabbir Hussain, charges that the administration has turned a deaf ear to pleas for measures to help such people. He says there is urgent need to check the growing trend with adequate medical treatment, education and preventive measures.

Social activist Faizul Hasan feels the main problem is that there are no rehabilitation centers that will encourage children to completely kick the deadly habit. He suggests the government include glue sniffing in its campaign against drug addiction.

Hasan adds that the government should establish rehabilitation centers where cured addicts can stay for a while after their treatment is complete, and that awareness campaigns should be launched to help people realize the enormity of the situation.