World Street Children News :: Yemen Streetkid News

Street children are becoming a daily sight in most Yemeni cities.

The problem has increased in Yemen in a surprising manner over the past decade, attributed to increased rates of unemployment and poverty and partly by lifting government subsidies on foodstuffs and oil products.

Located some 800 kilometers from the capital of Sana’a, Yemen’s coastal city of Mukalla is filled with street children, whom one can see every day. They come from remote areas in search of food for themselves and their families whom they left behind.

Thus, the streets become the sole place for such children where they spend both their working hours and their resting times. Lying on cartons with only the sky as their roof, Mukalla street children spend their days and nights there, not resorting to blankets due to the hot weather. When they want to use a toilet, they must wait for mosque bathrooms to open at prayer times.

Regarding the reasons for the phenomenon, which is very common in Mukalla, Mohammed bin Thalib, dean of Hadramout University’s Faculty of Education, comments, “There are many reasons, including family disintegration, widespread illiteracy and weak social upbringing of children and orphans.”

Psychologist Fouad Al-Salahi believes there are overlapping reasons, including lack of family awareness about children’s rights and the risks they face on the streets. Further, the matter also has something to do with poor education levels in Yemeni schools. However, he adds that poverty tops the list of reasons for the phenomenon.

“Poverty, want and extremely low income are the main reasons for the phenomenon,” agrees Hassan Al-Odaini, a child street vendor who sells kitchen equipment in Mukalla’s women’s market, “What causes a father send his child to such a faraway city to work are dire circumstances, poverty and low income.”

According to Hamoud Ali, who transports vegetables on his truck from Sana’a to Fouwah Central Market, the street children phenomenon results from poverty and government negligence of rural areas, which lack even basic public services and facilities.

He notes that more than 50 street children are from Ibb governorate’s Houbaish district, an area deprived of basic services and development projects, together with very few schools.

“I was in fifth grade when I left school and came to work in Mukalla due to my family’s poor living conditions because we’re unable to meet our daily needs,” 10-year-old Muath Al-Shar’abi explains. He adds that his family can’t rent a house because they receive little income and thus, they can’t afford blankets, mattresses, etc., or pay rent.

Sociologist and researcher Abdullah Al-Mikhlafi highlights the phenomenon’s socio-psychological effects on street children. “Street children are affected by a number of socio-psychological factors, including lack of a proper social upbringing, exposure to assaults and sometimes sexual abuse, together with dropping out of school,” he notes.

Mukalla street child Saddam Sa’eed comments, “We live on the streets, so we’re exposed to malaria from the mosquitoes spread throughout the city. We’re also subjected to sexual harassment and sometimes rape.”

He went on to say that Yemeni street children lead miserable lives because they have no custody, protection or rights, pointing out that most of the time, the homeless and misguided drop out of school.

Mohammed Ali, a street child selling qat in Al-Ghalilah Central Market, affirmed Sa’eed’s comments, assuring that street children like him are subject to assaults, mistreatment and sexual abuse by the surrounding society. As proof, he revealed marks and traces of beating on his face and body.

He also mentioned blackmail practiced against street children by their bosses. “They quite often deduct sums from our salary without any apparent reason, except that we are children,” Ali lamented, “They don’t consider our hard living conditions, together with our families; rather, they treat us as if they have neither families nor children of their own.”

What’s distinctive about Mukalla street children is that between 90 and 95 percent of them aren’t from Mukalla; rather, they are from various Yemeni governorates, including Ibb, Dhamar, Taiz and several others, according to Al-Mikhlafi.

“Most street children work as street vendors, car cleaners and sometimes beggars. Most of them spend all of their time on the street, lying on cartons, even when sleeping,” he explains.

Al-Mikhlafi adds that street children originally from Mukalla don’t exceed 5 percent, mostly working in fish transport and cleaning fruits and vegetables, and found in zones such as Al-Dais, Al-Sharj, Al-Ghalilah and Fouwah.

13 years old boy works in a farm in Sana’a, 292.000 children work in the agricultural sector.

Although children under age 15 comprise 46 percent of Yemen’s 21 million population, there’s no scientific study linking the environment and the spread of diseases in Yemen, particularly among children. However, many doctors and reports have pointed to the relationship between children and the difficult environmental circumstances in which they live.

Fatal diseases and contaminated water

Contaminated water causes diseases such as malaria, diarrhea, polio, typhoid, hepatitis, cholera and bilharzias, which are very common in Yemeni children living in villages and the countryside where residents are forced to use unsafe surface water for drinking.

A parliamentary report exposed that 55,000 Yemeni children die annually due to water pollution-related diseases. The report, which warned of the spread of contaminated water usage, confirmed that 50 percent of child deaths are due to water pollution, including 20 percent from diarrhea and 30 percent from malaria and typhoid.

An Environmental Protection Authority report confirmed that most of these deaths occur among rural inhabitants, who represent 77 percent of Yemen’s population.

Water pollution has many causes; however, the National Water Sector Strategy Investment Program, reporting on 2000 through 2003, insisted that the main reason for water pollution in Yemen is absence of safe water sanitation services. The report indicated that only 25 percent of the rural population has access to safe water and only 20 percent have access to safe sanitation, as opposed to 47 percent of urban regions able to access safe water sources and 25 percent with adequate sanitation services.

According to the program, many citizens use unsafe methods to get rid of waste, whether human or water waste, which leaks into the ground. This behavior, the report said, damages groundwater – Yemen’s main water source – as well as creating a suitable atmosphere for disease vectors.

Farm children exposed to pesticides

An unofficial study estimates that 624,000 children are working in Yemen, 292,000 of whom work in the agricultural sector, among which 97 percent receive no money for their labor because they work for their own families. Only three percent of such children earn “trivial amounts.” Fifty-five percent of working Yemeni children work in agriculture and crafts, while the rest work as vendors in public places.

An official field study conducted by a Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor team exposed that children working in Yemen’s agricultural sector suffer numerous infections and diseases. Covering Sana’a, Al-Beidha and Dhamar governorates, the study found that 45 percent of such children have dermatitis, 30 percent have ophthalmia, which can develop into blindness, 20 percent have intestinal diseases and 5 percent have epile

Waiting for a customer. Street children are subjected to skin diseases, respiratory diseases and venereal or sexual diseases.

The study attributed the reason for such diseases to misuse of herbicides and insecticides because many children, 56 of whom are between ages 8 and 10, don’t use protective measures while spraying plants. They mistakenly confuse such poisons with water without consulting the instructions written on the containers. Most children working in the fields tend to work quickly without paying attention; thus, some parts of their neck and shoulders are exposed to the chemicals and their skin receives chemical burns.

Additionally, direct and constant exposure to dust also makes children an easy target for respiratory diseases like asthma and allergies. According to the study, 90 percent of children in these regions also chew qat that’s been polluted by herbicides.

Street children exposed to airborne germs

There are no specific statistics for street children in Yemen and estimates vary enormously. Although street children run businesses to support their families, they still suffer society’s condescending behavior and are treated as beggars or delinquents. The Higher Council for Motherhood and Childhood defines them as street children due to the shame involved in admitting this group’s existence and absence of specific provisions for “street children” in Yemen’s legal framework.

The most recent UNICEF study in 2000 estimated 28,789 such children in Sana’a, most of whom are between ages 12 and 14, with the vast majority, 78 to 96 percent, being boys.

UNICEF confirms that street children are among the most physically visible of all children, living and working on streets and in public squares. Yet, paradoxically, they also are among the most invisible and therefore, the hardest to reach with vital services like education and health care, as well as the most difficult to protect.

Medical experts say children in these circumstances are exposed to infection and disease more than adults. “Children who work in the street mainly are subjected to skin diseases, respiratory diseases and sexually transmitted diseases,” pediatrician Dr. Mohammed Kashnoon noted.

Due to the absence of personal cleanliness and prevailing unsanitary conditions, most street children suffer scabies, chicken pox, measles and other infectious illnesses transmitted via direct or indirect contact, according to Kashnoon. “These children also are subjected to respiratory diseases like sore throat, pneumonia, bronchitis and tonsillitis, which may lead to meningitis,” he confirmed.

Most of these diseases are transmitted by air; that is, if an infected individual coughs, his bacteria-contaminated breath is transmitted by air to other children who spend most of their time on the streets.

He also referred to injuries caused by widespread traffic accidents, with the main victims being street children.

Environmental hazards affect fetuses

On numerous occasions, Yemeni doctors have warned about the increased impact of air pollution, which is obvious in major cities like Sana’a, Aden, Taiz and Hodeidah, due to activities such as burning fossil fuels like gas, coal and oil to power industrial processes and motor vehicles. Among harmful chemicals such burning releases into the atmosphere are carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides,

A boy looks at trash that he found in the pond during his swimming. 55,000 children die annually due to diseases related to water pollution. YT Photo by Glyn Goffin

Al-Thawra General Hospital Deputy Zaid Ahmed Atif warned of air pollution, emphasizing the lead risk for children.

“The danger of lead is its ability to cross barriers and cause strokes and other neurological diseases, especially in children. Lead also raises the rate of physical and mental underdevelopment and its deposit in the liver leads to various diseases, as well as increases respiratory diseases like asthma, which is the lungs’ inability to absorb enough oxygen, thus corrupting the bronchioles,” Atif noted.

“A scientific study shows that children’s ability to absorb pollutants is higher than the elderly,” he noted.

The WHO report pointed out that health-damaging exposure to environmental risks can begin before birth. “Lead in the air, mercury in food and other chemicals can result in long-term, often irreversible effects, such as infertility, miscarriage and birth defects. Women’s exposure to pesticides, solvents and persistent organic pollutants potentially may affect the health of the fetus.

“Additionally, while the overall benefits of breastfeeding are recognized, a newborn’s health may be affected by high levels of contaminants in breast milk. Small children whose bodies are developing rapidly are particularly susceptible and in some instances, the health impacts may emerge only later in life.

“Furthermore, children as young as age 5 sometimes work in hazardous settings. Pregnant women living and working in hazardous environments and poor mothers and their children are at a higher risk because they’re exposed to the most degraded environments, they’re often unaware of the health implications and they lack access to information on potential solutions,” the report said.

Yemen’s maternal and infant mortality rates are among the world’s highest. In the 2003 demographic survey, an estimated 366 women died for every 100,000 babies delivered, while the infant mortality rate is estimated at 157 deaths for every 1,000 male and female births.

WHO stressed that promoting a healthy environment is partly about assessing, correcting, controlling and mitigating environmental factors that can adversely affect the health of present and future generations.

“In order to achieve this goal, it’s important for decision-makers at international, regional and national levels, together with non-governmental organizations, communities and families, to join efforts in recognizing and addressing key environmental hazards. This may include policy action, advocacy, prevention and grassroots participation,” the WHO report advised.

Children who work during the day usually are school dropouts or those who didn’t attend school at all. YT Photo

Most children working or begging part of the day or night are enrolled in school. They study in the morning and work or beg at night, returning home to spend the night with their family.

Children who work during the day usually are school dropouts or those who didn’t attend school at all. Most are from rural areas and live away from their family. They either come to cities with relatives or alone and spend the night in inns or living in groups in apartments.

Yemeni street children work in the following professions:

• Street vendors selling clothes, home appliances and other commodities on streets and at traffic lights/intersections.

• Car washers in street intersections and car parks.

• Porters carrying commodities on their shoulders or on carts working in general open markets and fruit and vegetable markets.

• Workers in restaurants and cafés.

• Fare collectors on buses.

All of the aforementioned jobs are done by male street children, while female children work selling various types of bread (maloug, kudam and lahouh) beside small specialized restaurants and markets and selling foodstuffs like eggs and potatoes. However, females represent only a small percentage of street children.

Whether male or female, Yemeni street children beg on streets, at intersections, bus stops, in front of mosques and other public places.

Numerous factors have led to the street children phenomenon’s increase in Yemen, including social factors related to family circumstances and educational and cultural backgrounds.

Family circumstances

These include family differences regarding divorce, desertion, etc., unemployment of a family supporter or death of a family supporter, with the remaining family members’ inability to meet life demands, thus causing them to push children into the labor market to help meet their needs.

Educational factors

Among these are lack of clear philosophy for a developed education, lack of developed curricula and the fact that primary education doesn’t qualify children for the labor market, as well as vocational education’s inefficiency and its inability to handle more students desiring to join such institutions.

According to August 2005’s Education Pointers in Yemen issued by the Supreme Council for Education Planning (SCEP), the number of Yemeni students enrolled in vocational education represented 1.6 percent of total students enrolled in secondary education and 1.7 percent were enrolled in technical education among those students enrolled in universities.

The spread of unemployment among university graduates and dire situations employees experience is leading students to abandon education and tend toward the open market.

Dominant customs and cultural factors

Yemen is a traditional society with a high illiteracy rate of approximately 55.7 percent, particularly among women. According to the SCEP, the figure is even higher, at 74.1 percent. Further, numerous inherited customs pay no attention to children’s mental and physical abilities.

Additionally, there’s a dominant culture in Yemen regarding making children work at a young age so they’ll become accustomed to it, with some families considering children working as early manhood. There’s also a complete absence of media, which should spread awareness of children’s rights and the risks involved in children working.

Effects of the street children phenomenon

1. Educational effects

Children’s educational levels are affected because they find no time to study, which may cause them to fail and subsequently, drop out.

A new study conducted by UNICEF and the Arab League addressing children’s situations in the Arab world indicates that approximately 7.5 million Arab children have no education. According to the SCEP, approximately 1 million Yemeni children aren’t in school, most of them female.

2. Economic effects

What children receive from their work is too little when compared to the effort they exert, let alone the lack of training and qualification enabling them to be in the labor market. Therefore, they can’t secure their future demands nor improve their living standard.

Increasing numbers of illiterate and unqualified children multiplies the state’s duties toward them and further deprives the nation of their role in achieving sustainable development.

3. Psychological and social problems

Street children acquire what’s called street culture, including a lot of bad and immoral language and bad habits like chewing qat, smoking and addictions. They also experience absence of care and protection needed at this early age, thus affecting them psychologically.

Violence against street children

Children working on streets are subjected to verbal abuse, violation and harassment, which hurts their feelings and demeans their humanity. They mostly experience such violence from their friends or adults, but sometimes from customers and even government officials.

Most street children work or beg by themselves because most perform marginal work or private work.

According to the study, most street children in Sana’a city are considered working children, as a large number of them are rural, coming to work in Sana’a during summer vacation so they can help or support their poor families. The field study’s results showed that working children are the majority whereas begging children, homeless children and those who combine work and begging all come in second, while number the least is a particular group of street children (foundlings, the lost, etc.)

Most street children work or beg by themselves because most perform marginal work, which mainly is individual, or private work. Work is considered an individual activity but a small number of children work for others.

The study clarified that the working children group receives the highest income, compared to other groups, including those who combine working and begging or more than two types of work. The reason for this is because working street children are the eldest among all street children groups.

Most street children stated that a large part of their income contributes to their families’ needs. It’s indicated that 92.9 percent of children whose families live in Sana’a city assist their families financially; whereas 85 percent of children whose families live outside Sana’a assist their families financially.

Socially speaking, street children largely are exposed to practices and behaviors that are against the law and the social value system. Some are homosexuals and some (both males and females) are sexually assaulted or raped, while many take drugs and some others practice prostitution. Nevertheless, some criminal-oriented gangsters use children to steal or deal drugs, as well as facilitate prostitution acts.

Homeless children are liable to acquire other types of deviant behavior and attitudes like lying, deception, trickery, running away from school, smoking, chewing qat, taking drugs and oral sexual acts.

According to the study’s data and statistics, street children’s relations with their families are characterized by solidarity, cooperation and mutual scrutiny. But some families experience instability due to marriage problems.

Some fathers believe the street children phenomenon isn’t caused by family problems, but rather by poverty. During a focus group discussion, one father explained, “I was married to four wives. We had no problems, although each wife gave birth to a child per year. After my economic situation worsened, I divorced three of them. Now I don’t know where my kids are. I only have the kids from the fourth wife and they dropped out of school. They work and beg and the reason is poverty.”

Educational situation

For the most part, the family decides whether or not to enroll children in basic education, depending on the social and economic situations. It also depends more on family members’ attitudes toward education than the child’s willingness to learn.

The field study survey indicated that 62.9 percent of children in the sample were enrolled in school, which is a very low percentage compared to the enrolment rate of children aged 6-15 in Sana’a city during the 1994-95 academic year.

Representing 62.9 percent of the total number of children in the survey, 401 were enrolled in school. Among those, 56 (representing 14 percent) indicated that they didn’t want to stop working and/or begging, while 345 (representing 86 percent) stated that they do want to quit working and/or begging so they can attend school.

The problem with street children is that they suffer from low levels of achievement in school. Most obtain weak results on their exams and the failure of many of them is repeated.

The study attributed street children’s low school enrolment to poverty. Other factors include the nature of the school curriculum, the nature of the relationship between the school and the family and between teachers and students.

The education currently available in schools suffers various aspects of deficiency which contribute to increased dropout rates. From the perspective of street children and their families, such deficiencies can be summarized as follows:

- Lack of social workers in schools

- Low levels of teacher efficiency and using severe methods to punish students

- Lack of facilities and necessary educational media in schools

- Crowded classrooms

- The government doesn’t provide school operational equipment

- Education is costly

- Teachers themselves sometime are absent from school and inefficient in their tasks

A street child in Sana’a suffering from a deformation due to burning accident.

UNICEF confirms that street children are among the most physically visible of all children, living and working on streets and public squares. Yet, paradoxically, they also are among the most invisible and therefore, the hardest to reach with vital services like education and health care, as well as the most difficult to protect.

Street children … another world

Twelve-year-old Thabet Ghalib has worked as a roaming seller for three years. According to him, his father forces him to work. “My father forced me and my three brothers to work since he doesn’t.”

He insisted on showing spots and blotches that have spread on his back. “These spots suddenly spread on my body. I have no idea what they are.” The spots weren’t Ghalib’s only concern, as he also suffers occasional spasms. “When these spasms attack, I fall down in the street, but nobody tries to help me. Even my friends run away when I fall down.”

Thirteen-year-old Ali Ahmed said he also experiences fits. “I suffer headache fits that sometimes continue three days and prevent me from leaving my house to work.” Ahmed, who sells balls and dolls in a Sana’a park, said he suffered a terrible incident when he was burned two years ago. “I went with my cousin to burn my school books and the fire caught me abruptly,” he explained, with the burning causing noticeable deformation on his right hand and back.

“Fever is killing me!” 11-year-old Mohammed Ali exclaimed. “When I experience this fever, I stay home for many days. The fever makes me weak, sleepy and my eyes fill with tears. I think it’s malaria.” Ali said his father forces him to work to get money; otherwise, his father will beat him. “My two older brothers ran away from home because of my father’s treatment. I’m now the only one on which my family depends,” he added.

Beating by one or both parents is not the only violence against these street children. Violence is widespread among the children themselves, as they must fight to survive. “We formed a gang to protect this area. We don’t want anyone occupying this area and beginning to sell to and steal our consumers,” Ghalib explained.

According to the children, they may get into bloody fights to “protect their business.” “I was stabbed on my leg by a sharp glass piece when I tried to sell in an area another gang controls,” 14-year-old Badee said.

Badee’s brother, who is working as a booklet seller on the street, faced possible death when a car hit him. “He badly injured his head and broke his arm and he spent 19 days in a public hospital. Now he’s OK, but he often complains of a headache,” Badee recounted.

Street children often find themselves in conflict with police and other authorities, who harass or beat them. “We keep running away from anti-begging police who arrest us, beat us, take our money and put us in jail. They say we’re beggars, but we’re not,” the children protested.

Ghalib, Ahmed, Ali, Badee and others confessed that they constantly are exposed to sexual harassment. “Many times, those in their cars ask me to join them, saying they’ll pay more money if I ride in the car. I ignore them and try to run away.” Ali explained.

More susceptible to disease

Medical experts say children in these circumstances are exposed to infection and disease more than adults.

“Children who work in the street mainly are subjected to skin diseases, respiratory diseases and venereal or sexual diseases,” pediatrician Dr. Mohammed Kashnoon said.

Due to the absence of personal cleanliness and prevailing unsanitary conditions, most street children suffer scabies, chicken pox, measles and other infectious illnesses transmitted by direct and indirect contact, according to Kashnoon. “These children also are subjected to respiratory diseases like sore throat, pneumonia, bronchitis and tonsillitis, which may lead to meningitis,” he confirmed.

Most of these diseases are transmitted by air; that is, if an infected individual coughs, his bacteria-contaminated breath is transmitted by air to these children, who spend most of their time on the streets. “These diseases can be cured if the ch

Skin diseases became widespread among Yemeni street children.

Street children also are exposed to sexual and venereal diseases. “Sexual diseases result from sexual abuse that these children are exposed to on the streets. These children come under huge stress from those adults seeking perverted relationships,” Kashnoon explained.

He also referred to injuries caused by widespread traffic accidents occurring in the streets, with the main victims being street children.

Dr. Abdulhamid Abu Hatem pointed to other chronic infectious diseases that have become common among street children. “Leprosy has become widespread among these children,” he said, as children with no idea about the disease mix with leprous individuals spread throughout many regions, for example, Bab Al-Yemen, using their infection to beg.

“Street children also can be disease carriers,” Hatem explained, “They’re exposed to viruses and bacteria more than others because they spend a very long time on streets that are very dirty and unsanitary. They also can carry these viruses and bacteria into their homes, spreading disease to their families and neighbors.”

Psychological problems

Hatem talked about the impact of difficulties and obstacles street children face on their psychological state and their health. “Street children are exposed to beating, sexual abuse and sometimes are used in illegal work. Such treatment negatively affects their psychological state, which also gradually weakens their immune system, so they become easy targets for disease and bacterial attacks.”

According to Hatem, most street children also suffer inferiority complexes. Kashnoon also emphasized that street children experience very complex psychological diseases. “A child who’s mistreated constantly may become spiteful toward society and such hatred reflects itself in violent behavior; that is, these children become ruder and more violent,” he added.

Street children experience symptoms of megalomania, paranoia and more rarely, depression. “These children weren’t born with these complexes, but mistreatment, their circumstances and society’s view all share in creating such psychological problems,” Kashnoon asserted.

Regarding the rate of medical treatment street children receive, Hatem said, “These children arrive at hospitals in very serious and late conditions. Most of them don’t complete their treatment because there’s no constant medical care from their parents or due to poverty, which prevents many families from even consulting a doctor.”

Hatem harshly criticized NGOs and local associations adopting children’s issues in Yemen. “Many organizations use ‘children’s issues’ to gain more support. In fact, those who use children’s issues to gain financial support are just as much exploiters as those who force children to work on the street.”

Although street children are running businesses to support their families, they still suffer society’s low opinion and are treated as beggars, juveniles or delinquents. The Higher Council for Motherhood and Childhood (HCMC) defines them as street children due to the shame involved in admitting this group’s existence and absence of specific provisions for “street children” in Yemen’s legal framework.

There are no specific statistics on street children numbers in Yemen and estimates vary enormously. The most recent study conducted for UNICEF in 2000 estimated the number of such children in Sana’a as 28,789. Most were between age 12 and 14, with the vast majority (78 to 96 percent) being boys.