28 April 2008
Posted to the web 28 April 2008

Elvis Tah

In its efforts to transform the lives of street children, the government of Cameroon is working on a national programme geared towards the rehabilitation of more than 800 in that category.

In line with the programme, the Southwest Provincial Delegate of Social Affairs, Fon Valentine Asongtia Foreke, recently disclosed to The Post that his Delegation has put a good number of the street children in rehabilitation centres.

"We have counselled some of these street children, opened up a mechanic and carpentry workshop for them in Tiko. We have enrolled more than 25 of them in Kumba, from FCFA 4 million given by the government. We also give them psychosocial assistance," said Fon Asongtia.

Quizzed on what his Delegation is doing to reintegrate these children with their families, the Delegate said most of the children tell lies and give wrong information about themselves and their families, thereby making it difficult for the social worker to get in touch with their real families.

That notwithstanding, Fon Asongtia said his Delegation has been able to reunite some of the children with their families or provide them with a trade."Concerning those who came about as a result of the "oga" syndrome (master-servant contact), we try and educate their masters and see if they could be reintegrated or learn a trade," said Asongtia.

The Delegate added that in line with the national programme, the Borstal Institute in Buea is undergoing rehabilitation to create trade departments that can render the children economically self-sufficient.

Still expounding on the Borstal Institute, Asongtia said there are two placement procedures there: judicial and administrative."The judicial placement is when the children or minors are sent to the institute by a magistrate as a result of a crime they committed. Under this placement, the institute informs the court on the changes of the child’s misdemeanours behaviours.

"Under the administrative placement, the minor is handed over to the institute by a social worker or a family who finds him/her obstinate. The institute informs the court before accepting the child," the Delegate said.

He pointed out that the Delegation also sponsors a Grade I teacher who teaches the minors at the Buea Central Prison, all of these is in a bid to eradicate juvenile delinquency.

Apart from mad people that wander about the streets, many children are increasingly joining them. They are found mostly inhabiting bus stops and video game houses. Some of these street children sleep on the verandas of off-licences and bars, and in abandoned or uncompleted houses.

In Douala, the Catholic Cathedral seems to be providing a safe haven for them where many have their beddings under a tent, where they retire from their daily activities to doze.

These street children come from different backgrounds and for various reasons; those who break up from their families because of disequilibrium and those who get to the streets because they have a misunderstanding with their benefactors or masters.

Some of such children are of Nigerian origin who are brought to Cameroon to serve as shop keepers or house helps, and after a misunderstanding with their masters, they flee to the streets.

A majority of such children are found in Kumba and Tiko in the Southwest Province.

The second category of street children are those who are actually living with their parents or guardians but are out of school, probably to hawk and supplement the family income.

The third category is of Arab extract that move along with their mothers, in markets and strategic places to beg for money.

DANIEL STOFFMAN PHOTO

Children scour the Delhi railway station for empty bottles and scrap metal that they sell to junk dealers. 

DELHI, INDIA –He is an unlikely tour guide – skinny, enthusiastic, with a wide grin revealing perfect teeth. Shekhar Saini is just 19 years old.

He’s standing in front of the reservations office just outside the enormous, grimy railway station in Old Delhi – home to about 150 ragged, barefoot street children, some as young as 6.

In a country known for its many beautiful sights, Shekhar is here to show us something different – one of the sore spots off the usual tourist trail.

We had reached him on his cellphone the day before to book our tour of one of Old Delhi’s grittiest neighbourhoods, as street children experience it.

It’s a place he knows first-hand. Shekhar was born in Bihar, the poorest of India’s 28 states, and ran away at age 12, jumping on a train and eluding ticket takers all the way to Delhi.

"Basically, most of the children run away from the country because of poverty; they know they are a burden to their families," he says.

He quickly found that the children look out for one another.

"When I got here, I met another rag picker and he said `Are you hungry?’ and he took me to the Sisganj Gurdwara (Sikh temple) for a free meal," Shekhar recalls.

These children, it turns out, are not an anomaly, but integrated into the city’s economy.

They are not beggars – they work sweeping the train cars and collecting any leftover food. First-class trains are particularly good.

"My friend got into a car with a wedding party and got two pieces of chicken," he says.

From a bridge between the platforms, he points out some boys jumping between the tracks, collecting empty plastic water bottles, which fetch half a rupee each.

They make, he says, 60 to 70 rupees a day or about $2.

In a nook below the overpass, a child is sleeping under a piece of cardboard.

We walk past a juice seller who lets children sleep on top of his booth, and acts as a banker, keeping their scant rupees safe from theft.

Another shop on the platform is Chemist Corner, where sick children go to buy herbal medicines.

"Street children are crazy about Bollywood movies," says Shekhar. "Some will hop the train to Mumbai to see a premiere. They play hide and seek with the railway police; if they are caught they get badly beaten."

Shekhar was on the street until he was rescued by the Salaam Balaak Trust, a charity founded in 1988 by the Indian film director Mira Nair, best known for Monsoon Wedding and The Namesake.

Nair was a sociologist and documentarian until she made her first story film, Salaam Bombay, a moving portrayal of Bombay’s street children inspired by Truffaut’s The 400 Blows.

Nair used some of the proceeds from that film to set up the trust, which aims to give back to street children some semblance of their lost childhood. They are rarely willing to go back to their families but they can be protected from pimps and criminals and trained to do better paying work than picking up empty bottles.

Shakhar trained as a guide and is one of the trust’s success stories. He learned his excellent English from foreign volunteers at the Salaam Balaak shelter.

From the station we walk along a narrow alley where Shakhar points out the dusty shops of junk dealers who buy the scrap metal, glass and plastic containers that the street children scavenge.

Enormous transparent bags filled with empty water bottles are piled on the roof until they are picked up for recycling. Delhi has no municipal recycling program or even general garbage pickup, so rag pickers – both children and adults – play a useful role.

Shekhar knows everybody in this gritty neighbourhood and introduces his Canadian visitors with a flourish. We pass a tiny shop advertising a cold shower for 10 rupees, a hot shower for 15 rupees. There are some 300 cheap hotels and flophouses in the area, most without bathing facilities, he explains.

We nearly trip over a potter crouched on the sidewalk, rapidly turning hundreds of small clay cups on his wheel.

The cups are sold in the nearby pottery market to owners of chai (tea) shops and broken after a single use. This is necessary not only because dishwashing is not an option in such sidewalk operations but because of the caste system. Most Indians will not drink out of vessels that may have previously been used by a low caste or Dalit (Untouchable) customer.

The area is pulsing with energy. Everyone is busy. As we walk towards the Salaam Balaak shelter, we pass many other traditional businesses and craftspeople including a dyer, a wicker worker, tailoring shops and people ironing clothing right on the street with heavy manual irons heated by hot charcoal inside.

A video game arcade on our left has a large clientele of street children.

When we finally reach the shelter on the upper floor of a narrow old house, we see some 60 boys in two large rooms milling about, playing, watching TV or napping (there is a separate shelter for girls.) Another room is set up with benches as a classroom. A sign proclaims that the shelter receives funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development. The Salaam Balaak Trust also runs children’s shelters in Mumbai.

One little boy of about 7, a recent arrival who appears to be mute, wants a hug. He clings to me in a way that breaks my heart.

On the wall, there are pictures of the former street children playing soccer and going on excursions.

Mira Nair appears in some of the photos, an improbably glamorous figure.

Shekhar now has his own tiny apartment. He has been guiding for a year but his dream is to be a Bollywood star.

"I have already been in a 23-minute short," he says proudly. "I played a gang leader. Mira Nair invited me to the premiere of The Namesake but I didn’t see the film. I had to stay outside with the collection box."

Judy Stoffman is a Toronto-based freelance writer.

The Gaziantep Police Force field hockey team will represent Turkey in the European Open Field Clubs Championship, to be held in Slovenia.

The Gaziantep Police Force Field Hockey Team — made up entirely of former street children — has been the nationwide field hockey champion three years running, and will represent Turkey in the European Open Field Clubs Championship to be held in Slovenia on May 8-11.

The team was established in 2003 and finished its first hockey season in its 14-team league in fourth place. Its success then and now is attributable to government-civilian cooperation, the combined efforts of Yusuf Kasım, the trainer of the national field hockey team and a physical education teacher, police officers from the Gaziantep Police Department, businessmen in Gaziantep and the young players. Of the team’s 15 players, 14 have played in national matches and four have been granted national player status; some have even begun studying at sports academies.

But the team got off to a rocky start. Kasım says that when they first began, they had to hold practices on streets and at parks. “They have been working with me since they were 13. When we were working at the park, some children watching would come and ask what we were doing. They soon developed interests in hockey and started to work with us. They are now playing national matches,” he notes. Kasım indicates that Asım Akçacı, a star on the team, used to sniff glue. “We’ve managed to create a hockey player out of him. Now, he’s the team captain. He has played in 19 national matches — we are proud of him,” he says.

Akçacı is very grateful to his coach, who he credits for saving him from the bad habit. “After meeting Kasım, I was saved from the streets and addiction. I call on all addicted children to engage in sports and thus escape,” he says.

26.04.2008

Apr 25, 2008 (Asia Pulse Data Source via COMTEX) — – The problem of street children is getting worse in the metropolis as they are fast falling victims to violence, maltreatment and insecurity. The Sindh government has not taken any initiative to control the alarming situation, informed a study report of Initiator Human Development Foundation (IHDF) on Thursday.

Addressing a press conference at Karachi Press Club, Rana Asif Habib along with Amir Murtaza and other officer-bearers, said the IHDF has conducted a research to explore the causes and consequences of physical, sexual and emotional violence against street children; contribution of violence in a childs decision to leave the family and home; elements that perpetuate violence and relationship between norms and violence against street children in Karachi.

He informed that 200 samples, regarding the research data, were collected from different areas such as Karachi Cant Railway Station, Kharadar, Abdullah Shah Gazi Shrine, Mazar-e-Quaid, Jamia Cloth Market, Jahangir Park Saddar, Burns Road, Passport Office Saddar, Hussainabad, Hasan Square, Tariq Road, Quaidabad, Korangi and NIPA Chowrangi.

The report indicated that street children are the victims of unplanned economic growth, war, poverty, domestic violence and the violence at schools and madrassas, he said.

It was mentioned that majority of street children are in the age of 13 to 18 years (79.03%) followed by those in the age group of 9 to 12 years (15.22%) and up to 8 years old (5.71%). Most of them belong to Punjabi community followed by Urdu, Pashto, Burmese and Bengalese. The research revealed that majority of street children is either orphans or affectees of broken families.

Conversely, the research results showed that almost 70% children have their parents alive while 14% have single father and 6% have single mother. Only 10% of the respondents informed that neither of their parents is alive. Most of the street children come from a large family as 40% of respondents have 10 or more family members while 38.6% have 6 to 10 family members.

The research report is categorised into two categories, violence at home & violence at streets. As many as 88% of the respondents admitted the occurrence of violence at home followed by 5% in negative and 7%dont know. At home, father was considered as the main perpetrator of violence (50%) followed by mother (20%), step-parents 15% and brother 10%.

Interestingly, besides physical violence, majority of street children also complained the occurrence of emotional violence. Among the respondents, 86% informed frequent occurrence of mental violence at their homes. Contrary to the identified perpetrator of physical violence, the emotional violence is largely committed by parents or close relatives.

A large number of respondents (86%) informed that they faced emotional violence at any stage of their lives on the streets, while 9% denied any emotional violence and 5% didnt have any idea about the violence.

Majority of street children use drugs as 92% of them admitted that they use various kinds of drugs however 8% denied any use of drugs at any stage of their lives. About 75% of the respondents admitted that they smoke cigarettes, 70% use charas, 66% inhale glue and I5% use heroine. After having drug a majority of 66% respondents admitted experiencing violence.

Results showed that these children become very vulnerable after watching violent and pornographic movies. Around 70% of the respondents admitted the occurrence of violence after watching action movies while 20% denied that and 10% didnt have any idea about that phenomenon. Similarly, 60% of the respondents admitted any sexual act or experienced sexual violence after watching pornographic movies while 30% completely denied that and 10% informed that they dont have any idea about it.

Depression is very common among street children and, while talking about the high occurrence of physical, emotional and sexual violence, 66% of the respondents admitted that they self-inflected themselves while 26% denied and 8% didnt give any response. About 85% cut with blades and knives while 15% burn themselves.

The organisation has recommended effective and immediate government measures to improve the lot of the street children. However, the NGOs and advocates of child rights should make a child protection committee, it proposed. Potentially vulnerable children also need orientation on child rights and domestic legislation while NGOs should organise campaigns to make street children aware about JJSO 2000 as well as the institutional donors and NGOs should initiate projects on capacity building of police officials on child rights, the report concluded.

Ministry To Study Status Of Half Million Street Children

KUALA LUMPUR, April 24 (Bernama) — The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry is taking the claim by certain quarters that there are half million street children in the country, seriously.

What is more disturbing is their claim that most of the children were born and raised by their sex-worker mothers and exposed to an immoral environment.

Its minister Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen said that most of the children were from Sabah.

However, the number had not been verified, she said.

"We will conduct research to find out whether the claim is true," she told reporters after officiating at the Association of Wives of Ministers and Deputy Ministers (Bakti) annual general meeting, at the Bakti building in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, here Thursday.

Dr Ng said the study would be conducted as soon as possible because it was a huge challenge for the ministry to find a solution to the problem.

"The research, among others, will identify the children’s origin and whether they are Malaysian citizens or not," she added.

Apart from that, Dr Ng said the ministry would also try to find out the number of children with no identification document.

"This is very important. (If) they do not own a birth certificate, they cannot go to school, cannot apply for identity card and when they grow up, they will be a burden to the government because they will not get hired."

Dr Ng said that her ministry would also look into the reasons for the parents to abandon their children.

On sex workers’ children, Ng said she was upset when the children were left outside the rooms where their mothers worked.

"Since the children are ‘our children’, the ministry has established a Child Protection Centre to care for the children while their mothers go to work," she said, adding that one such centre was established in Chow Kit.

Also present at the AGM was the Prime Minister’s wife Datin Seri Jeanne Abdullah.

– BERNAMA

Statesman News Service
CHENNAI, April 21: Tamil Nadu government today decided to collect the details of transgenders and prepare a database with the assistance of NGOs.
This was announced by state social welfare minister Mrs Poongothai, during her reply to the demands for grants to her ministry in the Assembly today. The minister announced an allotment of Rs 50 lakh for constituting the board for welfare of transgenders and said the government was considering the nomination of members to the board.
The board would rehabilitate and achieve equality for transgenders in the community. It would look into the various problems, difficulties and inconveniences faced by them, Mrs Poongothai said.
The minister said 12 shelters had been started for street children, who were being provided food, non-formal education and vocational training under the Comprehensive Street Children Programme. She said 50 children had been admitted in each shelter. The government had also launched a project through the Indian Council for Child Welfare for prevention of child abuse.
“The status of women is measured in terms of Gender Development Index. It is 0.71 in Tamil Nadu which is higher than the national average of 0.59. Similarly, in nutrition level and in the care of the disabled, Tamil Nadu is way ahead of other states,” she said.
About 50,000 girls would benefit under the girl child protection scheme to prevent female infanticide, she said. Under the scheme, Rs 22,200 would be deposited in the name of the girl child, who would get the amount on the twentieth year of deposit, while receiving the interest every month.
About 3000 children had been saved by the cradle baby scheme, under which cradles are placed in government hospitals, social welfare offices and district collectorates to receive abandoned babies, the minister added.

This could be a huge tourist draw if the government cleaned it up,” I murmured to my friend Mahima as we gazed upon the network of star-shaped pools across Urdu Park under Jama Masjid in Old Delhi. I imagined them filled with water, reflecting the moonlight. However, further into the park, as eyes adjusted to the darkness, we realised the reality of Urdu Park was quite different. In dark corners and lonely nooks, many people squatted on the floor. Most were children, dirty and ragged.

I caught a whiff of something tantalisingly familiar from them. “Glue,” said Kaivalya, one of the Jamghat volunteers, “all children here sniff it.” But they looked too tiny to be into substance abuse, I said incredulously. “They probably aren’t as young as you think — the glue stunts their growth…” he said. Just then, a boy, apparently teenaged, appeared. All the children swarmed around him, shouting excitedly. “Look carefully and you might see his tube of glue — he sells one squirt of it for Rs 2,” said Kaivalya. A little fellow darted away from the group clutching a handkerchief. I now knew enough to realise that it probably contained two rupees worth of glue. Suddenly Urdu Park began to look less beautiful to me.

“It takes most children less than a month on the streets to take to glue,” said Amit, who started Jamghat. He and his friends estimate that almost every single child on the streets of Delhi has been sexually, physically or mentally abused. The children face other problems as well — the money they make begging, pushing carts or as coolies, is more often than not, snatched by older residents of the park, even by the police themselves. “It is sad,” said Amit, “but the fact is that today, few are willing to take on the responsibility of these troubled children.”

In fact, even Jamghat was originally conceived only as a theatre group. “I first met the children of Urdu Park in 2003, when Action Aid asked me to conduct some theatre workshops,” said Amit. Along with fourteen street kids, Amit moved to a campus where they lived, worked and played together. “We performed for Prince Charles when he visited India, and got lots of media coverage,” he reminisced. But soon after, the money dried up. The children by this time did not want to disband, having grown used to having a roof over their heads and the tough love that Amit gave them. Amit also couldn’t abandon them knowing that they would have no option but to return to the streets. “That’s how Jamghat just developed into a home for street children,” said Amit.

Running a residential facility for street kids isn’t easy — the children have faced too many traumas to be trusting. They’ve lived without rules for long enough to baulk when any are implemented. “We have only two rules in Jamghat — no drugs and no abuse,” said Amit, “other than this, they are free.” All in all, over 35 kids have been rehabilitated so far — some have even chosen to go home, while others work or study. Amit abandoned his own dreams of a career in theatre to help these kids earn their upkeep though street plays. “We don’t want people to just give us money,” said Amit, “we’d welcome more sponsorships for our plays though!” While we were talking, the baby of Jamghat, four-year-old Saddam, returned from school, pleased as punch with his new uniform. Seeing us looking at pictures of kids in Jama Masjid, he said, “it’s very far from here…”

He’s probably too young to know how right he is.

17 April 2008
Posted to the web 17 April 2008

Harare

A Local non-governmental organisation, Oasis Zimbabwe, has embarked on a programme to support Government’s efforts to rehabilitate street children and orphans.

In an interview yesterday, the organisation’s funding officer Miss Tinashe Sande said a rehabilitation centre had been established for the disadvantaged children in Kambuzuma. "We have set up a centre in Kambuzuma where we will equip the children with skills such as tailoring, carpentry, computers and agriculture as part of our social

responsibility and support of Government’s efforts to improve the lives of the street children and orphans," Miss Sande said. She said her organisation also conducts family reunification programmes. Oasis Zimbabwe has also set up the Tanaka project for former street girls aged between 14 and 18 years. The project is aimed at offering temporary residence for the girls to undergo psychological support while imparting them with self-help skills. Oasis Zimbabwe has partnered churches in setting up pre-school centres for orphans and vulnerable children.

"We have set up a model pre-school in Kambuzuma supporting other pre-schools in 12 high density and peri-urban areas where we train pre-school teachers free of charge," Miss Sande said. The organisation appeals to well wishers to donate in cash or kind towards the promotion of its noble projects.

17-Apr-08

Leagas Delaney has been appointed by Street Child Africa to overhaul its brand identity ahead of the UK charity’s tenth anniversary later this year. Street Child Africa, which is the only UK charity devoted to helping street children across Africa, is understood to have appointed the agency without a pitch.

The work will be overseen by Leagas Delaney global chief executive and agency co-founder Tim Delaney. The agency has been tasked with repositioning the charity, with a high profile press and poster campaign breaking in May.

It will also redesign Street Child Africa’s logo and offer strategic and brand consultancy, as well as idea generation and helping to expand the range and scale of professional partnerships.

The charity, which has TV presenter Tony Robinson as its patron, hopes the work will help boost donations and its profile. Last year it raised over £1m to reach 40,000 African street children.

It brings employees of its African partners into direct contact with street children, offering them friendship, guidance, protection, education, medical care and skills training. It works with nine local partners in seven countries including Ghana, Zambia and Uganda.

GOVERNMENT’S recent budgetary allocation of $1 billion to the Programme for Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) is expected to benefit an additional 130,000 persons this year, however, there is still no provision in place for children outside the formal school system such as those living on the streets to benefit.

This has prompted Children’s Advocate Mary Clarke to call for this welfare service to be extended to street children who are enrolled in programmes offered by a number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Clarke raised the issue at the launch of the Social Investment for Children Initiative’s (SICI) newest publication entitled A Review of Economic and Social Investments for Jamaican Children held at the Bustamante Hospital for Children in Kingston Monday.

Finance Minister Audley Shaw, who was addressing the gathering, said this allocation was made to the programme so as to increase the number of persons who would benefit from it.

However, Clarke requested to know just how those like street children would be incorporated so as to benefit.
Dr Pauline Knight, director of social policy planning and research at the Planning Institute Of Jamaica (PIOJ) and chair of SICI said it is quite a challenge to get non-formal students on the PATH programme, as most of the formal educational programmes they are enrolled in do not last beyond six months to a year.

"It is just too short a time for the application process for them to apply, be processed, accepted and get on the PATH programme before commencing their training," she said.
She said PATH cannot meet all the needs in the welfare system and cannot be expanded to one size fits all.

However, Clarke insists that there are programmes that extend for longer periods such as the Young Men’s Christian Association’s (YMCA) for the children they take off the streets.

In addition, she argued that there are other NGOs which are catering to the needs of children with disabilities in an attempt to fill the gap in services created by a governmental lack.

And Dr Knight, while agreeing that they need to give as much support as possible to these NGOs, said the ability to give more is the problem.

"It all comes back to the issue of expanding the resources made available for children, " she said.
Shaw also admitted that not enough was being invested on children, however, he said his government was hoping to change this in the future.

Meanwhile, Dr Knight said the increased allocation to the PATH programme is expected to yield higher benefits for upper secondary level students and for boys.

"We are targetting the benefits to see more improvements for boys to remain in school, so we will not only add to numbers but will improve how the programme works," she said. The additional 130,000 persons to be added to the programme will increase the total number of PATH beneficiaries to 360,000.