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Street Children

Michla.
"I've been on the streets for four years. I make my living by washing cars and loading them up or sometimes begging. I'm not living with my parents because they told me to leave a long time ago, then they moved away somewhere and disappeared. They have many other kids and said they could not afford me. They said I should be able to make my own living without bothering them."¹

Statistics:

• According to the UN there are 200 million children live or work on the streets.²
• In South America there are at least 40 million street children; in Asia 25 million; in Africa 10 million and in Eastern and Western Europe approximately 25 million children and youth live on the streets.³
• By the year 2020, the number of street children worldwide will reach 800 million.

What are street children?

UNICEF defines street children in a different way:

• Children on the street: children who have to work on the streets because their families need the money to survive.

• Children in the street: children from poor families who sleep on the streets. Some come from underprivileged parts of the country into the city, others have run away.

• Children of the street: orphans and abandoned children whose parents have died because of illness or war, or to whom it was simply impossible to look after their children.

This definition is not always easy to apply. For example, what group do children fit in who live on the streets with their families? Or what about the children "on the street" who have not had any contact with their families for a long time, or children "of the street" who are in prison or at times even at home? And of what group are child prostitutes or children who just run away, for example, from work?

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What do street children do?

Street children don't just lazily wander about the streets. To survive, they mostly work over ten hours a day. They distribute newspapers, clean taxis, collect scrap iron, push trolleys, watch parked cars, sell sweets, carry baggage or beg. Some also work as prostitutes, domestic servants, pimps, drug dealers pickpockets and for building contractors, garage owners and in agriculture.

Why are there street children?

• Social catastrophes (corruption, waste of resources)
• Political catastrophes (war, civil strife, ethnic conflict)
• Natural catastrophes (famine, flood, earthquake)
• Family breakdown
• Economic collapse (loss of home, parents, family, education)
• Poverty
• Unemployment
• Alcohol or drug abuse
• Rural-urban migration
• Child neglect
• Child abuse (sent away, runs away, abandoned)
• Child labor⁴

Daily life of the street children

Society: Street children view other people, adults especially, with a mixture of suspicion and opportunism. Tourists are a good target because they are still a bit shocked by what they see, unlike many of the local people who try to disregard the youngsters. Having been let down at every turn and written off by society in general, many street children hold their community's standards, values and possessions in utter contempt. How can they respect a society that has deserted them--tossed them away as so much garbage?

Food: Street children eat whatever they can. Their stomachs may not always be empty, but they are probably malnourished. Their coppery hair may look charming but is a sure sign of serious lack of the right vitamins. If there isn't enough money, then there are always the rubbish bins to scour through, the back doors of certain restaurants which will toss out the leftovers at the end of the night, and whatever can be snatched from a store.

Money: Street children are very creative when it comes to earning money. Begging can be good if there is a sweet-looking brother or sister alongside and a forlorn expression. And then there is always sex. That brings in the most money by far. Straight, homosexual, in hotel rooms, or the back seat of cars, or down dark alleys while a friend watches in the main street.

Sleep: Street children sleep where they can feel the safest: a shop doorway, a bench in a square, a hot-airduct, a bonfire on the beach, or the steps of a railway station. Many of them sleep during the day, figuring on greater safety during the daylight hours. Some sleep alone, others huddle together for warmth or protection. Bed is a piece of cardboard, an old blanket, or newspapers. If they are fortunate enough to own a pair of shoes they will take them off and slip them under their head, so that they will know if someone else tries to snatch them. Spare coins are popped into the mouth. These children never know when they might be woken up by a policeman's boot, a jet of cold water from a street-cleaning truck, or even a bullet from a vigilante group or a gun-happy officer of the law.

Sickness: Street children get sick and stay that way. Pretty soon there is a greasy film on the skin, not to mention the oil and exhaust grease from the roads that coat the feet and lower parts of the leg. For some the dirt makes their skin dry, easily cracked. Cuts and bruises are an everyday event, mostly ignored. Infections are commonplace. Even if the injury is serious, chances are the hospital will not want to deal with it.

Friends: Street children care for just a few others. The group they become part of is a surrogate, extended family, where there is loyalty and love of a rough-and-ready kind. Affection is expressed with kicks, cuffs, and punches.

Spare time: Street children pass the time in a similarly schizophrenic way as they express their affection. One moment it might be soccer in the park, or a childish prank along the roadside. The next it could be breathing deeply from the neck of a bottle of paint thinner or the top of a can of glue. With a full stomach and a fuzzy head it's time for sex.

Dreams: Street children like the present, but want a different future. On the streets they are their own person, free to do what they want when they want with no one to tell them no. But they don't want to still be here when they are older. A good job and lots of money--never mind that they haven't finished school, and that their poor diet combined with all the traffic fumes they inhale day after day are likely to cause at least minor brain damage.⁵

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Why do street children take drugs?

(Answers from the street kids themselves)

• "to have the confidence to beat others and have adequate courage to steal"
• "so that when you get caught stealing and get beaten you will not feel the pain"
• "to forget problems and become happy"
• "to give you ideas for finding money"
• "to help you sleep"
• "so you don't feel the pain"
• "it makes you more courageous, so that you fight someone when they refuse to pay for your services" (reported by a girl involved in prostitution)
• "so that if you have to kill someone, you don't see it as a bad thing"
• "so that when you are stealing you don't feel the shame"
• "so you don't think"
• "when you are chased by your mother"
• "sometimes you're accused of using drugs when you don't, so you decide to use them"⁶

What kinds of drugs do they use?

Street children use whatever drugs are most readily available and cheap. For example, glue in areas where shoemaking is common, solvents in industrial areas, coca paste and cocaine in coca producing regions, opium or heroin in opium producing regions. Various forms of inhalants (industrial glue, paint thinner, nail polish remover, rubber cement glue, shoe polish, gasoline, cleaning fluid) are almost universally used as is alcohol, nicotine, cannabis and pharmaceutical products. When inhaled, industrial glue produces light-headedness, occasional hallucinations, loss of appetite and nausea. These substances are readily available at any hardware store. There are even solvent pushers on the streets.⁷

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that one of the most pressing health problems facing the world's street children is the issue of drug abuse. Practically all street children in the world are dependent on paint thinner, cheap glue or stronger drugs. Only few can endure life on the streets without any kind of drug.⁸

References:

¹Haitan street kids gallery and stories, http://quicksitemaker.com/members/immuneration/StreetkidGallery.html/
²The Great Omission, Viva Network
³Street Children,Phyllis Kilbourn, MARC Publications, 1997
⁴ibid.
⁵Street Children, Andy Butcher, Nelson Word Ltd., 1996
⁶Street Children, Phyllis Kilbourn, MARC Publications, 1997
⁷ibid.
⁸ibid.