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| Tuesday, 14 September 2004 |
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Now, there is hope for street children
These 150 children have been selected from the plantation sector, coastal areas and Kataragama, Ratnapura and Colombo, which has the highest number of children living on the streets. Those between the ages of 10 and above will go to a learning centre managed by the non-formal unit that will impart literacy skills, life skills and basic vocational skills.
Street children constitute a marginalized group in most societies. They do not have what society considers appropriate relationships with major institutions of childhood such as family, education and health. The continuous exposure to harsh environments and the nature of their lifestyles make them vulnerable to substance use and this threatens their mental, physical, social and spiritual well-being. In a constant struggle to live, these children have to use any and whatever means possible to survive: searching garbage dumps, begging or stealing; and of course, avoiding all the multiple dangers: threats from the older children, rejection from society, rape, sickness, drugs, prostitution. They do not even have an inclination to think about their futures. Their day starts on the streets and ends on the same street. Hunger, unemployment, homelessness and lack of schooling characterize the lives of people who live here - symptoms of an economic violence which last year saw industrialized countries take 43 billion dollars in profit from poor nations. The health, welfare, education and incomes of the poorest are the first things to be cut. The weakest suffer first - and they are the children. Rescue operations Timothy Cruz, a sociologist, says "All over the Third World you see child victims of economic violence: the abandoned, the runaways, street children, child prostitutes, child labourers and criminalized children. In Brazil alone they are equivalent to half the population of the UK. And scattered around the world are many attempts to help. I visited one in India: a residential programme for street children in Bombay. Here I met 12 young men who had been given an education and taught occupational skills. But the approach had not been successful: only one youth had found employment". "One youth, Srinivas, complained: 'In the home we were safe. We learned skills. But we didn't learn how to survive in the world. I am exactly where I was on the day I left street life'. He had lost the opportunistic sharpness of the street survivor whilst acquiring unrealizable aspirations and impractical skills. Such 'rescue' programmes are limited, often confused, acts of power by individuals who wish to exercise benevolence in a social structure that is not benevolent. Rescuing children involves removing them to a safer place, invariably higher up the ladder of economic domination. These programmes are the stuff of traditional charities. Not only do they fail to address the causes of deprivation but at some point - usually sooner than later - their power to intervene and their knowledge about how to do so effectively runs out. When their benefactor's power reaches its limits, their proteges return to the mercies of the real world. The poor do not want charity from the rich. They want real power over their own lives. I once asked a mother of three young children who labour as domestic workers how she would change her children's lives if she could: 'Why ask me stupid questions?' she replied, 'If I had power, none of my children would be working'. Brazil experience Some time ago, Brazil initiated a project that genuinely does help street children. And it was situated right where it was needed - in a desolate suburb of Santo Paulo two hours from the city-centre. This was a bleak place of plain concrete structures and dusty roads. Accommodation was rented not just by the week but for fractions of a day: a street educator was told of one family who, in order to sleep, rented a room for just three hours a day. There were no facilities for children, and many had no access to schooling. Often they had to steal or prostitute themselves for money. The new initiative differed from rescue programmes in not seeing children as the problem. Inspired by the work of Brazilian educationalist Paulo Freire, 'street educators' worked in the most deprived city areas to empower children by helping them discover their own worth, and to value each other. The educators worked particularly with children who were embarking on lives of crime, because not only were these children generally more adventurous and intelligent than those who accepted slave-like labour - they were also in the greatest danger. The educators lived in or near the slums where they worked, establishing themselves as a reliable adult presence. Their role was to help children understand the consequences of their actions and to take responsibility for themselves. Street educators encouraged the children to establish properly constituted Associations of Street Boys and Girls and hold regular meetings at which problems were identified and courses of action decided upon. Most of these children had no conventional education and so they took their own history, their cultural roots and their slum environment as the subject of study. As they were encouraged to talk about and reflect on their lives, disdain for their area gave way to understanding and identification: 'Most of all I would like to be a doctor,' said a seemingly tough 14 year-old. 'If anything happens round here I'd like to help. I would be right on the spot.' What really convinced the analysts was the mutual respect and trust between street children and educators. One educator asked one group of children what it would be like if there was no Association of Street Girls and Boys: 'We would either be arrested, or stealing everywhere', said one. 'We would be in bad shape,' said another, 'We would be ripping off everything we could'. Advice In its document titled 'Working with Street Children' WHO says: 'To teach effectively, you need to understand some concepts that are important for planning, developing and implementing teaching sessions. In terms of street education, they can be defined as follows: (1) Learning is a process by which a child's behaviour is changed as a result of experience, usually on a long-term basis. Learning entails acquiring appropriate knowledge, skills and attitudes. (2) Learning objectives are statements, which describe what the street child should know, being able to do, and how he should feel about issues at the end of a course or session. (3) Education refers to learning experiences, which are intended to broaden the street child's knowledge and give him/her a stronger base for future learning. (4) Training is a procedure, which is intended to foster and enhance learning and build upon the knowledge, skills, attitudes and competencies that the street child obtains through education. A child who grows up without education will have little chance to improve himself in the future and will offer nothing to benefit the development of his community. In addition to this, it's often the case that these children then fall into a life on the streets with all the problems of drugs and prostitution that this habitually entails. Let us hope that the Government's project will develop itself to convert the street children into students and eventually we can break the cycle and in turn give the future generation a better start. |
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Produced by Lake House |
A Presidential Scholarship to help educate parentless street children
was officially launched by President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga
last Wednesday. The scholarship scheme will help 150 street children to
have education and shelter.
