KIDPROJ UNICEF05
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From W.J.Parks@durham.ac.uk Mon Dec 20 03:17:33 1993
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WEEK 5: 'Street Kids'
Aim: to allow kids and adults to discuss the problems of homeless and
deprived children both in their local areas and abroad.
'In all the great towns and cities of the developing countries,
street childen are a common sight. They work, beg, steal, and
live in many cases, on the streets. Their numbers are greatest in
the huge fast growing cities of South America and Asia, but the
problem is increasingly reported from all continents... current
estimates put the world population of abandoned and street
children at between 100 and 200 MILLION.' (Stewart MacPherson
'Five Hundred Million Children', Wheatsheaf Books, Brighton,
1987).
'Street children exist in cities throughout the world. Go to any
main city and you will find them. Like tramps they sleep wrapped
up in newspapers, in alleyways, on rubbish tips or under motorway
bridges... They are the forgotten children of the world... Many
of them do not even officially exist, beginning life with no
birth certificate, and ending it prematurely in unmarked graves.'
(Roy Williams and UNICEF 'Children and World Development', Unicef
and Richmond Publishing Co., United Kingdom, 1987).
In the last lesson we discussed the issues of food and nutrition,
whilst the lesson before we talked about the ways children can be
abused, neglected and exploited. In this lesson we bring the two
previous lessons together to discuss the problems of child neglect and
exploitation and the need for many children to work in order to eat
and therefore survive. In this lesson we hope to generate an interest
in the lives of children in other parts of the world, and in other
cultures; to disseminate information on the phenomenon of street
children and explain the causes thereof; to encourage discussion on
children's rights; to foster understanding and a spirit of solidarity
for the problems of other children; to develop in children the ability
to perceive links between different phenomena; and to encourage
students to THINK "GLOBALLY" and ACT LOCALLY.
Send in your comments and discussions to
under the heading of '*UNICEF: Street Kids*'.
- - - - - - - -
(1) FAMILIES.
The majority of children are born into families and should have no
reason to question the role the family will play for the rest of their
lives. The family is the source of security and protection - moral,
emotional, physical, mental and social. But increasingly, and for a
variety of different reasons, children all over the world are being
faced with the fear of losing their family.
Ask your parents and teachers to help you construct your 'family tree'
for the last few generations.
Describe a recent family reunion - write about an occasion when the
whole family (or as many as possible) were together. What did you do?
How did you feel?
Which articles in the Convention refer to the child and the family?
Which Articles refer to what the Government should do to support
families in need?
How could you help a child (a classmate) who is alone? Do you know
someone who could take care of her/him?
Write a story about a situation in which you are really in need of
something. In which situations do you feel (or have you felt) in
danger? How do you feel when you are alone? How do your mother, your
father, your brothers and sisters help you when you are ill or need to
be comforted? How do you offer to help those close to you when one of
them needs to be comforted?
In the UK no child should become a street child. Children may be taken
into care, they may be fostered, or they may be adopted.
How important to you is having a home and somewhere comfortable to
live? Describe how you would feel and cope if you had to live away
from your family and without contact with your parents? Where would
you go and what would you do?
- - - - - - - -
(2) WHO ARE THE STREET CHILDREN?
"Street children" is a term which applies to millions of destitute
children who are on their own in large cities. This term, however,
does not take into account the differences between such children: they
are not all abandoned and not all of them actually live on the street.
So as to be in a position to help each child according to his or her
needs, UNICEF distinguishes between two different groups of children,
based on their family situation. The common characteristic of these
two groups is that they spend most of their lives in the street.
a. Children *ON* the street make up the largest group; these are
children who work and maintain fairly regular relations with
their family. They live with their families and even if they
spend some time away, they consider that they have a home.
b. Children *OF* the street constitute the second group. These
children consider the street their home. The street is where they
eat, sleep, play and make friends. They may have some contact
with several family members, but they never go back to their
parents. In some cases, they have been abandoned or driven away
by their family, while in other cases they themselves have
decided to leave for good. These children must provide for
themselves.
Children in both of the above categories have much in common: unstable
emotional relationships with the adult world, a negative self-image,
social stigma, violence, exploitation and uncertain futures.
Which services and persons take care of children who are alone or in
need in your country? Are there services in your area or city to help
children who are in trouble? Find out what these services do and what
problems they face.
It is rare that street children can afford leisure activities such as
going to see a movie, but when they do have a little time (and that's
not often) they enjoy playing games in the street.
Do you sometimes have to choose between your work (house and school)
and leisure? What do you do when you are not at school or have
finished your homework? What are your leisure activities? What are
those of your friends? Are you happy with your leisure activities?
Would you like to change anything? Why?
- - - - - - - -
(3) FOCUS ON BRAZIL: Urbanization.
The destruction of Amazon rainforests and the exploitation and
destruction of the indigenous people in Brazil is often in the news.
News of the poverty in the cities does not make the news so often.
Brazil, however, is one of the countries often used as an example to
illustrate the plight of poor and homeless children - the Street
Children. Latin America is emphasized because UNICEF's support for
programmes to assist street children began in Latin America, where the
problem is particularly critical because of the poor economic
situation and the rapid process of urbanization in which 70% of the
population has changed from rural to urban living in just 30 years.
Let us discuss the stories of 'Reinaldo', a ten year boy who lives and
works on the streets of a Brazilian city, and Margaret, a young girl
who was raised on the streets of Rio de Janeiro and had to look after
her younger sisters when her mother left them (story adapted from 'Who
are the street children?', Unicef 1990). But before we meet Reinaldo
and Margaret, let us consider some general questions:
In your country has the number of farmers increased or decreased
during the last 40 years? Why? Why are farmers moving from rural to
urban areas? How does rural flight affect village life? What image do
farmers usually have of city-dwellers? Does this image correspond to
reality? What image does one have of the countryside when one lives in
the city?
Why do you think people leave their homes in the countryside and move
to the cities? What problems do you think occur when many people come
to the cities and try to settle there? What happens to families when
they move to areas such as shanty-towns or 'favelas' (as they are
known in Brazil)?
- - - - - - - -
(4) FOCUS ON BRAZIL: The stories of Reinaldo and Margaret.
These are the real life stories of Reinaldo and Margaret. They are two
of some 8 million children who live on the city streets of Latin
America.
Decide what needs to be done to improve their situations:
What must the government do?
What could UNICEF and other Non-Government Organizations do?
What could children like Reinaldo and Margaret do for themselves?
What could local communities and leaders do to help?
Discuss what rights are being violated in their stories.
Discuss what rights street children in Brazil may consider the most
important, and how they might like the situation improved.
Reinaldo - the solidarity of the gang:
Reinaldo joined a street gang when he was 10. His father died
when he was four and his mother sent him to live with his
grandmother. Reinaldo was too much responsibility for the old
woman and she sent him back to his mother who then sent him to
some aunts, who beat him. When he took to the streets he found
the street children treated him well, much better than his aunts
or his mother.
Reinaldo says: "The strongest thing was the friendship, the
group. Nobody mistreated you, nobody beat you up, except the
police when they arrested you. I liked the drugs. We had to rob
to get them. We did pickpocketing and breaking into stores at
night. To me it was paradise. I didn't know the world."
Many cities are divided into areas under the control of different
gangs. Children who are members of a gang see life differently to
working children. They are looking for adventure and have a
strong group solidarity. They show new recruits how to survive.
Gangs beg and steal to survive. They have fun and freedom,
freedom to experiment with sex and drugs. The street adventure
needs the help of drugs to sustain it. The children say they
sniff glue because it makes them feel strong, daring and cunning.
They will take drugs to give them courage before they go out
bag-snatching or robbing. Glue also takes away cold and hunger
and makes them feel everything is fine.
But Reinaldo says: "Many of my friends have died - been shot, or
run over by cars. Others caught diseases on the streets. One is
disabled, some are in detention, others are totally useless for
life."
Many parents, and those who work to help street children by
running drop-in centres, see the gang as the enemy and a bad
influence.
Margaret - raised on the streets:
When Margaret was six she, her mother and her three sisters were
forced to live on the streets of Rio de Janeiro.
After her husband left home her mother had no way of supporting
her family of four girls. She and her girls sold sweets on the
streets. One day they failed to make enough money to pay the bus
fares back to their home so they were forced to sleep where they
were, on the streets. When they had finally made enough money to
return home they found the house had been broken into and another
family living there. After that they stayed on the streets.
Margaret's mother gave birth to another girl on the street. She
found it impossible to take proper care of herself and the baby
and went slightly crazy. She went off with the baby leaving
Margaret to take care of her three sisters.
Margaret describes street life as an environment of violence.
"Being hungry is violent, sleeping on the cold ground, prejudice
from society - there are many ways a child can be subjected to
violence. On the street I would approach a person to sell sweets
and they would spit at me. Not being able to fight back on the
street, that is violence. The fact that I am black made it
worse."
Fortunately, after several months Margaret's mother returned to
her family.
Margaret says, " I never became a street gril because my mother
was there. The best thing is to be next to your mother. We can be
hungry or cold but if we're near our mother we are protected.
Many children on the street don't even have mothers - their
mothers have died. They leave home to find a way to help a hungry
brother or sister. They try to get money in the street, and then
they become street kids."
Now read the what happened to Reinaldo and Margaret when they grew up.
How do these stories compare with the suggestions you made to help
them in their earlier lives above?
Reinaldo is now 18. Despite his words of praise for the
solidarity of the gang Reinaldo did not have an easy life on the
streets. He took a lot of drugs and was often arrested and beaten
up by the police. The turning point for Reinaldo was the help he
received as the attitudes towards street children changed. An old
institution for children became an open-access centre which
encouraged street children to drop-in and talk to street
educators. The street educators understood his problems and
helped him get off drugs. When he said he wanted to go to school
they found him a school. Later they found him a job in a bakery.
One of the advantages of the centre for Reinaldo is that it has
helped him make progress while staying close to the people he
values most: the other adolescents - his 'colleagues'. "We
discuss everything together. I lived on the street for so long
that these people are my brothers and family." He now works for a
street children's organisation, helping to organise a massive
celebration in the stadium for all children, not only street
children. They plan to inform all children about the new Child
and Adolsecent Statute. Reinaldo now says, "My experience on the
street was one I don't wish for any child. I didn't know that
before, but know I know."
At the age of 12, after six years on the streets with her
sisters, Margaret learned about a street programme run by the
Catholic Church. "I discovered there was a group which gave lunch
at the cathedral. Then I started to get along with the people
there. They decided to put me in the course of preparation for
the working world. I wanted to be helped. I struggled to win
their attention and assistance. On the streets there was nothing
nice. I only got to know what was nice when I got to know the
programme." After a couple of years Margaret was spending very
little time on the streets and she wanted to be able to get her
younger sisters off the streets. The work preparation course is
training her to work with street children, as a Street Educator.
Street educators have usually been street children themselves.
They are attached to programmes designed to help street children
and they spend a lot of time on the streets earning the trust of
street children, and advising them of places where they can go
for help and refuge. When young people come to a drop-in centre
there are often facilities where they can wash, get a good meal,
play and talk to people who want to help them. Margaret has been
helped to find a house in a favela where she lives with her
mother and sisters. Her mother and sisters still have to spend
some of their time selling sweets but now they have a home again
and Margaret can ensure that her sisters also go to school.
- - - - - - - -
(5) STREET CHILDREN - SUMMARY.
Carefully read the text of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child
(see UNICEF: Convention Lesson Plan 1) and try to apply it the
situation of 'street children'. Which rights are not met?
What similarities are there between the life of the street child and
your life? What differences are there?
To whom do you go for help when you feel sad? In your opinion, to whom
does the street child turn for help?
Which situations are dangerous for street children?
According to the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, children must
"grow up in an atmosphere of affection and moral and material
security". In your opinion, what does that mean? What action would you
suggest, as a child, so that this hope could come true for more
children throughout the world?
- - - - - - - -
(6) COMMUNITY ACTION.
Carry out a small survey in your neighbourhood or village on the
status of children. Find out whether there are homeless children or
children working instead of being at school. Find out which local
organizations help homeless children in your locality or in your
country. Ask people who work in these organizations about some of the
problems they and the children they help confront everyday. Contact a
local newspaper and write an article about 'Street Kids' in your area
or country.
See if you can raise some money e.g. charitable work, or prepare and
organize a street theatre show or display that encourages people to
think about the plight of homeless children in your country and
overseas. Send any money you raise to a local children's home or
drop-in centre.
Remember: THINK GLOBAL, ACT LOCAL.
And thank you.
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