Street Kids

2008-10-03T09:08:00.001-07:00

2008-10-01T09:19:00.000-07:00

Andando pelas ruas
Eu vejo algo mais do que arranha-céus
É a fome e a miséria
Dos verdadeiros filhos de Deus

Vejo almas presas chorando em meio a dor
Dor de espírito clamando por amor

Anjos das ruas
Anjos que não podem voar
Pra fugir do abandono
E um futuro poder encontrar

Anjos das ruas
Anjos que não podem sonhar
Pois a calçada é um berço
Onde não sabem se vão acordar

Às vezes se esquece que são seres humanos
Com um coração sedento pra amar
Vendendo seus corpos por poucos trocados
Sem medo da morte o relento é seu lar
Choros, rangidos, almas pra salvar

2008-09-30T10:06:00.000-07:00

Street kids Poetry

Anne lives at the moment in Pendekezo Letu Center in Nairobi, Kenya. Her family lives in Mathare, the biggest slum in Kenya. Anne's mother and father have six children, and they all live in one room. Their father works as a watchman and their mother sells food that she prepares herself. The family arrived in the city from the countryside. Anne s father is an alcoholic.Anne herself has worked since her early childhood days. She is very intelligent and has a talent for poems.

Just because I'm a street girl
I have something to say,But I'm a street girl and nobody cares.
I have a point to make,But nobody listens.
If a child lives with hostility,
She learns to fight.
If a child lives with encouragement,
She learns confidence.
If a child lives with praise and friendship,
She learns to find love in the world.
But I look around and ask myself
''Where is my helper?"
Just because I'm a street girl nobody cares.
I beseech you be merciful to street children
And come to their aid.
They need food, clothing and education,But most of all they need love.

2008-09-30T10:02:00.000-07:00

How can we help?

Today's youth will become the largest generation to enter adulthood. By 2025, six out of ten urban dwellers are expected to be under 18 years of age. Ignoring the rights of street children threatens human development around the world.Street children deserve respect. They are valuable members of society. Some street children run thriving businesses, supporting themselves, their families, and other children. We must hear their voices, listen to their stories, and learn from them. We need to recognize that children and youth are full of imagination, desires, and hopes and that they must be involved in decisions that affect their lives.They need access to counselling, information, knowledge, skills, and a supportive community to protect themselves from harm, help them move off the street, and take back control of their future. They also need better access to health and safety services, medical care, legal aid, food and business training so they can develop safe and more profitable ways of earning money.

These children are not just victims, they are survivors. They often show incredible resilience in overcoming or living in the midst of adversity. They have developed coping mechanisms for caring for themselves, and for friends or family members. These children are active participants in their families, workplaces, and communities. But, without improved protection and promotion of their rights together with increased opportunities, many of these children are likely to remain marginalized throughout their childhood and into adulthood.

2008-09-30T09:40:00.000-07:00

Two Reasons to children is living on the street

Social and Emotional Reasons
Children and juveniles who suffer from violence in the family and a lack of attention and don't want to stay with their families any longer prefer to live in the streets.

Economic Reasons
Poverty in the family is a central reason why children start living in the streets. In many countries the high debts of the state, unjust economic policies, corruption and low prices on the world market for export goods contribute to the impoverishment of the masses. Children are the weakest members of society and are hit the hardest.

2008-09-28T12:03:00.000-07:00

Death squads

Most of Brazil's street children expect to be killed before they are eighteen. Between four and five adolescents are murdered daily and that every 12 minutes a child is beaten. Conservative figures put the number at two killings every day.
There are reports that some children have been executed or mutilated. In July 1993, eight children and adolescents were killed in a shooting near the Candelária Church in Rio. This event was widely published around the world, and the routine killing of street children in Brazil was harshly criticised. As a result, the death squads moved underground. However, corrupt officials are still reputed to be involved - In São Paulo, 20% of homicides committed by the police were against minors in the first months of 1999.

2008-09-28T11:31:00.000-07:00

Street children in Brazil

Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world with a population of approximately 190 million people. The disparity between the rich and the poor in Brazilian society is one of the largest. The richest 1% of Brazil's population control 50% of its income. The poorest 50% of society live on just 10% of the country's wealth.
Street children are an urban problem which has roots in rural poverty, neglect and the enforced, even violent displacement of large numbers of people from the land.
This problem is accentuated by the fact that the urban population is becoming younger. In Latin America alone, projections for the year 2020 point to 300 million urban minors, 30% of whom will be extremely poor [Ref: Independent Commission on International Issues]. 78% of the Brazilian population live in cities and towns.
The persistent poverty, rapid industrialisation and the burgeoning of urban shanty towns, generate massive social and economic upheaval. Profound poverty means family disintegration, violence and break-up become more prevalent

2008-09-21T09:20:00.000-07:00

How many are there?

The global figure for children living and working on the world's city streets is likely well over 100 million children. And that number rises every day. About 40 percent of them are homeless. These children may support only themselves or their homeless families. The other 60 percent work on the streets to support their families, but have a home to return to. These young people range in age from three to eighteen. Most of them are in developing countries. Street children are mainly boys, but the number of girls is increasing.

Distribution

Street children may be found on every continent in a large majority of the world's cities. The following estimates indicate the global extent of street child populations.

*Kenya 250,000 - 300,000
*Egypt 200,000 - 1 million
*Morocco 30,000
*India 11 million
*Vietnam 23,000
*Mongolia 3700 - 4000
*Philippines 200,000
*Brazil 1 - 10 million (conflicting estimates)
*Uruguay 3000
*Jamaica 6,500
*Russia 1 - 3 million

Gender

Although there are variations from country to country, 70% or more of street children are boys.

2008-09-17T08:26:00.000-07:00

STREET KIDS

Who are they?

Street children describes children who live or work on the streets. Some of these children live with their families (who are also living on the streets).Most children on the streets are between the ages of 10 and 14 years old.Other street children live and work on the streets but do not live with their families.The term can also include child labourers, sexually-exploited children, and war-affected children,who may also be forced to live or work on the street.The children's relationship to the street varies.Some live and work with their parents on the streets. Some return home at night,but work independently during the day.Others maintain their family contacts, but are forced to spend most of their time on the streets and return home once in a while to spend a night with their family.Still others sleep and live entirely on the streets of the big cities without any family contact at all: often they have left home due to abuse.They sleep in abandoned buildings,under bridges,in doorways,or in public parks.

Street Kids are defines in two main categories:

Children on the street are those engaged in some kind of economic activity ranging from begging to vending.Most go home at the end of the day and contribute their earnings to their family.They may be attending school and retain a sense of belonging to a family. Because of the economic fragility of the family,these children may eventually opt for a permanent life on the streets.
Children of the street actually live on the street (or outside of a normal family environment).Family ties may exist but are tenuous and are maintained only casually or occasionally

Street children exist in many major cities,especially in developing countries and may be the subject of abuse,neglect,exploitation or even in extreme cases murder by "clean up squads" hired by local businesses.

In Latin America, a common cause is abandonment by poor families unable to feed all their children. In Africa an increasingly common cause is AIDS.