The Plight of Street Children in Africa: “The Forgotten Tragedy”

The twenty-first century presents a hostile face to many millions of children in many African countries. An increasing number of children are being forced to the streets as result of poverty, abuse, torture, rape abandonment or orphaned by AIDS. Human rights violations against children today have become a common and disturbing occurrence in many African countries.

Hunger, poverty, violence and armed conflicts mean that millions of African children are fleeing - alone or with their families. War is raging in many countries of the African continent: millions of children are living in constant terror in the midst of terror and violence. In countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chad, Somalia, Sudan or south sudan child soldiers are still recruited.

I contend that the problem of street children remains a forgotten tragedy and is set to have a devastating impact on the development of African counties. My research indicates that the response to the problem has at best been muted and remains ignored or sidelined by the government and the general public.

Key players who are supposed to play a leading role in finding a solution to the problem have become the major source of the problem. Government policies that embrace liberalization and the free market economy are contributory factors to the persistent state of poverty and increased hardship with children being affected most.

Roughly ,there are over 35 million street children in Africa alone, although it is hard to get up to date statistics for street children, because, by their very nature they are elusive and different to collect data about. As such statistics for street children are often out of date, but they do show patterns. Here are some recent street children statistics:

A study in Ethiopia found that street children normally worked 2-3 hours a day on the streets both before and after school. Most children in Ethiopia start working the streets at around 10yrs old.

There are approximately one million children living on the streets of Cairo, although the impact of the recent revolution there is not yet known. 82% of these children cite abuse at home for their circumstances. 30% of these children reported that they took drugs to relieve pain, hunger and violence.

There are a reported third of a million children living on the streets of Kenya with girls often forced into prostitution earning just 30p for each client.

Over 95% of street children in Akwa Ibom State in Nigeria have been stigmatised as child witches and abandoned by their parents and forced to live on the streets.

In South Africa most street children are aged between 13-14yrs and state they end up on the streets because of family poverty, overcrowding, abuse, neglect, family disintegration and HIV/AIDS.

Particularly critical is the situation in Nigeria, Ethiopia and Niger. African kids work on plantations, in mines, quarries or factories. Often they are forced to prostitute themselves. Most child laborers are exploited and have no chance of attending school because they have neither the time nor the strength to learn.

Denial of basic human and legal rights including the right to life, liberty and security as a person to children are now a defining feature of the African socio-economic landscape. If one ever gets into the city centre at an early hour they are bound to be met by the sight of a group of children huddled in groups sleeping on cardboard boxes with large plastic bags covering their bodies for the provision of warmth. Those who are lucky and have met a donor or two have a blanket, but for the majority it is the cold hard floor of a shop entrance that serves as a bed every night of the year unless of course if they have been thrown into juvenile prison for one ‘misdemeanour’ or another.

It is hard to imagine for many in Africa, a life without any form of social safety net. There is no state provision for these children only non-government organizations who do what they can. If these children do not beg, steal or rob they would literally starve to death. They have no prospect of an education and so no prospect of a job or providing for any children they may have in the future. Unless people like yourself are prepared to help, these children will have no future.

A big issue with street children is that they have no identity, no formal education, no skill and no institutional support. They are very visible on the street but often ignored by their governments and rejected by the communities they live in. Streets do not provide any protection for such children. They are caught up in a vicious cycle of abuse, exploitation, mistreatment, violence, poverty and unemployment ending in a lifetime struggle.

 The struggle to survive and integrate has created instead of a group of needy children seeking help earnestly, a pack of hungry wolves willing to do anything to take care of each other and keep themselves fed. It is easy to see the children more as a nuisance but it is simply the effect of the marginalisation and abuse that is rampant on the streets and this same effect has led some of them to crime, taking into the consideration the gangs of street kids that for years ruled the city centre of Harare snatching everything from sunglasses to phones from pedestrians.

It is common place in most cities around Africa to see either a group of youth or one boy or girl roaming around asking for money, doing odd jobs, in a corner sniffing glue or getting harassed by the police or even another group of street children. They loiter around poorly dressed often barefoot looking sickly, they are seen yet unseen, pitied but alas poorly assisted and most of all struggling but unassisted.

Whether it is a bid to entertain themselves or an attempt to escape the day to day troubles of life on the street is unknown, but the majority if street kids around Africa and globally even are involved in drug abuse with glue marijuana and cigarettes being the ones in widest use. The immense use of drugs endangers these adolescents and leaves their health impaired. It is such a deep sited activity that most children after being taken from the streets have to undergo rehabilitative therapy to set aside the acquired taste.

The family, which is supposed to be the bedrock of children's welfare and protection, is today becoming a major cause of the problem of street children. Parents are sending their children into the streets to beg, steal or engage in petty trade, children are leaving their homes to escape domestic violence or because of the breaking up of family structures. Schools are turning into centers of violence and crime and creating an environment to puts more children on the streets. 

Furthermore, i contend that government policies directed by structural adjustment programmes are responsible for putting more and more children on to the streets as a result of increasing poverty instead of devising policies that will ensure the welfare of children and the society in general.

The general public pretends not to notice the plight of an increasing number of destitute children on our streets. There is at present no real alarm or outrage from the general public on the increasing number of children on our streets even though these children face starvation, are at the mercy of unscrupulous individuals and a brutal police force.

Numerous homes have been erected all around Africa in a gesture to show love for this group of society but the biggest thorn across all borders is the stigma that people have towards the scrawny unkempt children of the streets whose fate has been decided not by them but merely by chance, the only way to ever properly address the African street child is to be rid of the stigma and bring onto the stage governments with an agenda to develop Africa through its youth

Solutions

In this article, you will know the tips and common information about how to help street children as outlined below;
Street children’s problems

To reach out the problems of the street children and how to help street children who are facing a number of problems including protection, shelter, limited access to food and the education, we may go to them directly to know the intensity of their problems. We may not be able to help them out from getting them out of all their problems, but perhaps we can solve some of them.

Public awareness about how to help street children

Many of the public don’t even know about the street children. Awareness mean that the we can inform as more people as we can about the problems of the street children and what can we do to help street children. The increasing of the public awareness can be very helpful in this regard. We can state the people by telling the stories of different kinds of street children. By sharing the problems of the street children to those who even don’t know about the problems faced by the street children and what can we do to help street children. For this, we need to go to the door to door to make the people sure that they are ready to help out these children.

Development centers should be raised

Development places are the best organizations and the services for street children. If we want to help the street children, there is dire need to analyze the problems of these children and know the ways of how to help street children. Development centers help the street children at large scale as they know more about their problems and know the better solutions to their problems. These development centers may also help us to know about the reasons of street children and also let us know how to help street children. These development centers offer and provide the street children all the facilities that the common children enjoy at their homes. These centers never let the children feel that they are in the centers, not in their home. The teachers of these centers are often qualified and help the children and we also may get the key points of about how do to help street children.

The staff of these centers feels comfort to inform us the problems of these children and methods to help them in easy practice.   In spite, we know all the methods about what can we do to help street children, nevertheless, we cannot help them as the development centers help them as they have all the facilities and tools to care these children. The goal of the development centers in how to help street children for street children are to make them ready to take part in all the healthy activities of life.

The role of schools:

The role of education in how to help street children is always to create the big personalities for the country and the world. But the schools can also prepare the children so that the children may not resort to the negative activities such as drug addiction, especially for street children. Schools can teach the children and help the child to become an engineer, a doctor, or a pilot as the others normal children. If the school knows how to solve the problem of street children, it may solve them immediately.

The experienced and skilled qualified staff of the teachers at schools always knows the problems of the school children and we can have their help too to know all about the problems of the street children and ways how to solve the problem of street children. There are playgrounds for the children and the community to make them perfect. The schools can take these children to schools to decrease their number. In this way, they can decrease the number of schools children if they recognize how to solve the problem of street children as well as their interest of the children to leave their houses and go to the streets.

Volunteers work for the street children:

The public welfare free workers always exist to work in the favor for the street children as they are willing to know the problems and know the ways how to solve the problem of street children. They work for the public free of cost; therefore, it is very advisable to get their services for the street children to decrease the number. The increase in the number of volunteers may be very helpful in decreasing the number of street children. To know the ways how to solve the problem of street children, we must know the problem they are facing.

Every one of us can help the street children:

Every one of us can do something to decrease the number of street children. We can make them understand to prefer the house life than street life. How to solve the problem of street children is a topic that should be discussed widely and we need to provide financial support to these children to make big changes in their lives. There is another way to know how to solve the problem of street children; we can go through them to find out the actual reason of leaving them their houses. If they are forced, we need to find out the reasons.

Responses by governments:

No doubt, some governments have held programs to tackle with street children, the general solution of how to solve the problem of street children placing the street children into, juvenile homes, orphanages, or correctional institutions. Struggles have also been made by a number of governments to help or to support with semi-government services.

International organizations, charitable foundations and philanthropists should focus on this often “ignored” issue.  By developing new programs for the rehabilitation of street children and by supporting organizations that are already engaged in this worthwhile cause, we can transform millions of lives which otherwise would be at risk of being completely wasted.

The rehabilitation of street children is something that child focused organizations have also been trying to implement, and although results are often poor, progress is at times noted with some children turning from lives of crime and drug abuse and taking interest in technical work that the same organizations offer.

The general public, instead of, the organizations and the institutions that care street children, may also assist the street children and help the government to realize how to solve the problem of street children. The rehabilitation centers also play an important role in healing the street children and make them prepare to resort again to their home as the streets are not their home.

If you are interested in helping street and homeless children, you can volunteer to work in shelters and other programs in your area, or donate funds or supplies to organizations that work with street youth. You can also participate in legislative efforts and write letters to your area Representative urging him/her to support increased funding for programs in any of your country that assist street children.

 Finally, you can raise awareness of this issue by educating yourself, your peers, colleagues, students, teachers, family members, and others around you interested in this issue. #StandforStreetChild #Humanity #ChildRights #BetterLiving #HumanRights #ChildrenInNeed #Inclusivity #ChildDevelopment