Children Living or Working on the Street

Children living and working on the street are some of the most excluded and unprotected in the world. While some are homeless with their families, or return home at night after working on the street, many others are without parental care or a home and have no viable alternatives. This may be the result of family disintegration, conflict, poverty, HIV/AIDS, abuse or neglect. Life on the street exposes children to a myriad of risks and robs them of the safety and comfort that a family environment can offer.

Children living and working on the streets are highly vulnerable to abuse, exploitation, addictions, and crime, and lack access to everyday essential services such as health and education. Their situation is made more difficult as a result of social perceptions of street children. Street children are frequently targeted by the police, beaten, held and charged without due process. Government policies, institutions, and communities may exclude or marginalise children on the street, and deny their basic human rights.

Children living and working on the streets require legal protection by the state, recognition of their rights, and access to public services. Reception and drop- in centres can provide an entry point to basic services, including shelter, food and health provision, education, and income generation projects. While such initiatives can help to sustain children on the street and protect them from high risk behaviours, organisations working with vulnerable children need to work towards preventative measures to reduce the numbers of children who end up homeless. Prevention begins with an assessment of the causes of family separation, identification of those most at risk, and strategies to support family and community placements.

The opinions and preferences of children already on the street must form an integral part of any strategy since the empowerment of such children is necessary to effect change in their own lives. Community reintegration services should be established where possible to provide children with an alternative to street life. All placements, such as kinship or foster care, must be regulated to ensure that they meet the needs of children and are in their best interests.

The resources in this section provide statistical and country information on the situation of children living and working on the street, assessments of their needs, and intervention examples relating to support services, care planning, and access to health and education programmes.

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Institutionalised childhood and adolescence: Making serious Human Rights violations visible.

Matilde Luna - RELAF, 01 Aug 2011

This paper, produced by RELAF, is part of a series of publications on children without parental care in Latin America: Contexts, causes and answers. This document, and others in the series, pertains to the broad topic of children without parental care and examines the particular situation of institutionalised children.

State of the World's Street Children: Research

Consortium for Street Children , 08 Jul 2011

This report presents a unique Literature Review of international research studies about street children published during the decade from 2000 to 2010.

Joint statement by the Consortium for Street Children to the African Committee on the Rights and Welfare of the Child

Consortium for Street Children , 07 Jul 2011

Joint statement by the Consortium for Street Children to the African Committee on the Rights and Welfare of the Child on Day of African Child Theme: All Together for Street Children

Summary Report of the Fourth CSO Forum on the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC)

Fourth CSO Forum on the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, 13 May 2011

The following recommendations were made to the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in relation to children without appropriate care.

Including Street Children: A Situational Analysis of Street Children in Durban, South Africa

Street Action (Glynis Clacherty and Joe Walker), 27 Feb 2011

Street Action and the Centre of African Studies has launched Including Street Children: A situational Analysis of Street Children, the first report of its kind documenting the physical and psychosocial health of street children in Durban, South Africa.

Child Protection in the Philippines: A Situational Analysis

Save the Children , 2011

This situational analysis was commissioned by the Child Protection Initiative as a preliminary exercise to develop evidence-based recommendations to guide Save the Children in the Philippines to develop interventions. Priority areas are children in residential care, children in armed conflict and disasters, children in situations of migration (including for trafficking purposes), and children in exploitative and hazardous work conditions.

Census on Street Children in the Greater Accra Region, Ghana

Department of Social Welfare, Ricerca e Cooperazione, Catholic Action for Street Children, Street Girls Aid, 2011

The main objective of the Census was to create a database on Street Children that could be used as a platform to enable Government to design relevant policies and spearhead the delivery of services in partnership with NGOs, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), Community Based Organisations (CBOs), families, communities and other stakeholders, to prevent and/or greatly reduce the phenomenon of Street Children in Ghana.

Still on the street still short of rights: Analysis of policy and programmes related to street involved children

Dr. Patricia Ray, Corinne Davey, Paul Nolan, 2011

This report, commissioned by Plan International, and supported by Consortium for Street Children (CSC) through collaboration and information, and written by GCPS, provides an analysis of the situation of street involved children, how their issues are currently addressed within legislative and policy frameworks, and highlights programmatic initiatives being implemented by International and local NGOs. Its aim is to inform and provide suggestions for improved practice by NGOs working with street involved children.

Blame and Banishment: The Underground HIV Epidemic Affecting Children in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

UNICEF , 08 Jul 2010

An eye-opening analysis of the social, economic, political and family problems contributing to an overwhelming HIV epidemic that disproportionately affects young people, adolescents and children.

How is Street Life? An Examination of the Subjective Wellbeing of Street Children in China

International Social Work , 07 Jun 2010

The findings of the study underscore the impact of life on the streets on children’s overall subjective wellbeing and the importance of providing life necessities and psychological counseling to these children.

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