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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Prevalence, incidence and chronicity of child abuse among orphaned, separated, and street-connected children and adolescents in western Kenya: What is the impact of care environment?

Samuel Ayaya, Allison DeLong, Lonnie Embleton, David Ayuku, Edwin Sang, Joseph Hogan, Allan Kamanda, Lukoye Atwoli, Dominic Makori, Mary A. Ott, Caroline Ombok, Paula Braitstein - Child Abuse & Neglect, 21 Jan 2021

The two primary objectives of this study were 1) to compare recent child abuse (physical, emotional, and sexual) between orphaned and separated children and adolescents’ (OSCA) living in institutional environments and those in family-based care; and 2) to understand how recent child abuse among street-connected children and youth compared to these other vulnerable youth populations.

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Global Report on Trafficking in Persons

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), 2021

This report draws on data from 148 countries and explores issues of particular relevance in the current crisis, including the impact of socio-economic factors, drivers of child trafficking and trafficking for forced labour, and traffickers’ use of the internet.

Webinar Recording: Integration and Reintegration of Children on the Move

Family for Every Child, 25 Nov 2020

This webinar heard from three of Family for Every Child's member organisations about their programmes to both integrate and reintegrate children on the move.

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Protected! Podcast Episode 10: Supporting Children on the Street During Lockdown

The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, 14 Oct 2020

In this podcast episode, Pramila Manandhar, media officer for CWIN in Nepal, shares her experiences in supporting children living and working on the street during lockdown.

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Characterizing street-connected children and youths’ social and health inequities in Kenya: a qualitative study

L. Embleton, P. Shah, A. Gayapersad, R. Kiptui, D. Ayuku & P. Braitstein - International Journal for Equity in Health, 28 Aug 2020

This study sought to identify and understand how street-connected children and youth (SCY)’s social and health inequities in Kenya are produced, maintained, and shaped by structural and social determinants of health using the WHO conceptual framework on social determinants of health (SDH) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) General Comment no. 17.

Webinar Recording: Care Implications of COVID-19 on Street-Connected Children

Better Care Network and Consortium for Street Children, 07 Jul 2020

In this webinar hosted by Better Care Network and the Consortium for Street Children, speakers from three NGOs presented on and discussed the care implications of COVID-19 and responses to the pandemic on street-affected children.

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Coronavirus (COVID-19) Guidance for Street Workers

StreetInvest, 30 Mar 2020

This guidance for street work during the Covid-19 crisis includes both practical guidance and advocacy messages and resources to support Street Work during this worrying time.

An Integrated Digital Platform for Bridging Gaps between General Public, Donors, and Social Welfare Organizations Working for Street Children in Bangladesh

Alvi Md Ishmam, Md Raihan Mia, Sharmin Akhter Purabi, Rayhan Rashed, Sriram Chellappan, A.B.M Alim Al Islam, 01 Mar 2020

In this study conducted over a couple of years, the authors design and develop a digital hub deployed to serve children living on the streets in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.

Consortium for Street Children COVID-19 Resource Page

Consortium for Street Children, 2020

This page from the Consortium for Street Children website explores how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting street-connected children and features documents from the Consortium, including explanatory notes on COVID-19 and street-connected children’s rights, and other resources.

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Psychological Capital Development in Street Children through Education at Child Protection & Welfare Bureau, Lahore

Nauman A. Abdullah, Amtul Javaid, Sonia Omar - Journal of Elementary Education, 2020

The present research study was aimed at exploring the Psychological Capital Development in Street Children through Education at Child Protection and Welfare Bureau, Lahore.

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