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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Parenting interventions in shelter settings: a qualitative systematic review of the literature

Mary E. Haskett, Jessica Loehman and Kimberly Burkhart -- Child and Family Social Work, 11 Mar 2014

The aim of this literature review was to critique the state of the research on the effects of implementing parenting programmes in shelters for homeless families. A comprehensive search of multiple databases yielded 12 studies for inclusion.

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La Prise en Charge des Enfants de la Rue au Burundi

Pascal MUKENE, Rodolphe BARANYIZIGIYE, Enoce RURATEBUKA, Philippe NSHIMIRIMANA - RÉPUBLIQUE DU BURUNDI, 01 Feb 2014

Ce rapport documente la situation des enfants des rues au Burundi, y compris les facteurs qui les poussent dans les rues, et analyse les initiatives nationales cadres et gouvernementales législatives en place pour soutenir leurs soins et de protec

État des Lieux de la Formation de la Police et de la Magistrature aux Droits de L’Efant et à la Justice pour Mineurs au Burundi

Bureau International des Droits des Enfants, 01 Feb 2014

Ce rapport documente une initiative visant à assurer la sécurité et la justice au Burundi acteurs de la protection des enfants et la formation aux droits de l'enfant, dans le cadre d'un projet régional plus large.

Country Care Review: Congo

Better Care Network, 30 Jan 2014

This country care review includes the care related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child as part of its examination of the combined second to fourth periodic report of the Congo under Convention on the Rights of the Child at its sixty-fifth Session (13 Jan 2014 - 31 Jan 2014).

Models of care for orphaned and separated children and upholding children’s rights: cross-sectional evidence from western Kenya

Lonnie Embleton, David Ayuku, Allan Kamanda, Lukoye Atwoli, Samuel Ayaya, Rachel Vreeman, Winstone Nyandiko, Peter Gisore, Julius Koech and Paula Braitstein, 2014

The authors of this article applied a human rights framework using the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child to understand what extent children’s basic human rights were being upheld in institutional vs. community- or family-based care settings in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya.

The African Report on Violence Against Children

The African Child Policy Forum , 2014

This report, from the African Child Policy Forum, is aimed at informing and accelerating pan-African, regional and national efforts to prevent and respond to violence against children.

Child Welfare Policies, Services And Their Aptitude For Care And Protection Of Vulnerable Children And Their Families

Project EDU-CARE, Department of Social Work at St. Xavier's College, 2014

The Technical Team under the Project “EDU-CARE: Social Operators Active in the Protection of the Children and in the Promotion of the Children’s Rights in Nepal” reports on the child care practices, policies, and programs currently in effect in the country.

Strategies to Ensure Sustainable Reintegration of Children Without Parental Care

Dr Anita Schrader McMillan - JUCONI, with support from Family for Every Child , 2014

This paper reports on the Mexican arm of Family for Every Child’s three-country study on strategies to ensure the sustainable reintegration of children without parental care.

Reaching for Home: Global learning on family reintegration in low and lower-middle income countries

Joanna Wedge, Abby Krumholz and Lindsay Jones, 28 Oct 2013

This inter-agency, desk-based research aims to arrive at a clearer understanding of reintegration practices for separated children in low and lower-middle income countries. The research pulls together learning from practitioners and academics working with a range of separated children, such as those torn from their families by emergencies, children who have been trafficked or migrated for work, and children living in institutions or on the streets.

The Dangers of Voluntourism: When Good Intentions Are Not Enough

Tania DoCarmo, Charlie Smith-Brake, and Julia Smith-Brake, Prism Magazine, 15 Oct 2013

In this article for Prism Magazine, a publication of Evangelicals for Social Action, the authors ask challenging questions about the role of 'orphanage tourism', where Westerners visit or volunteer to work at a residential care center (orphanage) in the developing world, whether the trip is arranged by a tour or travel company, a nonprofit, or by a church.