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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Guidelines for the Design of Centres for Street Children

Barbara Brink, UNESCO, 1997

Ideas and country examples on how to create or transform an educational centre for children living and working on the street.

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Listening to Girls on the Street Tell Their Own Story

Apt, N.A. and M. Grieco - RESPONSE and UNICEF, Social Administration, Centre for Policy Studies, University of Ghana, 01 Apr 1995

The sections featured in this report provide case studies of 25 street girls and discussion and conclusions based on these case studies.

Street Children in Accra: A Survey Report

Nana Apt Van Ham; E. Q., Blavo; S. K. Opoku - Department of Sociology, University of Ghana for the Department of Social Welfare and Save the Children Fund (UK), 01 Apr 1995

The chapters featured in this report offer a prognosis on the future of street children and offers recommendations to government and non-governmental bodies on how to help these children.