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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Preparing street connected children for foster care

Better Care Network & Child's i Foundation, 09 Oct 2017

In this video, Dinah Mwesigye, a social worker at Retrak in Kampala, Uganda, describes Retrak’s work with street-connected children to prepare them for foster care.

Uganda Practitioner Learning Video Series

Better Care Network & Child's i Foundation, 01 Oct 2017

This video series from Better Care Network, in partnership with Child's i Foundation, highlights promising practices in children's care in Uganda.

Pretesting a Human Trafficking Screening Tool in the Child Welfare and Runaway and Homeless Youth Systems

Urban Institute under contract to the U.S. Administration for Children and Families, 01 Oct 2017

Aiming to assist providers to identify and better serve the needs of youth victims of human trafficking, this study developed and pretested a Human Trafficking Screening Tool used to identify youth in the child welfare system and runaway and homeless youth who have experiences of trafficking,

Child Welfare and Youth Homelessness in Canada: A Proposal for Action

Naomi Nichols; Kaitlin Schwan; Stephen Gaetz; Melanie Redman; David French; Sean A. Kidd; Bill O'Grady - Canadian Observatory on Homelessness Press, 09 Aug 2017

A recent Canadian study on youth homelessness revealed that youth experiencing homelessness are 193 times more likely to report interactions with the child welfare system. This policy brief offers a snapshot of the situation for homeless youth with experience in care, an analysis of the structures and systems leaving these children behind, and recommendations for policy and practice.

Street children, integrated education and violence in northern Nigeria

Chidi Ezegwu, Adewole O. Adedokun, Chioma Ezegwu - Education and Extremisms: Rethinking Liberal Pedagogies in the Contemporary World, 09 Aug 2017

This chapter explores how the failing system of traditional almajiri education, challenges associated with government efforts to integrate almajiri education into the formal school system, social exclusion and hostility contribute to increase the boys’ vulnerability to radicalisation and recruitment by Boko Haram.

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Child Abuse and Neglect in Charitable Children’s Institutions in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya: A Challenge of Context

Paula Braitstein, Samuel Ayaya, David Ayuku, Allison DeLong, and Lukoye Atwoli - Child Maltreatment in Residential Care, 03 Aug 2017

This study investigated the incidence of maltreatment experienced by children living outside parental care, comparing the prevalence of abuse between children living with extended family, children living in institutional care, and children living or working on the street.

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Country Care Review: Mongolia

Better Care Network, 12 Jul 2017

This country care review includes the care-related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child during the seventy-fifth session (15 May 2017 - 2 Jun 2017) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Country Care Review: Cameroon

Better Care Network, 06 Jul 2017

Country Care Review: Lebanon

Better Care Network , 22 Jun 2017

UN CRC General Comment No. 21 (2017) on children in street situations

Committee on the Rights of the Child, United Nations, 21 Jun 2017

General Comment 21, issued by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, provides guidance to States on developing comprehensive, long-term national strategies on children in street situations, utilizing a child rights approach and addressing both prevention and response in line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child.