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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Kick4Life Changing Lives

Kick4Life, 02 Sep 2016

A PSA produced by Hillside Digital Trust about Kick4Life's work in supporting vulnerable children in Lesotho

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Outreach Work: Child Sexual Exploitation - A Rapid Evidence Assessment

Silvie Bovarnick, Di McNeish and Jenny Pearce , 01 Sep 2016

This briefing is based on a rapid review of the available literature on outreach work with children and young people. It is intended to provide the ReachOut project with an overview of different approaches to outreach; what it generally aims to achieve; what distinguishes it from centre-based work and how it is applicable to children and young people involved in, or at risk of, child sexual exploitation.

Thinking About Street Children and Orphans in Africa: Beyond Survival

Michael Bourdillon -- Chapter ‘Children Out of Place’ and Human Rights, Volume 15 of the series Children’s Well-Being: Indicators and Research pp 51-62, 13 Aug 2016

This chapter of the Children’s Well-Being: Indicators and Research discusses the dangers of using categories in child welfare.

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Retrak reintegration locations 2015

Retrak, 01 Aug 2016

Each year Retrak maps the locations of family reintegration placements and tracks trends in locations over time. They have used this information to help them understand the geographic spread of children coming to the streets and to target prevention programmes on ‘’hotspots’’- places from which many children migrate to the streets.

Child-street migration among HIV-affected families in Kenya: a mediation analysis from crosssectional data

Michael L. Goodman, Miriam S. Mutambudzi, Stanley Gitari, Philip H. Keiser & Sarah E. Seidel - AIDS Care, 08 Jul 2016

In this study, the researchers analyze how HIV contributes to the phenomenon of child-street migration in Kenya.

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Innocenti Adolescence Research Digest: Issue 2

Innocenti, 01 Jul 2016

This issue of Innocenti's Adolescence Research Digest includes recent news, events, and other updates as well as links to some of the latest research on adolescents and violence, health, education, street-connected youth and more.

Burundi-Société : La mendicité est un phénomène qui prend de l’ampleur dans la ville de Bujumbura

Government of Burundi, 09 Jun 2016

Cet article donne un bref aperçu de la question des mendiants et des enfants de la rue dans la ville de Bujumbura, au Burundi.

Article

Experiencing emotional and psychosocial support during preparation for re-integration: A study of street children under the care of Retrak Uganda

Paria Eslaminejad - Makerere University, 01 Jun 2016

This thesis investigates children’s experience of psychosocial and emotional support of (nonparental) caregivers in residential facilities in preparation for their re-integration into family based care.

Orphanhood and mistreatment drive children to leave home – A study from early AIDS-affected Kagera region, Tanzania

Jeanette Olsson, Staffan Höjer, Lennarth Nyström, Maria Emmelin - International Social Work, 31 May 2016

The aim of this mixed-method study was to explore the trajectories of leaving home, and views and experiences among children and youth in the Kagera region in Tanzania, who have lived on the streets or been domestic workers.

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Using Child Well-Being Assessments to Track Progress in Family-Based Reintegration

Su Lyn Corcoran, Joanna Wakia - Global Social Welfare, 16 Apr 2016

This paper reflects upon lessons learned by Retrak and explores the challenges and the benefits of developing a body of evidence on reintegration good practice.

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