Children

Photo by Travel Blogs

The problem of homelessness, poverty and street children faces every country and should concern us all. The United Nations estimates that their are over 150 million street children world wide. Whether the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Mumbai, Free Town, Bucharest or New York, the problems children face on the street are much the same. Hunger and safety are endless concerns, while drug and alcohol abuse run rampant. Street children are highly susceptible to become victims of abuse or human trafficking. Therefore street children run high risk of drug and alcohol abuse, contacting sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS.

Street children run a huge risk of exploitation by those on the street, including each other, as well as that of the local law enforcements designed to serve and protect. Children on the street face more violence from the authorities, than that of other children, a factor that can often result in death. It was shown in studies by Human Rights Watch, that children where treated as second class or subhuman in many cases, beatings where often the result of nothing more than the fact they where unprotected street kids. Sexual exploitation and abuse by law enforcement has also been a factor for many children on the street, often asked to preform sex acts to escape arrest or harassment. Street children are easy targets for many factors including, innocence, illiteracy, and the sear fact that they are alone. So why are the police committing crimes against vulnerable children in so many cities around the world? “Several factors contribute to this phenomenon: police perceptions of street children as vagrants and criminals, widespread corruption and a culture of police violence, the inadequacy and non-implementation of legal safeguards, and the level of impunity that officials enjoy. (Police Violence Against Street Children).”

While much of life on the street for children is the same, there are various causes leading to a life on the street. Children find them selfs on the street for such indicators such as poverty, domestic violence, rural-to-urban migration (this often includes displacement due to war or civil unrest), unemployment and homelessness of their parents, intolerance (for various reasons including sexual orientation), and sexual exploitation. The marginalization of street children, is often increased due to the above mentioned reasons, as well as by extreme socio-economic barriers and situations.

Brazil by far has the highest number of street children, some estimate the numbers between 12-17 million, becoming more of a social plague that many see little hope of changing. The movie City of God graphically highlighted the violent struggle of everyday life for kids on the streets in the in Rio de Janeiro, and follows the journey of on boy fighting to escape the streets through a camera, not a gun. The extremity of street children in Brazil was changed little by the international publicity of the movie. Millions of children roam the streets of the Rio slums daily, addicted to drugs, forced into prostitution, in fear of death and each other. Brazil is not a legally backwards country with no legislation for the protection of it’s children, as a matter of fact they have one of the best movements for the rights of street children. Therefore why are children continually murdered on the streets, and why does the cycle of the streets seem to be something that is unbreakable? Death Squads are notorious in Brazil targeting street children, and are often made up of ordinary citizens who fear the children, and corrupt officials who fear the children know too much. According to Caius Brandao, ICRI Brazil Project Coordinator, “…killing children is a profitable ‘pastime’ in Brazil. The so called ‘cycle of impunity’ means not only neglect or omission, but a rather profitable corruption scheme within public security and law-enforcement agencies.” There are an estimated 4-5 children murrdered each day on the streets, and few children of the streets can expect to live past their 18th Birthdays.

Photo by Polaris Images

In India the problem with street children Children in India are often victims of the flesh trade and forced labor, rural children. Children are often picked up from the areas surrounding the cities train stations ,and lured by promises of a reliable income to send home to their families. As with other areas children often run away to escape poverty, abuse and sexual exploitation. Though India has substantial laws against the use of child labor, they are often disregarded through corruption, difficulties in enforcing it in the rural parts of the country, or a lack of education on individual human rights.
The plight of street children in Bucharest, Romania was brought to light with the 2003 CNN documentary, “Easy Prey: Inside the Child Sex Trade”. In the wake of a communist free Romania, social reform and welfare where left in the shadows, along with thousands of children. Many children where driven to the streets from abusive homes, turned away from orphanages, families with no money to feed children, or sadly many where simply abandoned or unwanted by families. During communism birth control and abortions where rare and hard to come by, causing the birth rate to skyrocket, and thus increasing the number of abandoned children. Like many former-Communist countries, the situation of the orphanages is extremely harsh, leaving children even more vulnerable, and they are turned away at 15-18 with little or no skills for life outside and therefore soon find themselves on the streets.

Millions of children in Russia, Mongolia, Kenya, Moldova, Congo, Mexico, Tanzania, Guatemala, and many other countries, including the United States, live impoverished and violent lives on the street every day. The issue of street children needs more attentions, as the street is a breading ground for so many children’s rights violations, including the right to education and the right to life. The fight for street children must come from all levels of government, and include the local and international community.

Photo by CNN

Links:

Street Kids International

The European Foundation for Street Children Worldwide (EFSCW)

P A N G A E A: Street Children - Community Children Worldwide Resource Library

Save the Children

World Vision

Street Children Statistics

Friends International

SKCV India - Helping Street Children in India

Follow Me Appeal - Providing support and assistance to the children featured in, “Easy Prey: Inside the Child Sex Trade”

Railway Children

Photo by Hobo Traveler

They look so young, so innocent as they lie sleeping

Held so tightly together, with their faces finally erased of worry

Almost snug looking, half buried in rags on their concrete bed

But this peacefulness will end all too soon

For when sleep wears from their eyes it will reveal pain and despair

Their loneliness only quenched by the embrace they find in each other

“The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says, ‘It’s a girl.’”

-Shirley Chisholm

Over half of the worlds population is female, yet they unjustly receive an unfair balance in life from conception. Not one society is spared from it’s second class treatment of the female population. No matter how long and hard the fight has been, while some countries are clearly better than others, girls are still treated less favorably in all aspects over boys. Education, healthcare, employment, and lower class value, are some of the obstacles facing girls in the world today.

Gender inequality is not something that is just an issue in non-industrialized countries, but it is an issue that no country or culture has been able to escape. In the United States girls receive far less attention in the class rooms, than their male counterparts. The report, Gender Inequalities in Education, highlights the struggles of girls in the classroom and in regards to computerized education and software. There is no dispute that woman face more challenges when juggling home, family and work then men, and far more women leave their careers for the family, than do men. There is an obvious gender imbalance in political leadership and in most career fields, girls are even marginalized when it comes to powerful and successful female role models. Children look first to their own parents for examples and inspiration, therefore when a child see their mother living a life of inequality, the cycle often continues as girls feel there is no alternative for themselves.

While domestic violence is the most prevalent form of abuse against women and girls, and it is only one of many challenges and abuse that girls disproportionately face over that of boys. Chinese baby girls are aborted, abandoned or worse; however they are not alone in their preference for male children. Woman and children are disproportionately more likely to be victims of forced migration, with 35 million refugees worldwide, more than 80% are women and children.

Many girls in Africa undergo female circumcision, otherwise known as female genital mutilation (FFM). At least 130 million girls and women are affected worldwide, and another 2 million are at risk every year, according to UNICEF. The us of FGM has changed little in the last ten years, and efforts need to be made in communities to both education on the reality and risks of FGM, as well as to place more preventative measures and laws in effect.

Woman and girls are abused by their husbands and fathers, young girls are exploited by sex tourism and trafficking, girls in many countries are forced into arranged marriages at early ages. Twice as many women are illiterate as men, due to the large gap in education, and girls are still less likely to get jobs and excel in the work place than boys. Girls are Girls, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, are infected by HIV/AIDS in excessively large rates at two to three times higher than boys. Girls are more likely to become victims of trafficking, or forced into the sex industry than boys, and with at least half a million under the age of 18, they make up the largest group in the sex industry.

Plan recently issued a report, Because I am a Girl: The State of the World’s Girls 2007, the near 100 page report found that around 121 million children do not attend primary school , more than half of which are girls. Other findings of the report include; 82 million girls between 10 and 17 years old in developing countries will be married before their 18th birthday, a number that is higher than 50% in countries like India, Nepal and Niger. There are approximately 14 million girls under 19 years old that give birth every year, and their risk of death in childbirth is twice that of woman in their twenties.

“Without gender equality none of the Millennium Development Goals will be achieved. That is why this report is so valuable. ‘Because I am a Girl’ documents the impact of gender inequality on the lives of girls. It shows clearly and powerfully that our failure to make an equal, more just world has resulted in the most intolerable of situations. In today’s world, to discriminate on the basis of sex and gender is morally indefensible; economically, politically and socially unsupportable.”
Graça Machel, President of the Foundation for Community Development Chair of the GAVI Fund Board (Because I am a Girl: The State of the World’s Girls 2007, page 6)

Following the Plan report a cohort study, The ‘Real Choices, Real Lives’, was established to track 135 girls from their birth until their ninth birthday‘s, in 2015. The study will allow researchers to visit the girls and their families to see how their daily lives are each year. The researchers will monitor the food they eat, individual health, education, to establish the impact being girls has on their lives. The results of this study will be seen a ensuing State of the Worlds Girls report.

In countries of conflict and war, woman and girls are used as pawns, they are kidnapped, enslaved, raped, mutilated, and forced from their homes. They encounter abuses on all sides or the conflicts, often including those who are there to guarantee their protection and safety. Girls are more likely to be sexually exploited, according to World Vision, 40-47% of sexual assaults worldwide are committed on girls 15 years old or younger.

Female foericide is the selective abortion, based on gender, and made a large emergence in the 20th century, this is mainly due to the ability to determine sex through the use of ultrasound. In many cultures, such as India, girls are deselected as a result of the dowry system, the practice in India has increased in the last 15 years. Other countries such as China favored boys due to the desire for the first born to be male and due to other ancient beliefs and values that a son will care for the family. In China a law was passed to prohibit doctors from disclosing the sex of a fetus, this resulted in massive abandonment of infant females and sometimes infanticide. There are virtually no cases of deselecting males in favor of females. The effects of gender based abortions and abandonment, are far reaching and have created a demographic gender imbalance, it is estimated by Plan that 100 million girls are selectively aborted or go missing while in infancy every year.

‘Honor Killings’, are an archaic form of a death sentence, usually without trial or any form of defense for the victim, that are conducted almost exclusively on woman. Rarely seen as a legal issue, but a private family issue, and while many may think they only happen in the Middle East, this is a far cry from the truth. “Honor Killings’ also take place in the west, but handled as ‘forced suicides’. These ’murders’ are a deplorable fact in many counties and cultures, causing many young girls to live in fear, shame and secrecy. Just last month a young girl was stoned to death in Iraq for having a Muslim boyfriend, her violent and callous, death where caught on film. (Teenage Girl Stoned to Death for Loving the Wrong Boy)

The extreme plight of girls around the world has been made very clear in numerous studies over the years, and most of the gender struggle and imbalance is right there in plain sight, therefore we must listen and take sustainable actions. The cries of many girls where not made any more clear than in a study on child abuse conducted by the Indian government more than 48% of girls said they wished they where boys, and over 70% claimed their parents “neglected” them.
(Make us boys, cry girls - Study exposes widespread child abuse, shatters myth and rips veil)

“Women have been taught that, for us, the earth is flat, and that if we venture out, we will fall off the edge.” -Unknown

What needs to be done is what woman and girls have been striving for throughout time, full equality. By equality, one means equal access to food, shelter, healthcare, education, employment and the right to life. By fighting and promoting the rights of girls around the world to have equal access, instances of many other abuses will begin to decrease, including abuse, disease, and displacement. Many instances of discrimination and inequality facing woman and girls, is due to cultural and religious stereo types that continue to remain unchallenged or blatantly ignored. One must remain aware that gender inequality is a enormous contributor to poverty around the world, and if we want to eradicate poverty we must first end the abuses and mistreatment of woman and girls around the world. Though girls do suffer unjustly more than girls, all children suffer when their mothers face inequality.

“The consequences for children are great. When women cannot make household decisions, they and their children are more likely to receive less food, and to be denied essential health services and education . Women are also at greater risk of physical and sexual violence, and less able to protect their children from violence.” (The Benefits of Gender Equality)

Woman and girls around the world have been striving for independence since the dawn of time, isn’t it time we woke-up and saw that by marginalizing girls, we are only crippling our society.

“I ask no favors for my sex…. All I ask of our brethren is that they will take their feet from off our necks.”
- Sarah Moore Grimké

Links and Relevant Articles:
UNICEF - The Situation of Woman and Girls, Facts and Figures
Convention on the Rights of the Child
Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
The State of the Worlds Children, 2007 report by UNICEF
‘Inequality rife’ for young girls
Girls around the world still face challenges of inequality, UNICEF says
A Girl’s Right to Live: Female foeticide and girl infanticide
Discrimination against girls ’still deeply entrenched’

I highly recommend that you read two of my esteemed fellow writer’s, Bonnie Boyd’s, posts on the Central Asia Blog.

Central Asia: Iodized salt and children’s health, which looks at the Xinjiang province of China and the governments efforts to eradicate iodine deficiency’s in children.

Tajikistan: 64% poverty, and portents for more, the post looks at three recent articles highlighting the growing poverty in Tajikistan. Bonnie also highlights the effects on children, as many children not only suffer malnutrition, but are forced to assist the family in earning an income and therefore forgo their educations.

Photo by ArtLex

Memorial Day was established as a day to remember those who served and died to give us our freedom and protect our country and rights. As families and friends around the US gather this weekend for picnics, parties, a day on the boat, a day at the beach or a good old fashioned BBQ, let us not for get all we have and what the true cost of freedom is.

Memorial day is no longer a day to remember those who served in the military, and lost there lives doing so, it has also become a day to remember all who have passed. So take a moment this weekend to remember all of the children who have lost their lives in war and conflict.

Remind your children the importance of memorial day and all it stands for. Take time out this weekend to truely enjoy the children in your lives, let them know how much they have to offer, the future is theirs.

Photo from Lens Flare

Yet with infinite knowledge we still enslave not only men, but mere children!

Where does one find true power? Power is not in money, property, education or jobs, power is with all of us, in our words. If we can only learn to harness the power that we have and use our voices and learn to listen to the words of those around us.

When we listen closely we can hear the words that are not spoken, when we speak our words can touch people in a way that can’t be compared to any kind of touch. Words have the power to touch ones heart and soul, in a way that a brush of a hand or embrace could never do. Words linger in our memories and out hearts, long after the sensation of an embrace has faded. Words are filled with power and might, it is words that cause revolutions, it words that bring peace and justice. Your voice is your power, however it is only as powerful as you allow it to be. If you fail to use your voice then your power is lost, you will not reach out to anyone, you cannot allow yourself to be silenced by fear. We must all speak for those who have been silenced, take not for granted your freedom…use your voice to unlock the door for those who are enslaved.

If we could only learn to listen a little bit, then maybe we would hear the cry’s of so many children in need. Children who’s voices have been silenced by hunger and violence, voices that have been tainted by fear. It only takes one person to hear their cries, for once one learns to listen they have so much power in their knowledge that they can now use their words to speak for the silenced voices of so many children.

I do not mean that touch and action have no meaning, but I believe the real power is within us, it is our ability to listen, often to what is not spoken, and use our voice to bring awareness, to make a change, to open others eyes.

Hopefully many of you where able to catch the powerful and shocking, first part of ‘Slaves in America’ with Charles Gibson to follow the the story of Evelyn Chumbow, from Cameroon, a former slave, held captive in Maryland. Chumbow, was brought to the US at 11, with dreams of an education and new life in a land of prosperity.

“What I would say to the American people is that they have to realize that this happens all over the country, in the backs of restaurants, in the fields in Florida, in the timber industry in the north of New York. There’s nowhere in America that it doesn’t happen,” said Melanie Orhant, Chumbow’s attorney. Ms. Orhant is also the managing attorney for the Break the Chain Campaign, an organization dedicated to helping survivors of trafficking. (Beatings, Isolation and Fear: The Life of a Slave in the U.S.)

You can find more victims stories on Polaris Project’s website, who has a collection of hundreds of victims testimonies from more than 50 countries. You will find haunting stories from victims like Rosa:

“When I was fourteen, a man came to my parents’ house in Veracruz, Mexico and asked me if I was interested in making money in the United States. …He said I would be in good hands, and would meet many other Mexican girls who had taken advantage of this great opportunity…the men told me that my employment would consist of having sex with men for money. I had never had sex before… Because I was a virgin, the men decided to initiate me by raping me again and again…I couldn’t do anything to stop it. I wasn’t allowed to go outside without a guard…”

While victims stories are frightening and deplorable, the most frightening aspect of trafficking is that it is at an all time high, and no country or city is immune from its effects. The United States has one of the highest ratings as a destination country for human trafficking victims, though we issue the Trafficking in Persons Report yearly, we are failing to secure the problem in our own country.

Destination Countries of Trafficking Victims

Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). 2006. Trafficking in Persons: Global Patterns, p. 39.

Source countries and routes of human trafficking

Victims of trafficking in the United States are lucky in one sense, as we are a country that dose not just deport victims once found, where as many countries lack the laws and infrastructure to see victims as anything more thank prostitutes and illegal immigrants. Therefore many victims of trafficking and slavery are simply jailed and deported to their home countries. This not only re-victimizes, but also places these vulnerable woman and children right back into the hands of those who trafficked them. Protect Act, which focuses American sex tourists and foreign nationals that traffic children into the US. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 , which was reauthorized in 2005, includes provisions targeting demand for trafficking victims, and issuing more protective T-Visas to victims. The Form I-914, which is a victim self application, that serves to give temporary benefits to illegals who have been victims of trafficking. The form also give benefits to their immediate family if applicable. If you are a victim of trafficking, or know someone who is, you can find more information on U and T visas for victims of trafficking on the National Immigration Law Center and immigration.com.

Working to prevent trafficking worldwide, Shared Hope International, has had great strides in pushing forward legal and political reform against trafficking, as well as successfully rehabilitating victims. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), has a a number of programs for victims and resources, including how to identify a victim of trafficking. You can also see The Salvation Army - Emergency Response to Suspected Trafficking Cases for information on identifying victims, and finding support services.

Please see the previous post for more information and resource links.

Photo by Polaris Project

“Hiding in Plain Sight: How can we find and protect child victims of trafficking!”- Sheila Neville, Staff Attorney of The Legal Assistance to Trafficking Victims Project

One never thinks horrid things happen in their home town, nor does one want to believe that right next door unthinkable abuses are being committed, yet the truth is they are. Very often I am faced with people who are in utter dismay that human trafficking exists right here in the United States. While victims of trafficking are often from foreign countries, it is not necessary for a victim of trafficking to be taken out of their home country, nor their home state or city. According to C.I.A. estimates, approximately 900,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year, 20,000 of which make their way to the United States. There are hundreds of thousands more people who are victims of domestic trafficking, most of which are children, who are most often forced into the sex trade. Anti-Slavery International estimates that the numbers of slaves in the United States are much greater at around 27 million. These are shocking numbers, for slavery is at an all time high, we currently have more slaves today than during legalized slavery.

The most frightening aspect of modern slavery is that very few Americans, realize the enormity of the situation, let alone are they aware of the presence of slaves in their own communities. I hail from the Great Plains, the Midwest, Middle America, and we have slaves! I have recently been drawn back to my hometown of Kansas City, Missouri, where a trafficking ring has recently been exposed, the ring that was exposed luckily did not involve the use of children. However, this event opened the eyes of many in the community to the fact that human trafficking is not only in the United States, but it’s in every town, not just the metropolis’s like New York and Los Angeles. With the discovery of the human trafficking ring, my own family truly realized for the first time the reality of what I had been trying to preach to them all this time. Needless to say their shock and dismay where short lived, as they quickly retreated back to their every day lives. Unfortunately this is not the first case of human trafficking or slavery in my home town, a year ago a ring was busted for forcing students from Russia to work in Ice Cream Trucks, unfortunately there have been many other cases and there will be many more.

“Maria Suarez, came from Mexico to Los Angeles legally…, hoping to find work. She was offered a housecleaning job at the home of a 68-year-old man who instead converted her into a virtual slave - threatening her and her family if she told anyone of the rapes and beatings that ensued over the next five years.” (‘Human trafficking goes on in U.S., too’)

Victims of human trafficking and modern day slavery, endure physical, sexual and mental abuse by their captors. Their value is regarded as nothing much more than a cheap form of labor, a money making opportunity or are seen as less than human. Victims of modern slavery are hidden in the dark corners of every city, every country, but they are also right there in the open. You may pass a slave today as you leave work, you may have a victim living down the street, or you may even know one, but for many they cannot speak for they have been silenced by fear and abuse.

Tonight I highly urge you to watch, ABC World News Tonight with Charles Gibson, as the series,’Slavery in America’ begins. Take this opportunity to become aware of slavery in your backyard, and begin the fight to end this atrocity in the United States, and begin to end human suffering from the brutal chains of slavery.

Links and Related Articles:

Story from May 8 on trafficking in the Greater Kansas City Area
‘Ice cream sellers face forced-labor charges’
Hope House - A Kansas City based shelter for victims of domestic violence, and a new trafficking program
Polaris Project - A DC based anti-trafficking organization and shelter
Anti-Slavery
Free the Slaves
‘Slavery in America Today’
The American Slavery Awareness Project - A video documentary
American Anti-Slavery Group
“Hidden Slaves: Forced Labor in the United States” - 2004 report
Human Trafficking and Modern Day Slavery - Contains links to articles about trafficking all across the United States
Captive Daughters
Body & Sold - National Campaign to Raise Awareness about Sex Trafficking of American Children and Teens
Boat People S.O.S
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops - Human Trafficking Program
Human Trafficking - US Resources
Vital Voices
UNICEF - US Legislative Update