Children

“Naomi is 15 but looks 10. A horrible burn scar shrivels the skin across her chest and shoulder….She is one of the so-called child witches of Kinshasa, rejected by her family and community at six years old and left to survive on the streets…. ‘Grandfather become sick and my aunt accused me of being a witch. She said, “Why is everyone around sick? They are suffering because of you.”…The neighbours beat me and burnt me….I was caught by some soldiers and they said, you are a witch - we saw you flying with birds. They said they were going to kill me, but I escaped.’” (Thousands of child ‘witches’ turned on to the streets to starve)

Witchcraft is something most of us have quickly forgotten about since Halloween has now passed, and would not venture to think about again until Halloween rolls around again next year. However children are being cast from their homes over fears and actuations that they are witches. No, I am not looking back into the depths of history and embarking on a journey back in time to the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. I am talking about children who right this very moment have been, and are being, cast from their homes as fears of witchcraft have taken hold of their villages.

Sadly this is not a recent phenomenon which has only reared its ugly head in recent months, children have been facing alienation and persecution for a number of years due to accusations of witchcraft. “Children in Angola tortured as witches” by Paul Salopek (“The Chicago Tribune,” March 28, 2004), brought to light the horrors that many children in Angola where facing. At the time Matondo Alexandre, a child-protection expert with the United Nations Children’s Fund in Angola, said “This is something new to us, in African culture it is usually the older people who are accused of practicing witchcraft. Now we’re even seeing cases popping up involving babies.” But almost four years has passed and children are still being systematically abused and alienated from their homes, beaten and sent to live on the streets in fear and shame and they are the luck ones, as others have been tortured to death.

In some parts of Angola, Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo, alarming numbers of children are being accused of being witches. The accused children are beaten, abused, and often abandoned, or driven in fear from their homes and villages. Cast out of their families and villages, children are left with no where to turn but on to the streets. However some children are not as lucky, as they never make it to the streets, as they are killed in the witch hunt or die on their lonely journey of fear and escape.

“The witches situation started when fathers became unable to care for the children,” said Ana Silva, who is in charge of child protection for the children’s institute. “So they started seeking any justification to expel them from the family (African Crucible: Cast as Witches, Then Cast Out).” However it has not just been poverty and economic hardship that has driven people to accuse their children of witchcraft, the increase of war has also helped to fuel the fire. Former child soldiers have been turned away from their homes and villages for many reasons, including accusations of witchcraft.

“The perception of children started to change very quickly in the 1990s, when you had child soldiers starting to appear with weapons,” says Mr. Aguilar. “So the general perception was that children were a threat. Congolese society is using children as a scapegoat.” (In Congo, superstitions breed homeless children)

In the heart of the DRC, poverty is overwhelming and now it appears that it diamonds are fulling a new battle. In the diamonds minds it is children who do the majority do much of the labor for these sparkling jewels of the earth. And it is the children who are and many are killed in the fight for diamonds, and through the poor conditions in witch they are forced to labor in. It is the death of so many children that has begun to pull entire communities apart and has led to superstitions, which have caused thousands of children to be accused of witchcraft. “Many people here believe in witchcraft. It’s part of Luba tradition…what is happening today…is new. Before, if someone was accused of having demonic powers the village would take the person and make them go through a purification ceremony. No one would ever be thrown out of their homes; certainly not a child. What’s happening today is a result of urbanization and desperation caused by diamonds, says Charles Tchibanza, a sociologist from Mbuji Mayi University (Diamonds, children and witchcraft).

It is clear that the governments of Angola, Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the international aid community must take a stand against these acts. Hands on efforts must be made in the local communities to educate them on the realities of their actions, and brake the cycle of these superstitions once and for all. We must also establish programs and awareness campaigns that work to remove the stigma from those children who have already suffered too long and needlessly.

Other Articles of Interest:

Poor Children: Child “Witches” and Child Soldiers in Sub-Saharan Africa - This article examines two different aspects of the accountability of children: those children who are thrown away by their families because they are “sorcerers,” and those children who become soldiers and, through their involvement in armed conflict, inflict violence and death on others, including children.

The exact figures of children turned onto the street, or killed, as fears of witch craft continue to spread are unknown, and all are too high. Some figure I have seen include: 20,000 in Brazzaville, Congo’s capital, 14,000 in Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC, one northern Angolan town identified 432 street children.

UK Fund to fight ‘witchcraft’ abuse

NEPAL: Women tortured for being ‘witches’

Can one truly imagine the feeling of hunger, when they have not felt the desperation and pain that it causes a child. The prolonged agony of constant hunger drives children into desperate circumstances, and it drives many to get high in order to forget the hunger that rages in their young bellies.

In Nepal extreme poverty is driving children from their homes and onto the streets, many are children from rural areas, who left for Kathmandu for the promise of work. Sadly the children find themselves on the streets, hungry and desperate, for which they have begun to turn to sniffing solvents, such as glue for escape. “You know, this helps us to get rid of our hunger”, said 14-year-old Rajen Subba, who fled his home in Jhapa district in southeast Nepal due to grinding poverty and started to work as a rag picker (street children sniff glue to beat hunger pangs).

Street Children in Thailand Sniffing Glue

However the street children in Nepal are not alone in their suffering, or their addictions to sniffing glue to escape from the dark reality that is their daily lives. Street Children around the world haven falling into this world of glue sniffing, to escape the streets, if only for a moment. Russia, Kenya, Pakistan, Ukraine, Morocco, Brazil, Thailand, Romania…the list goes on and on. The abuse of glue sniffing is a substantial, and growing problem in Asia, and around the world.

Furthermore the problem that was once seen as a American phenomenon , and now many claim is an Asian phenomenon is truly a global problem, as the Advocacy Project in Kenya estimates that some “60,000 children live on the streets of Nairobi, and almost all are addicted to some sort of inhalant” (Glue Sniffing Ruins young Lives in Nairobi).  In the Pakistani city of Karachi alone there are an estimated 14,000 street children, an estimated 90% of which are sniffing sniffing glue or another solvent, according to Aksa Zainab, a social worker working with street children at a drop-in center run by the Azad Foundation in cooperation with UNICEF (Pakistan street kids plagued by glue sniffing).  It is estimated that 98% of street children in Morocco also participated in glue sniffing, thus the high percentages of street children sniffing glue, appear equally high globally (Child glue sniffing rises in Morocco).

The effects of repeated glue sniffing include; suffocation, long term mental/brain damage, fatigue, loss of weight, dehydration, exhaustion, liver damage, kidney damage, as well as blood and bone morrow damage, and death.  Abuse and intoxication, can also lead to anger anger violence, which can often lead to increased crime.Children turn to get high on glue to forget not only hunger, but the sexual predators they have been forced to face. Glue sniffing takes children from the the cold, hunger, desperation, loneliness, and violence of the streets. However glue sniffing sadly takes the children’s lives and minds, and it is for that reason that more efforts into the awareness and prevention of solvent abuse must be increased globally.  One step forward is to restrict the age of purchase on solvents, to limit the number of children purchasing them.  However restricting the purchase of solvents is will not be a main deterrent, and thus awareness and outreach problems for street children must be put in to place, and increased.  Working to elevate the root causes, such as rural  poverty and abuse, of children turning towards the street is also a must to end this growing cycle of abuse.

“Sergey Kushnir, 14, holding a plastic bag filled with glue for sniffing, screams in the sewer where he lives on the outskirts of Odessa, Ukraine, on Tues., June 6, 2006. According to the Ukrainian NGO “The Way Home,” there are more than 3,000 homeless children living on the streets of Odessa. Almost all street children use drugs.”
(Street Kids in Odessa)

Links and other articles of Interest:
Fact Sheet on Glue Sniffing Among Street Children in Nepal
Street Kids in Odessa
Pakistan street kids plagued by glue sniffing
Nepal: street children sniff glue to beat hunger pangs
Street Children In Morocco: An Analysis of the Situation

The Street Kids of St.Petersburg
Glue Sniffing Among Street Children In the Kathmandu Valley
Pakistan street kids plagued by glue sniffing
For Kenyan street kids, glue sniffing is a way of life

Photo from Children at Risk Foundation - CARF Brazil

Children should be the riches of all of mankind!

One should look to protect and ensure the future…children are the future!

In Yemen a parents worst nightmare may come when they realize that they have no choice at all but to put their child onto the street to work, to support the family. Peddling various wares on the street, child labors, some as young as four, in Yemen can hardly be missed, nor can one continue to ignore their plight. Children work in both rural and urban areas, the majority of which work in agriculture without compensation. And while it is against the law to employee children into acts of labor, the Child Rights Law, has yet to be implemented, aiding in the extreme situation.

Earlier this year Zaid Abdullah, an 11 year old child labor from Yemen, told IRIN, “I live from hand to mouth”…”I have to work to help my elder brothers - who have unfixed jobs as labourers, street vendors or farm helpers - and contribute to providing the family with food”.

Child labor still plagues Yemen, says Children’s Parliament, who have taken great strides to bring the growing problem under the spotlight. Official’s estimate that there are over 400,000, child labors in Yemen. Poverty was noted as the main contributing factor for the increase in child labor, of which is contributed to by rapid population growth, lack of education, war, and natural disasters. The Children’s Parliament, along with other NGOs, has felt that their hands are some what tied on the issue.

The children labor phenomenon in Yemen is increasing and our abilities are very limited, so our efforts will not appear in fighting such problem. We cannot solve such a problem in one day, but we try to do what we can do in our limited abilities,” said Mohammed al-Ansi, a representative of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor.

The suggestions and outcomes of the latest session of the Children’s Parliament, concluded that the issue needs more attention and that the support and education of families, was crucial to solving Yemen’s child labor problem.

‘Child labour has also increased the school dropout rate. “There are about two million children out of school,” al-Shami said, adding that most of them will end up illiterate.’

In Yemen a child is only a minor, according to the law, until they are 15 years old, however the law has been sought to be amended to 18, as per international standards, but has yet to be approved.

High unemployment and instability seems to be the key indicating factor of the extreme numbers of child laborers in Yemen, however it is a vicious cycle that will only continue to be felt if the needs of children are not address quickly, and with sustainable solutions. A child forced to work at an early age, once denied an education, then is left with little option for prosperity and stability in the job market as an adult, thus causing the cycle of poverty to continue. Children working on the streets of Yemen, are also at greater risk for abuse, both physically and sexually, and leaves them susceptible to trafficking. The Yemeni government estimates that there are 15,000 street children in the capital city of Sanna, have no families to turn to when their work is done, or their wares are gone. However the problem looks to increase as, “People don’t want to talk about this problem - sometimes not even the government” (Street children at increased risk of sexual abuse).

“Violence begets violence. As child workers are subjected to violence - whether at home or work, they will become aggressive towards society,” al-Shami said (Fears over possibly rising number of child laborers).

With over half of the countries population being children, and almost half of the population living on or below the poverty line, the fight to abolish child labor practices in Yemen, is a long and hard road.

The ‘cycle of abuse’, we’ve all heard the phrase a million times, yet I often think we forget what it means. It does not only mean the cycle, or stages, in which abuses are carried out. A child who grows up in an abusive home, is sexually abused, is a victim of trafficking, a child soldier…unfortunately the list of grave injustices against children goes on and on, is never able to escape the cycle of abuse. Therefore a child of abuse is at an increased risk to become an abuser, victim of sexual assault, become socially isolated, turn to drugs and alcohol, and various other form of self destructive behavior or susceptible to varying forms of continued abuse. We, as an international community must work to ensure that all children have been given their right to protection, both to prevent such abuses, and to assist the abused in their recovery. Therefore substantial physical and psychological care must be given to victims.

No matter what you say, or what you do, it all leaves a mark on the children around you. A child who witnesses violence and war, is forever scared by what they see. A child who hears nothing but negative, cannot erase the voice that says, “you can’t”. But the child who witnesses peace and love, will carry that with them forever and continue to share hope for the future.

We cannot erase the mistakes of the past, but we can leave a bigger impression on a child with hope, than with despair.

Two Zimbabwean Children in Search of Food

The children of Zimbabwe are no strangers to struggle, for they have fallen through the cracks from colonialism, civil war, and now to the long and frightful rule of Mugabe.  With the heavy hand of Mugabe has come the political violence that it has become everyday life under his rule. Children are suffering more than anyone in the country, which is torn by political violence, poverty, HIV/AIDS and a heavily lacking infrastructure, all of which is exacerbated by continuous food shortages.

Freedom’s are not always as they seem, especially of the press, which is often restricted, including the exclusion of some international media. International human rights organizations report that the government of Zimbabwe has been in violation of numerous basic human rights of its citizens. The right to adequate housing, food, freedom of movement, press and assembly top the list of violations.

The rights of Women are seriously violated in Zimbabwe, leaving children, especially girls, even more disadvantaged. As the country has become an ever increasingly dependent economically, the fight for essential human rights becomes an even more difficult. The fight for issues such as combating sex discrimination, forced marriage, domestic violence against women, and other abuses seems to only increase.

What do you sell when you have nothing left to sell, you have no money, no food, little water, and no prospects of employment? The future looks bleak and so you sell the only thing you have left…your own child! For if you cannot sale one child then how can you feed the others? This is a daily struggle for many in Zimbabwe, and as recent articles have illustrated, Daughters fetch high prices as brides. One man who sold his underage daughter, explained how he came to the decision to sell her:

“The pain of seeing my family go without food and other basic necessities drove me into such a decision. At that age, Miriam should have been in school and, being as intelligent as she is, might have ended up as a doctor or pilot, but poverty has rendered that only a pipedream.”

The biggest problem for women, and inherently for children, is that most are completely unaware of their rights, and thus violations continue with little, to no persecution. Children’s rights continue to be violated by the use of child labor, inadequate food and water supplies, housing and access to health care, but they are subsequently re-violated each time their parents rights are violated. The government of Zimbabwe and the international community has failed to protect the children in Zimbabwe, leaving them vulnerable for even more human rights abuses, such as sexual and physical abuse, and making them even more susceptible for illness and disease.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), life expectancy at birth 37 years for men and 34 for women, the lowest figures for any country in the world. With such a short life expectancy, children are doomed from birth, and almost instantly find their futures slipping away.

“The world must differentiate between the politics and the people of Zimbabwe,” said UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy, speaking in Johannesburg. “Every day children in Zimbabwe are dying of HIV/AIDS, every day children are becoming infected, orphaned, and forced to leave school to care for sick parents. The global generosity towards tsunami victims was inspiring, but it has dried up for Zimbabwean children who are facing a deadly crisis every day of their lives.” (UNICEF -Zimbabwe’s Forgotten Children)

HIV/AIDS is main contributing factor to the struggle of children, as over 1.6 million people in the country have the virus, many unable to receive any medical treatment. In an already strained environment, countless children are being left orphans, many of whom end up living on the streets, amid the growing poverty and violence. ‘The under-five mortality rate has risen 50% since 1990 (now 1 death for every 8 births), One hundred babies become HIV-positive every day in Zimbabwe, One in five Zimbabwean children are now orphans (1 million from HIV/AIDS), A child dies every 15 minutes due to HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe, 160,000 children will experience the death of a parent in 2005 (UN).’ The AIDS crisis is only becoming more grave, as the number of orphans spikes as Zimbabwe crises deepens, now leaving over a quarter of a million children parentless.

With Mugabe’s government completely unwilling to doing anything to rectify the current political and social situation in the country, the future for Zimbabwe’s children continues to look bleak. Unless the international community puts a heavy foot down and steps in to aid the children of Zimbabwe with large scare humanitarian efforts. A well as the UN and international governments must push the Mugabe and his corrupt government for political change and action, otherwise little looks to change. Unfortunately history indicates that international bodies and states, will not act effectively and efficiently on behalf of the children of Zimbabwe, and Mugabe’s tight hold over the desperate nation is still strong.

Links:
This is Zimbabwe -blog
US State Department Report on Zimbabwe
Human Rights Watch - Zimbabwe Report
The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum
WHO Country Health System Fact Sheet 2006 - Zimbabwe
Orphans and Vulnerable Children Due to HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa
“The silent cries of the little ones” : Zimbabwe’s under-fives cry out for justice
AFRICA: Child Bride Symbolizes Reasons Why MDGs Will be Missed

As the blog has been covering street children, it seems quite appropriate that I discovered the showing of a film this evening about a boy living in the slums of Kenya. Tonight as part of the Guerrilla Film Fest, you can see the film, “I Want To Be A Pilot”. The film is about a young boy, 12 year old Omondi, who lives in the biggest slum in East Africa, Kiberia, Kenya. Every day Omondi sees airplanes fly over his home and he dreams that one day he will become a pilot of one of those planes, so he can escape his life in the slums.
The film has won the 2007 Cleveland International Film Festival, for Best Documentary Short Film and the 2006 São Paulo International Film Festival, Audience Award, for Best Foreign Short Film.
The film is being shown at the Carnegie Institution at 9:15, tickets are $11 and includes admission to all Film Shorts on Saturday.

Check it out if you can!

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