MORE INFORMATION

* Street children / Children in the street
* The duration of the stay in the street
* Age distinctions
* Where are they?
* How many of them are there?
* What family ties does the street child have?
* What caused the crisis?

Street children live in the street without their families. Each child has to learn how to survive alone, since no adult takes responsibility for them.
Other children may spend most of their time in the street, but maintain a certain link to their families.
The distinction between these two categories is not always clear, but it is important. Two separate social groups definitely exist.

Amongst children in the street, there are:
- children who work
- children from slums
- runaways
- delinquents

If they still have ties with their families, these children are not directly concerned by our activities.

Nevertheless, experience has proved to us that in the countries where street children are taken care of, there is also a significant impact on the children in the street.

This factor is very important, because it is obviously much easier to take a child back home who has only been in the street for a short time. If we want to solve the problem of street children permanently, they have to be indentified as soon as possible.

A child is a minor. It is important to determine whether or not the child is under 15, because the solutions are different for an older child. A teenager of 15 or more can manage alone and may simply need advice and someone to listen to them. A child of 8 needs to be cared for and educated. Today specialists argue about whether or not a child needs to be given shelter. We will cover this subject at lenght later on. At the moment, specialists are disagreeing amongst themselves as to whether to give shelter to these children or not. Certainly it depends to a large extent on the child's age. In any case, from the psychological point of view, one cannot be dogmatic.

Street children who have broken all ties with their families can be found in nearly every major city in the world: São Paulo, Manila, Bombay, Dakar, Bogota and Bamako; but they're also found in medium-sized cities like Nouakchott, Bujumbura, Phnom Penh and Belem.

Though there are fewer of them, street children are found in developed countries too. They exist in Marseille, for example, as well as in New York, where there are an estimated 4,000 street children.

Street children are usually in the downtown area, near stations and shopping malls, places which are lit up at night.

To avoid being caught, street children are the last to go to sleep and the first to get up: that’s why they’re often worn out, and can be found sleeping during the day. They group together at night.

No one really knows, certainly not those who claim to know and give statistics. But experience has shown that there are far fewer than some assert.

It's important to know whether the street child is able to go back to his family or not.

There are three types of cases:

• An immediate return to the child's family is possible.

- With psychological or financial help.
- Without this help.

• A return home is probable.

- The problem which created the break in the first place is resolved. (E.g.: a famine, war or massacre)
- An acute crisis is over. (E.g.: reconciliation after a crime or offense)
- A family finds their lost child. (E.g.: a child that has been lost or kidnapped)
- A family sees that the child has changed. (E.g.: an epileptic child has received treatment)

• A return home is very unlikely or impossible.

- A child doesn't even know where his or her family is.
- A child lost contact with his or her family a very long time ago.
- A child has been rejected by a member of or all of the family.
- A child refuses to return home. (E.g.: a victim of abuse, a child of a drug addict or prostitute, wizard child, soldier child)
- The child's parents are in prison.

It is important to distinguish the types of crisis that can force the child to break family ties:

The crisis may be ACUTE or CHRONICS. If it's an "acute" crisis, reintegration is easier once the cause has disappeared; for example, separation due to famine or war. A crisis can be described as "chronic" when the child is handicaped, an orphan, or a slave, because the crisis continues.

• It's important to know whether the child has become LOST or ABANDONED, or whether he's RUN AWAY and why.

- If a runaway, is the reason poor treatment, a victim of rape or incest, a desire for freedom, parental divorce and remarrying, slavery, cruel treatment during an apprenticeship?

- If the child is "lost", is the cause a famine, war or massacres? Is the child illegitimate and therefore abandoned, rejected by adoptive parents? Has the child been sold or forced to beg?

- If the child has been abandoned, have the parents dissapeared or been imprisoned? Is the child rejected by a prostitute mother or because of social or ethnics factors? Has the child become orphaned as a result of war or AIDS?

- Is the child a delinquent, or has he been in danger of being thrown out of home after having become a prostitute, a thief or a drug addict?

Preamble to the problematic of street children ...

... Why are they in the street?

Updated on 15 november, 2007