WHY ARE THEY IN THE STREET ?

* Family causes
* Social causes
* Economic causes
* Political causes
* Other causes

• Broken families.
  
  
• A child may have been rejected by a stepfather or stepmother.
  This is a very frequent problem which doesn't occur solely in the poorest families.
  
  
• both parents have disappeared

• Fathers that refuse to recognise their children.

• Abandoned children.

• Orphans.

If a child is being raised by a grandmother, the child will be orphaned again when she dies.
But there are other reasons a child may be an orphan:

• orphans of war
  
  
• orphans as a result of AIDS
  This a phenomenon of massive proportions for example in Central Africa.

• Gifted children in a poor, sick family.

This case is more frequent that one might think. A clever child in such a family may be tempted to take their a chances alone. This type of child is more likely to leave than his grandparents.

• Children who need to be reconciled with their family after a family crisis.

A tragedy may have occurred for which the child feels in some way responsible...

• Mistreated children.
  
  
  • beaten children
    
    
  • children who are punished too severely by well-meaning parents
    
    
  • ehildren who have been thrown out of the house after misbehaving
    
    
  • victims of rape or incest
    
    
  • children of mental-ill

• Children whose mother is a prostitute.

Many prostitutes' children run away when they discover what their mother does for a living. This is a tragedy with significant psychological consequences. Sometimes a mother spoils her child with presents or money in order to be "forgiven" by them, but this just creates additional problems.

• Children of drug addicts.

When parents are drug addicts, life can be unbearable for their children who may decide to go away. Unfortunately, drugs have been demytified for the child, who is at great risk of becoming an addict too, and will be very difficult to treat.

• Children of beggars.

Children whose parents are beggars are in danger of becoming like their parents. This prospect may seem so grim that the child may prefer to run away.

• Children whose the father or/and the mother are in jail.

It often happens that the parents are put in prison, and nobody bothers about their children, who are left to their one devices. As a result, the street is often the only place left for these children.

• Children rejected by their families because of their deliquence.

In these cases, the child is a source of public shame for the family in one way or another. One solution can be to separate him from his family for a few years. On the other hand, inprisonment, especially if put with adult prisoners, is ALWAYS catastrophic.

The shame caused could include:
 - theft
 - drug addiction
 - a child who is ashamed to return home after being in prison
 - a child prostitute known in the neighbourhood

It's a matter of conscience: to publicly denounce child prostitution is always catastrophic for the child concerned; on the other hand, one should denounce and judge the perpetrators of the crime.

• Handicapped children forced to beg.

Handicapped children are often used as beggars. This is a profitable activity but it is also humiliating. Certain children prefer to run away and end up in the street in the hope of finding another way to earn money.
Some children who were sold as property.

• Child beggars or guides for the blind.

In some countries, begging is a profession, as is being a guide for the blind. Children who earn money in this way run away to keep their earnings. Some children are forced to beg by their adoptive families, who keep all the takings. This is a modern form of slavery or procuring.

• Child slaves.

Child slavery exists in many African countries. A child who has been reduced to slavery, even one who has managed to escape, remains submissive and dependant for a long time afterward.

• Children who have escaped from a religious school.

In many countries, children are entrusted to a teacher to study their religion for a number of years. They leave their families at a very young age and often don't know where they originally came from.

Normally everything is fine, but in certain cases the system has become corrupt. The teacher no longer teaches, instead sending the children out to beg or work for him. It is a true case of temporary slavery. If the child returns empty-handed, he is severely beaten.

When confronted with such treatment, a child may want to escape but may not know where to go or where his family is, so he or she begins wandering.

• Famine.
  
  
  • a rural child discovers that he is one too many mouths to feed
    In periods of drought or famine, many children who realize that they are just one more mouth to feed jump into a truck going in any direction. These children, even the very young, may travel great distances.
    Some of them know many countries.
    
    
  • a child lives in extreme poverty in a slum
    The extreme poverty of slums around capitals with the resulting malnutrition or hunger of the residents leads to children leaving their families. Such children move around less than rural children but are more inclined to deliquency.
    
    
• Child workers.

Even if working voluntarily, children who work too far from home gradually stop going home and no longer need to.

A child who is forced to work is usually well-treated. Inhuman or humiliating treatment is tolerated only for so long and then the child generally escapes.

• Children that are deliberately "lost" by parents incapable of providing minimal requirements for subsistence.

The majority of children claim to have been "lost" during a change of house. They were probably lost deliberately. What is clear is that their parents are not in a hurry to find them.

• Children who have fled from war situations.

• Children who have from "ethnic cleansing".

• Children lost during a war or massacre.

• Children separated from their families because of border closures.

• Habit.

After spending years living on the streets, a street child is sometimes happier there than at home. We have to remember, too, these children are easily influenced. When we asked an 8-year-old why he was in the street, he answered: "My parents didn't let me go to the movies at night.".

• Desire for independence.

More information ...

... Their problems

Updated on 15 november, 2007