Street Children: Support System and Policy

Serendip’s second article in the series on social exclusion focuses on street children. UNICEF defines street children as “‘any girl or boy who has not reached adulthood, for whom the street (in the broadest sense of the word, including unoccupied dwellings, wasteland, etc.) has become her or his habitual abode and/or sources of livelihood, and who is inadequately protected, supervised or directed by responsible adults’”.^[1] Beyond this, UNICEF has  divided street kids into ‘children of the street’ as those who are completely homeless, and live and sleep on the streets with other street kids and adults; and ‘children on the street’ who spend their days on the street working or begging for money but return home to families at night.

Further, researchers have begun to define various categories of street children. These include: street living children, defined as “those who sleep in public places without their families”; street working children, who are “those who work on the streets during the day and return to their families at night” and “children from street families, who live with their families on the street”.^[2] These categorizations demonstrate that “street children” are a heterogeneous group and may occupy more than one of these categories. Further, a child’s relationship to the street is affected by age, gender and personal history and experience.

The number of street children world-wide is difficult to count, but UNICEF puts the number at tens of millions^[3] and it is clear is that there are street children in both developed and developing countries. What are the factors that lead to such high numbers of children living and/or working on the streets? Some of these may include a tumultuous family life—there may be violence at home that causes children to leave home or unexpected sickness or death that leaves families unable to cope with providing proper care for their children; extreme poverty may cause children to drop out of school so that they can work on the streets to contribute to family income. Conflict, natural disasters, displacement and urban migration may also force children onto the streets. Given these complex and sometimes overlapping reasons for street involvement, policy formation regarding street children is difficult and can, if not informed by proper participatory research, be ineffective in addressing the needs of these children. In this week’s article below, Duncan Ross of StreetInvest poses questions about how to formulate policy that enables the creation of a support system for this vulnerable group of the population.

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[1] UNICEF. A Study on Street Children in Zimbabwe: Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children and Adolescents In Zimbabwe. p. 90. www.unicef.org. Retrieved from:http://www.unicef.org/evaldatabase/files/ZIM_01-805.pdf.

[2] Plan Canada. Still on the Street—Still Short of Rights. www.plancanada.ca. Retrieved from:http://plancanada.ca/document.doc?id=198

[3] UNICEF. The State of the World’s Children 2006: Excluded and Invisible. p. 40. www.unicef.org. Retrieved from: http://www.unicef.org/publications/files/SOWC_2006_English_Report_rev(1).pdf. 

Street Children: Support System and Policy

by Duncan Ross*

I would like to ask two questions:

First, “what is the best thing you could wish for a street child?”

Second, “what is the first thing you would wish for if it was your child on the street?”

I am a former investment banker who has, for the last six years, been dedicating my professional life to supporting street children.  This is not a hardship, nor noble. Street children are some of the strongest, bravest, most resilient, resourceful and responsive children I have ever had the privilege to meet.

I have also learned a lot: That there are very many street children even if nobody knows quite how many; that street children are not limited to developing countries. Rather, there are children “on the street” everywhere and that their challenges before and after they reach the streets are extraordinarily similar. And that one of the most common challenges for street children is that they do not have a trustworthy adult in their lives.

This is why we set up StreetInvest, a UK charity that aims to help street children by training street workers, the trustworthy adults that these children need, where they are and as they are. This is simply because we believe no child should be alone. 

Which brings us back to the two questions posed above.

If my child was lost on the street, the first thing that I would want is an adult in their life who they could trust. To be there when needed – wherever they are and for however long it takes.

I wonder what your answer was to, “what is the best thing you could wish for a street child?” Was it “home”, “family”, “education”?

Mine was too. It still is. It is natural. Individuals think that, organisations think that, nation states who believe in the rights of all children think that.

But, let’s consider the practicalities. How do we reach children who are living on the streets, to enable them to access the support that they both need and is their right? Moreover, what about the children who are not yet ready, or able, to leave the street? They, more than any, need a trusted adult. Should they be denied that right simply because of where they are?

Clearly not. That is why we believe that, in order for street children to be able exercise their rights, the first thing they need is to be included in the process. And we cannot do that if we insist that they leave the street first. This is why we believe that it is essential that street work is included as an integral part of mainstream provision for street children.  

The irony is that the focus on what people instinctively view as best for a street child, namely off the street, distracts from what the same people view as what is needed first, namely the human support they need where they are.

So I pose my final question: “How can we help people, particularly those who define national and international policy, remember that in order to achieve the best for street children, you have to start with what they need first, however difficult it is to acknowledge that street children are indeed that – children on the street?”

Feel free to send your answers to duncan.ross@streetinvest.org or post your thoughts in the comments below to engage in a dialogue about this issue.

 

Photo courtesy of StreetInvest© 

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*Duncan Ross has a Development Economics Degree from the School of Africa Studies, Sussex University. He has had almost 30 years experience in the finance industry commencing in development finance and culminating as a Managing Director of JPMorgan. He has been working to support street children for the last 5 years, and is a co-founder of StreetInvest, a UK charity established in 2008. He is married with six children.

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