Case study: Getting together for street kids
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Globally, there are tens of millions of children living or working on the streets. Some are born there. Others just end up there. And many don’t want to be found.
It’s a complex and diverse problem – and one that some people don’t even acknowledge exists.
But whatever their story, Aviva believes in standing up for these street children. That’s why, over the last four years, we’ve helped more than half a million of them through our Street to School initiative.
Our response
To explore how we can work with others to do even more for street children, we held a roundtable discussion in South east Asia on 10–11 December 2013. The event was attended by 32 different organisations including the United Nations, UNICEF, Save the Children and the Consortium for Street Children, as well as representatives from governments and global business.
To build momentum before and during the event, Aviva businesses around the world united behind the hashtag #togetherforstreetkids on social media. This encourages like-minded organisations, celebrities and roundtable attendees to promote the campaign and contribute to the discussion. Aviva also partnered with Adidas Group, HSBC, the Body Shop, Kuoni, Microsoft and CSR Asia to report on how businesses in Asia are helping to protect the rights of vulnerable children – see Joining the dialogue: Vulnerable children and business (PDF 7.9 MB) .
The impact
Over a million people were following and supporting the first-ever talks on how we can protect and promote the rights of children living and working on the street.
Action was on the minds of all participants. New and ground breaking thinking slowly began to emerge in the room. The talks we realised, were not the end of the conversation but the beginning. The next steps that were shaped together are summarised in this report (PDF 8.6 MB)
Abstract
Economic development presents a hostile face to many children in Ghana. An increasing number of children are being forced to the streets as a result of poverty, abuse and breakdown of the community and family structure and the pursuance of certain policies by government. The study looked at putting the street children phenomenon in the development context. Taking Accra as a case study and selecting 15 areas of brisk economic activity, this thesis examines the factors that push children onto the streets, paying attention to how economic policies affect children. The study also looked at the conditions for growth and development of the street child, the implications of the street child’s development to national development and the measures that should be taken to curb the growing numbers of street children as well as the reintegration of those already in the streets back to mainstream society. ?????Raw data from secondary sources were cross-tabulated and some key findings were analyzed using chi-square to test for the significance of the hypotheses. Poverty was seen as the main cause of the phenomenon reflecting itself in the parents’ inability to adequately cater for their children. Government policies directed by Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) are extensively responsible for increasingly putting children onto the streets, the effects of which are extremely devastating on the child and society in general.
FACTBOX - "They're little criminals" and other myths about street children
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – There are many myths and misconceptions about street children: from who they are, to what they do, to why they are there. Here are some myths and facts about street children: * Street children are children who sleep on the street. Although some of the children live on the street, the term “street children” also refers to children who work or spend time on the street. * Street children only exist in poor countries. There are children on the street in developed countries such as Britain, the United States and Canada. Sometimes they are known as runaways or homeless. * Children are on the streets because they have no family. Some street children spend their days on the streets and return to their families at night. Some end up on the streets because of family breakdown or because they have lost contact with family members in a disaster or conflict. Some children are tempted by the glamour of the city or the hope of financial independence. * Street children are criminals. Street children adopt various methods to survive on the street. Some steal, some beg, some collect rubbish or recycling, some work as shoe shiners. Girls in particular are at risk of being forced into prostitution or trafficked for sex or domestic work. By criminalising these survival methods, society alienates and stigmatises street children. * Street children receive no help from the society. There are various organisations that work to improve the lives of street children. On the eve of The International Day of Street Children, street children and several supporting organisations have called on the United Nations and governments to ensure that street children have access to education. The campaign, Street Children Demand Action on Education, can be supported on Twitter with a #TweetForTheStreet. * Some estimates of street children run as high as 100 million – the truth is that no one really knows. Street children are some of the most marginalised and stigmatised children, experiencing persistent violations of their rights on a daily basis. * But they are also some of the most resilient and inspiring children and young people in the world. Every day they have to face violence, abuse and neglect, whilst struggling to survive. * “People would treat you badly. They’d say things like ‘go away’. They would say lots of things, but I don’t want to say what they said. It makes me feel bad because they don’t know how you feel and they don’t care either”, a street child in Ecuador said. * In 1993 Brazilian police killed eight street children sleeping on the steps of the Candelaria Church in Rio de Janeiro. The killing sparked international outrage and condemnation, leading to the UN General Assembly to pass street children specific resolutions to encourage national governments to support street children. * However, no concrete action was ever taken and in the past twenty years street children have become less and less frequent on international agendas and in some instances have completely disappeared. This is despite the continued presence of millions of street children in countries around the world. * This limited exposure on international stages has meant that national governments and bodies are less encouraged to take action. * Street children are a particularly complex group to address at policy-making levels – one child can experience a multitude of challenges. Common challenges include lack of access to basic services such as healthcare and education, being trafficked, prostitution, displacement due to conflict or natural disaster and often with little or no family contact. I * n essence, street children are not a homogenous population with similar experiences, and this makes them a difficult group to address coherently at policy-making levels. This has invariably meant that in many fora street children are forgotten. * The Consortium for Street Children (CSC) exists to change this and we have been campaigning for increased representation of street children at international levels. * AMPLIFY VOICES * One of the main barriers that we encounter and that street children face daily is the negative perceptions of them. The best way to counter this is to amplify the voices of street children themselves. * Street children’s opinions are vital to ensuring that the realities of their lives are understood and therefore that the support they receive is pertinent to their situation. In contradiction to the prevailing images of them, street children commonly identify themselves as strong, positive and engaged. * It is upon this basis that CSC launched the International Day for Street Children in 2011. The day provides a platform for the millions of street children around the world to speak out so their rights cannot be ignored. Since 2011 support for the Day has grown exponentially, with street children, NGOs, policy-makers, academics and celebrities getting involved. * This year, we are asking street children ‘If the whole world were listening, what would you say’? We are compiling these answers into an animation which will be released on the Day, 12th April, and profiling them through Twitter using #TweetForTheStreet, as well as encouraging individuals to tell us ‘what would you say’ on our dedicated Facebook tab. * The day is a perfect opportunity for street children to join together and tell their communities and the world what their lives are actually like. In 2013 CSC launched a campaign for the UN to officially adopt the Day. This will bring greater exposure, continuity and permanence of the issue and increase pressure on governments to act for street children – in much the same way that World Water Day and World AIDS Day have created policy-appetite around the world. The petition has received over 6000 signatories so far – but the more we have the faster UN recognition will come. * Street children first hit the international headlines because they were being killed in Brazil, but now Brazil is creating a national policy specifically on street children. Show your support and encourage other governments to take similar action by signing the petition for UN