The International Day of the Street Child

Who are children on the street? Children on the street are children who live, work, sleep or spend most of their time on the street. They often don’t have a home to go to at night as they have run away to be on the streets, don’t go to school and are very vulnerable. They are also children just like you, they are funny and kind, they love playing with their friends. They have hopes and dreams for the future. But on the streets they are living in tough and dangerous conditions. They have to work very hard to earn enough money to survive.

Where are children living on the streets? There are children living on the streets all over the world including in the UK. Both boys and girls can end up living on the streets. You can find children of any age living on the streets and sometimes even whole families living on the streets together.

- The large majority of children on the streets live in countries where there is a lot of poverty for example in countries in Africa, some parts of Asia and South America. Often children who live on the streets are seen as bad and a nuisance by people in the local community, so people don’t try to help them.

There are estimated to be 100 million children on the streets in the world – that’s a lot more than the population of the UK, which is 64 million.

Why are there children living on the street? Children live on the streets for many, many different reasons. Sometimes their families can’t afford to look after them or send them to school so they have to go out onto the street to work and make money. Sometimes they are children who have run away from home because their families are cruel to them. Sometimes they are orphans or abandoned children who don’t have anywhere else to go. Sometimes a child’s friends will convince them they can have a better life if they run away to the streets. Once a child is on the streets it can be hard to go back home as they might fear their family’s reaction to them running away.

What’s life like on the streets? Life on the streets is very hard and very dangerous. Children on the streets often face bad treatment and abuse from adults, the police and other children. They have to work hard everyday to try and get food, often rummaging through bins or begging for scraps and still going hungry. They do lots of small jobs in the local community such as carrying heavy loads from the market or selling scrap metal to make money where they can. But the night time is the worst when they have nowhere to go, no safety or warmth. These children cannot go to school and have no one to look after them if they get ill. Because they don’t have good opportunities like you and me, without a helping hand it will be hard for them to ever break out of poverty even when they grow up.

To make things worse, many people think that children living on the street are criminals. They say that these children cannot be helped and have no future. The blame the children for the position they are in and don’t think about why the children had to go to the streets in the first place. 8

But when you give children on the street the chance to speak for themselves you hear the opposite. Children living on the streets are just children like any other child in the world. They have had hard lives but they still like to play, they have hopes and dreams and want to do good things with their lives. They want a future different to the life they have on the streets. 9

12th April – An International Day for Street Children Listen to this poem about children on the streets and think about how you would feel if you were living on the streets. “I am not street, you cannot trample me with words of feet. Homelessness was not my choice. I dream, I hope, please hear my voice. Let’s start off small just with a day. For you to listen to what I have to say. And then … you might see me. Not a criminal or worthless or someone to batter. A person with a future where my opinion will matter!”

Too often people ignore children living on the street or treat them as bad people because they don’t understand or don’t want to have to take action to help them. But today/ soon is International Day of the Street Child. And today, by learning about children living on the streets and understanding that they are just children like you, you can start to make things different

The more people know about children on the streets and understand their situation, the more likely it is that we can change things for the better. The more people recognise that these children deserve the right to a better future, the more likely it is that one day no child will have to go to sleep hungry and alone on a dangerous street. You can stand-up and speak out with children on the street to make sure their voice is no longer ignored. 12

If the whole world was listening what would you say? What can you do? You can raise awareness of the International Day and help to demand that the United Nations accepts it and puts it in their calendar. This will give it more power as a day to help to get more people to notice and even change laws to help children on the streets in the future. There are signs you can take photos with and a petition that people of any age can sign their name to show your support. You can do some work on the theme of the International day thinking “If the whole world was listening, what would you say?” This could be a short story, a song, a poem or a piece of art. You could display this to help others to learn about what life is like for children living on the streets. If the whole world was listening what would you say?

I AM NOT STREET www.youtube.com/watch?v=shfX1LrAcYc Watch the ‘I am not street video’, explain beforehand that it is a poem made by children who used to live on the street in Uganda, in Africa . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shfX1LrAcYc Possible points of discussion: What are the children in the video trying to tell us? What can be done to help children living on the street have a better future? (Changing attitudes, helping children on the street get back in touch with their families, giving children on the street an education, tougher laws protecting children on the streets and their rights, providing a safe place for street children to come and play etc…) Why is the International Day of the Street Child so important?

Thank you for learning about our lives!