LIFE ON THE STREET IS NOT ALL THAT EASY
By Robert Chisha, Former Street Child & Current Outreach Worker for PCI’s Africa KidSAFE
A lot happens on the street.
There is stealing, sexual abuse, robbery, fighting and drinking. The most common and most dangerous are drug abuse and sexual activities. I involved myself in these, along with the rest of street children who take drugs to remove the shyness from begging and help keep their bodies warm during the night. It helps to remove the fear of stealing and the fear of the places where we sleep. It allows us to just not care.
It is not the wish of street children to be on the street, it is due to circumstances. It’s due to loss of parents, mistreatment from their family, step mothers or step fathers, peer pressure, poverty, stigma, and discrimination. If the parents of the child died with HIV/AIDS, you find that people in the community treat the child as if he or she also has HIV - as a result the child will end up going to the street.
In the street there is stigma from passers by, or society at large. They look at street children as though they are not responsible people, forgetting that it is society that has denied these children. It is society that has not been responsible to them.
This is another reason why street children take drugs - to cope with the environment and to forget whatever people say to you. Society should accept that the future of children lies in their hands and start acknowledging children who are on the street as children who need our love, care, attention and support in order to become responsible adults.
By Robert Chisha, Former Street Child & Current Outreach Worker for PCI’s Africa KidSAFE
A lot happens on the street.
There is stealing, sexual abuse, robbery, fighting and drinking. The most common and most dangerous are drug abuse and sexual activities. I involved myself in these, along with the rest of street children who take drugs to remove the shyness from begging and help keep their bodies warm during the night. It helps to remove the fear of stealing and the fear of the places where we sleep. It allows us to just not care.
It is not the wish of street children to be on the street, it is due to circumstances. It’s due to loss of parents, mistreatment from their family, step mothers or step fathers, peer pressure, poverty, stigma, and discrimination. If the parents of the child died with HIV/AIDS, you find that people in the community treat the child as if he or she also has HIV - as a result the child will end up going to the street.
In the street there is stigma from passers by, or society at large. They look at street children as though they are not responsible people, forgetting that it is society that has denied these children. It is society that has not been responsible to them.
This is another reason why street children take drugs - to cope with the environment and to forget whatever people say to you. Society should accept that the future of children lies in their hands and start acknowledging children who are on the street as children who need our love, care, attention and support in order to become responsible adults.
People need to come together to look for solution on issues concerning street children and speak one language in order to help to reduce the number of children living in the street. The problem of street children needs attention from all angles: government, NGOs, community leaders, concerned citizens, local donors and international donors in order to improve the living standard of children in the country and to help to improve and promote the rights of children. Once all these things are put in place and the needs of children are being identified by society, then we can begin to see change.
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