Street children

There are numerous studies, statistics and reports on the number of street children in cities around the world and debates over the definition of a street child have only added to the confusion around numbers. Different categories of children living on/off the street do not accurately reflect the realities of most street children, whose lives are defined by uncertainty, movement and lack of choice. For our purposes, and for that of our donors and supporters, StreetInvest defines a street child as a child for whom the ‘street’ is a significant factor. We recognise this as including children that live and work on the street, but also children and young people who migrate between ‘home’ and the street.

Why do children come to the street? There are many complex reasons that bring a child to the street. Poverty is often cited as the main cause or ‘push’ factor but this is generalist and often does not reflect the dynamics of households who often have periods of acute poverty and then recover sufficiently to support their children. It is true that many of the children StreetInvest has encountered on the streets of Africa have resorted to the streets for survival – many children will say they are more likely to find something to eat on the street than they are at home. Some children, as in the case of girl ‘kayeye’ (porters) in Ghana, come to the street as an active choice to leave depressed rural economies for a period of work in a town or city, equipping them with sufficient means to provide a dowry.

We acknowledge that in many instances, the street can be a refuge for a child fleeing domestic abuse, conflict, natural disaster or acute poverty. Sometimes a child is on the street to earn money, because they find life in a street gang ‘exciting' - ultimately though we view life on the street as a life full of risks and dangers, stultifying the child’s potential. At StreetInvest we encourage participants in our training programme to acknowledge the range of factors that brings a child to the street. Each ‘story’, however dramatic, is that child’s reality, and it is from this starting point that an effective relationship can develop.

It is evident that conflict and natural disasters can decimate communities, leaving children helpless, without parents and family and resorting to a life on the street – they simply have nowhere to go. However, we also have to acknowledge that many children support themselves as siblings in child headed households. This is an extremely fragile alternate family structure and one which in itself can break down and ‘push’ family members to the street. We cannot deny the huge impact on communities globally of HIV and AIDS and the impact on everyone in a community – within the family, within the village, within the town. In South Africa the number of children orphaned through the pandemic stands at 11 million.[1]. Undoubtedly many of these children will have turned to the streets, and that in itself puts them at risk again of both transmitting and receiving the virus.   

What future for street children? It is a fact that increased urbanisation across the developing world will tip more children into a life of survival on the streets. The landscape of developing cities reveals a mix of labour migration and displaced communities, inadequate housing, lack of social services, poor adherence to education beyond primary level, and high unemployment in the formal sector. Opportunities for youth are lacking – many children leave school at 12 and slip into the informal labour sector with badly paid piece work and unscrupulous employers. Despite these difficulties, the drift to cities continues. See UN Habitat’s Report on State of the World’s Cities 2010/2011.