Street Action - Committed to street children through action and partnership

The children that our partners work with live on the streets twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week with no parental or adult care or supervision. They are not an ordinary group of children but are defined by their extreme vulnerability, which is heightened by the failure of the general population and public services to recognise them as ‘children’.

Today, children are living on the streets of sub-Saharan Africa’s cities due to a multiple of poverty related issues.  Street-life can be devastating and extremely traumatic.  Street children are at risk from sexual abuse, rape and sexual exploitation. Hunger, violence and disease are ever present.  Substance abuse, in particular sniffing glue is prevalent and used as a way to escape the harsh realities of street life.  Street children also get caught up in petty crime in order to survive and sadly children also loose their lives.

For the outside observer, living on the streets seems to be a hopeless existence and yet one which many children opt for in preference to returning home or accepting services from provisional departments or non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The pull of the streets seems incomprehensible in light of the abuse and deprivation they face, and yet many opt for the streets as a way of escaping the extreme social and economic circumstances in their communities.

HIV/AIDS has also redefined the issues of street children on the continent. With Sub-Saharan Africa having the highest levels of HIV infection in the world, the disease has fundamentally changed the context from which children come to the streets, as well as the resources available to assist them. With a projected figure of 4.2 million AIDS orphans at the beginning of the decade in Sub-Saharan Africa (UNICEF) the number of children living on the streets is considered by many as likely to increase; this is in spite of family networks that absorb thousands of African children without parents, despite the added pressures this places on their resources. As a result of the orphan crisis, children turn to the streets where they’re physical needs and financial desperation makes them vulnerable to street life.

Over the past couple of decades international NGOs attention has focussed on Africa’s orphan crisis in light of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa. Street children have continued to remain a largely forgotten and marginalised group and remain no more than footnote for government and NGO development priorities.  This sees many projects and organisations struggle to develop sustainable funding to allow them to grow and develop models of care and prevention that can really make a difference.

Committed to former Street Children

One of the distinctive and pioneering aspects of our partners work in Burundi and South Africa is that they are organisations that have former street children player a leading role in the development of programmes, strategies and policies.  New Generation and Umthombo Street Children were also both founded by former street children.

The term ‘former street child’ can be interpreted in a number of different ways.  It can refer to young adults (18 years or over) who have left the streets after a period of time.  This can be through their own choice, having been rehabilitated back home or into their communities.  It can also refer to young people who continue to live on the streets.  They are no longer classed as children and so do not receive the same social protection that children are entitled to.  Whatever the reason, these individuals continue to need the support to become fully integrated back into society.  Street culture can deprive an individual of many of the skills and knowledge to live a ‘normal’ life. The lack of education and skills has meant many former street children are unable to find basic employment.  Many continue to suffer from the trauma of their experiences on the streets and struggle to overcome the persistent challenges of addiction to drugs and alcohol.  Without the support and encouragement to overcome these issues, many former street children are at risk to becoming further marginalised and lost to society, with many getting caught up in crime and violence to survive. In South Africa, for example, a high proportion of the prison population between the ages of 16 and 25 have spend some time living on the streets. 

Street Action’s partners not only recognise the urgent need to support and develop former street children, but they see the value in investing in these individuals who can play an important role in changing the way that society perceives street children as well as becoming powerful advocates on behalf of those currently living on the streets. Our partners run various projects designed to develop a sustainable programme of life skills, skills training, assistance in the process of obtaining ID’s, counselling, mentoring, accommodation and assisted job search.