STREET CHILDREN AT RISK

Street children comprise about 1-3% of the children and youth population of the major cities in the Philippines. Metro Manila and the National Capital Region (NCR) have an estimated 30,000 children on the streets, while nationwide, some 250,000 street children are believed to be plying the streets of major urban centers. From available studies, most are boys aged 7 to 16 years. About 75% of them still return home to families, after working or begging on the streets.

The situation of children working and/or living on the street is viewed as a violation of the rights of children. The five major causes for children to take to the streets are poverty and large families; unemployment/ underemployment; limited access to basic social services; breakdown of family structures; and the shift from traditional values that tend to be consumeristic and materialistic. The immediate trigger is often physical or sexual abuse within the family. When these children experience family problems, hunger, neglect and domestic violence, they escape from their homes and live part-time, or even full-time on the streets. Some are simply abandoned.

While on the streets, these children are exposed to very harsh and dangerous elements. They suffer from hunger, cold, sickness, abuse, and exploitation. Among the street children, the street girls are the most vulnerable to maltreatment, sexual abuse and exploitation. 30% of street children are girls.

Most street children are child workers, working and/or living on the streets and engaged in vending, car washing, scavenging, begging, peddling drugs, prostitution and petty theft. Boys, just as often as girls, are sexually abused. These children are often in conflict with the law and the authorities.

Poem by a street child of Metro Manila 

I am a plastic of candy
After being used I am thrown away
I have no value and no dignity
Destruction came into my mind

A bird appears on a dead tree

It changes into a girl
Eros, love the life bringers
She gives new life and dignity for victims

She met Known, who gives suffering & fears
They fought to the last
Eros continuous to travel and met Tartarus
Tartarus begueth and lead peoples hearts

He used his power to rule over the land
The battle begins between them
She can't win against Tartarus
Because his anger for Known's death

Eros found a magical stone, was able to kill Tartarus 
After the war, storm, Eros vanishes
New sunrise appears and prosperity

A dead tree grew a blossom

- ‘PJ’


(PJ, a teenager, attends the street education programme of ChildHope Philippines. His poem, presented here in it's original unedited form, is an expression of his deep emotional intelligence. He was inspired, he says, by a story session on Greek Mythology. PJ lives, plays, works and studies on the streets of Metro Manila.)

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WHO ARE THESE STREET CHILDREN?

The definition of 'street children' is contested, but many practitioners and policymakers use UNICEF's concept of boys and girls aged under 18 for whom 'the street' (including unoccupied dwellings and wasteland) has become home and/or their source of livelihood; and who are inadequately protected or supervised (Black, 1993).

Three broad categories of street children are generally accepted by social workers:

• Street-based are children living alone (either abandoned or runaways) and working in the street;
  
• Children of street-based families are children  living with their families as street-dwellers;
  
• Community-based are children who work on the streets but return home daily to their families in the community; many of them receive formal school education.