Further readings:
Chad's Invisible Refugee Crisis, 03-01-2004
In mid-February 2003, Darfur tribes of African origin set up a rebellion movement, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), and created a new armed group, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA). This rebellion took up arms against the policies of Sudan's central government. More...
Street Children: the time is ripe for harder action!
text by Heerko Dijksterhuis, 02-10-2003
In the early 1990s the West awakened to a problem, which was arising on an ever-bigger scale in the big cities and towns of the Third World: street children. Action groups were formed and tried to do something about it but the problem is still far from being solved: the number of street children continues to increase. But there is hope. In the past ten years a lot of knowledge was accumulated as to how to set about this problem. Heerko Dijksterhuis reports about this from Accra, the capital of Ghana in West Africa. He talks with Jos van Dinther, Brother of Maastricht and founder and director of Catholic Action for Street Children (CAS).
We are sitting under a grass roof in the baking compound of the House of Refuge of CAS in Accra. The sweated T-shirts of the football-team have been hung out to dry, peanuts and bananas are sold and eaten, and meanwhile boys and girls of about fifteen years are playing volleyball. Inside we hear the sound of language teaching. A poorly dressed boy of about ten shows the wound on his knee, which has just been dressed by the nurse; and is nagging for the video to be turned on. A girl lashes out at an impudent boy while she is breastfeeding her baby. Pottery is drying in the tropical sun in harmony with the laundry. This is a normal setting at CAS for a deliberation about a meeting that will be held on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of CAS, at which the participants will share their experiences, and action plans will be mapped out with the countries of Anglophone West Africa.
CAS is one of the first private initiatives on the African continent, which started working especially with and for street children. Still, during the ten years of CAS' existence the number of street children has only increased. Jos van Dinther is not surprised about this. We don't entertain illusions. In ten years' time, even more street children will most probably be on the streets. Without our work the problem would, no doubt, have been worse. But there is a big difference. When we started ten years ago, the problem was not accepted, it was even denied or at best ignored by the Ghanaian authorities. Now people agree that there is a problem, for which a solution has to be found. And our expertise in this field is appreciated.
What exactly is this expertise? CAS has published a booklet about it: 'The Ghanaian Street Child'. From this it appears that CAS has registered about 20,000 street children in the Ghanaian capital Accra. In all Ghana there could be as many as 50,000 street children, but there are higher estimates, as the one made by the Ministry of Social Welfare. It depends on what definition is used. CAS registers a child only when it lives on the street and is not supported by anyone.
In the House of Refuge run by CAS approximately 4000 children have been registered during the past ten years. They are from all regions of Ghana and even from neighbouring countries such as Liberia and Burkina Faso. Research into the background of these children reveals that more often social problems are the reasons rather than exclusively economic factors why children leave their homes. Neglect by parents, one-parent families, violence at home, or simply 'too many children in the family' are the reasons more frequently recorded than factors related to poverty, although these also play a part. Migration is another factor. Parent's leave to find jobs elsewhere, an economic reason.
But the remaining members of the family cannot take care of all the children and often they are sent out into the streets or end up there automatically. From their village where they were born, they sooner or later travel with someone to the big towns, where they presume there are more opportunities.
Children come to us because they need security and a safe place to have a bath or to sleep. Living in the streets is not easy. But one of the things we have learnt is that it won't do to send them back home. They had their reasons for leaving their families; for them there is no home, unless we help them to create one. Brother Jos can really get enraged at the easy actions to return the children to their homes. The birth rate in Ghana is still very high, and especially many poor people make hardly any use of the family planning methods. Half of the Ghanaian population is below 16 years of age. This is also due to the decrease of child mortality as a result of better medical facilities. Hopefully parents will realise that there is no need for them to have more children out of economic necessity. It should rather be the other way about: have no more children than your family can economically provide for. Therefore it is very important for women to be able to make their own choices. This means, all girls should go to school!
CAS helps the children with training and work. There are more boys than girls to be helped, and with the girls there is a special problem. They are, of course, more vulnerable in the street and many become pregnant already when they are 14 or 15. We also try to solve this problem by giving specific education and information about birth control and prevention of diseases such as AIDS.
And world-wise (streetwise) as these children may be, often they do not know the risks involved and often they have not received any sexual education. This is a difficult subject, certainly in a country like Ghana where people do not talk about these private subjects openly. But we just have to!
For the girls we have created a refuge centre where they can give birth to their baby in hygienic surroundings and where they are taught how to take care of their child. We receive many requests for adoption, even from Europe and the States. But it is interesting to note that such a street girl is very much attached to her baby. For the first time she has something which really belongs to her! So, generally, she absolutely does not want to part with it!
We help girls who are having a baby to learn a trade: hairdressing, tie and dye, bead making, sewing. And, of course, they receive the necessary medical care. All this is provided by our sister organisation Street Girls Aid. But for the boys there is a programme too. I think it is very important that the apprenticeship training, the skill training should be open to them. Boys often opt to become, for instance, car mechanics, and we help them to achieve this. Beside this we run a model farm where the practical agrarian training takes place.
A really new approach we are taking is that we plead for the higher skilled professional categories also to be thrown open to street children. In Ghana this means striking a different note; the authorities have to get used to this approach. But I am convinced that in the long run this is the only chance to prevent social exclusion. Many street children are intelligent; this is pretty obvious when you manage to survive on the streets by doing jobs such as carrying goods in the market! So higher education should also be made accessible to them. This will cost a lot of efforts and money, but with corresponding good results. The present president of Brazil, Lula, also started as a shoeshine boy. Examples of this kind are exceptional in Ghana!
The message from CAS is therefore: the time of experimenting and looking for cheap solutions is over, something has to be done! Help us to create jobs in the growth sectors of the economy, such as tourism, computerization and communication. Let us do it together; we offer our expertise and experience but we also expect a serious response from the authorities. The time of social exclusion is over; street children can precisely be of great value for the development of the country!
This last is new. Just like other organisation working for street children, CAS has never had official policy in view. But Bro. Jos is of the opinion that no fundamental improvements will occur by only providing refuge, assistance and training. Legal protection for street children should be enacted, to prevent them from being misused and exploited. This is a task of the government. A counselling and guiding programme should be established for the families from which the street children originate. Children who have been abandoned by everybody should find a safe place in an orphanage or a foster family. In short, street children should be accepted as a reality, they should be listened to!
But we also appeal to the churches and mosques, which can play a great role in this. What is at stake is a change in mentality. Therefore traditional opinion leaders are also important and Ghana has many of these: chiefs, kings, queen mothers, they all have to get involved. Finally there is the trade sector. The majority of the street children choose for a practical training, rather than go to school the whole day. This requires the necessary follow-up and an open attitude on the part of employers. The workers of CAS have to be trained to provide this important follow-up, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Manpower Development. Technical skill training is undervalued, also in Ghana, while it could mean such a lot for the country and the individual trainees.
Of course, we have to tackle the problem at the source. But it will not be possible to eradicate all the causes at once. As long as there is poverty in the rural areas, families which fall apart, and a failing educational system, the army of street children in the towns and cities will only increase. Let us prevent it from becoming a real army! In countries like Liberia and Ivory Coast, children who have no chance in life are recruited into the army or armed rebel-groups. Fortunately we have been spared this in Ghana. Therefore, I make an appeal to all parties to come into action. It is quite a job, but I have a strong feeling that it will work!