A street child or youth is
“any girl or boy who has not reached adulthood, for whom the street (in the
broadest sense of the word, including unoccupied dwellings, wasteland, etc.)
has become her or his habitual abode and/or sources of livelihood, and who is
inadequately protected, supervised or directed by responsible adults”. However
the definition is meant to cover both children of the streets and children on
the streets. These kids are vulnerable and prone to abuse and diseases such as
categorised below:
- Child Abuse
Over one half of the street
children are concerned with child sexual abuse, physical abuse and emotional
abuse as their concept of child abuse. Nearly forty three percent (42.6%) of
the children identified sexual abuse as the most prevalent form of child abuse.
The majority of the street children felt that child sexual abuse was caused by poverty, psychological problems, to power
imbalances and by dysfunctional families.It is confirmed that street
children are engaging in risky sexual behaviour. They experience casual sex,
rape, prostitution, and sex for goods and other services. Younger boys engage
in sex without protection, while other boys were raped by older male youth or
adult street people. Some had “girlfriends” or “boyfriends”, others buy or sell
sex while some had sex with friends as a way of living.
- HIV/AIDS/STIs Knowledge, Attitudes and
Practices
The majority of
those who are sexually active (50.8%) are in the 11 to 15 years age group,
while, 38.5% were in the 16 to 18 years age group and 10.8% were in the 6 to 10
years age group. From this study it was found that street children are engaged
in sex at a very young age. Again children who slept both at home and on the
street were likely to have had sex than children in other categories. Again
children who slept both at home and on the street are more likely to be
affected by an STI. But a few children could identify at least three symptoms
of STIs (STDs) while most of them can not mention three symptoms of STIs. And
some of the children said they could tell one has HIV just by looking at them
while others said they could not tell by looking. The majority of the street
children are at a risk for getting HIV, though some of them felt it was only
commercial sex workers, or promiscuous persons.Some street children identified
use of condoms as a measure to reduce the spread of HIV;however seeking
treatment has certain flaws to them such as privacy andthe low or absence of
costs of treatment as the reason why they would seek treatment from a
particular healthprovider
- Community
Responses
Street children are seen as
“vagrants”, “illegal vendors” or “truants” by both the law and the general
public. Focused group discussions with street adults confirmed what many street
children felt that many people view street children as irresponsible young
persons who were “criminals in the making”. Reactions to such children thus
tend to be punitive and anti-social and delinquent behaviour stemming from
poverty is not considered in its proper social and psychological context
In Zimbabwe
there is a growing disquiet over the numbers of children working and living on
the streets. These children have been portrayed, especially in the electronic
and print media, as being little thieves or criminals in the making. Their
moral values and behaviour are seen as different from that of other children
who are not street children. This is so as they are seen to lack parental
guidance and protection. Some children loading and unloading trucks and buses,
exerts a great deal of demand on their meagre calorific reserves. This,
together with excessive alcohol use and poor nutrition, may weaken their
resistance to diseases. Children’s work is generally assumed to impair their
educational and intellectual development as work leaves them with little time
and energy for school. The majority of street children have little or no education
at all. Street children are seen to be at risk for HIV-infection given their
sexual behaviour; however there is limited information on the HIV-infection
rates amongst street children in Zimbabwe. Exchange of sex for security,
comfort sex based on mutual consent, sex with female sex workers, and having
their “wives” sell sex as an income-generating activity for the “couple”.
A careful analysis of the
street children phenomenon reflects a number of immediate, underlying and basic
causes. Available literature on street children in Zimbabwe from academic
presentations, journal articles, books by researchers and situational analysis
and survey reports, show a plethora of causal factors and effects to the street
children problem.
The phenomenon of street
children in all countries seems to be a social institution with basic social,
economic andenvironmental causes (Auret, 1995; Bourdillon, 1991; Dube, 1999;
Muchini, op. cit., Muchini and Nyandiya-Bundy, op. cit.). It appears to have
basic causes in the polity, the economy and other basic social factors such as public
social policies about employment, housing and land ownership. Thus, for the
larger number of street children, the underlying and basic causes for pushing
them onto the streets lie in the increasing number of families surviving under
extreme poverty, unemployment, and lack of opportunity for social mobility and
strained family relationships
BY BRENALD CHINYOWA
DIRECTOR & FOUNDER OF RAY OF HOPE FOUNDATION
