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Street
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Anecdotes
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The early years of
the 21st Century gvnet.com/streetchildren/ CAUTION: There
is always a risk in posting links to external websites. Some of the following links may possibly
lead to websites that present information that is unsubstantiated or even
false. Their authenticity has not been
verified and their content has not been validated. Breaking ties with the street Vivian Attwood, Independent Online (IOL)
News, June 9 2008 www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/breaking-ties-with-the-street-1.403726 [accessed 22 August 2011] Fundu Shezi (nicknamed "Bandlani")
has just turned 20. He has spent more than half his life on the streets of "When I was a baby
my mother did not want me," he says.
"She threw me into an open sewer at Umlazi.
A social worker found me and took me to the police. They put me in the Ocean
View Children's Home. "Later I
went to a foster mom, but I was unhappy. She took the government grant, but
was unkind about my mother. She was looking after five children, but she
drank a lot. I was with her from six years old and when I was 10 I went on
the streets. "As I grew up, I
started to smoke cigarettes, and then zol (dagga).
I became addicted to glue on the streets. When I came here I decided to leave
those things. "I have been told
that I have a brother and a sister who live in a place of safety. I would
like to meet them one day. I have a lot of anger towards my mother for
throwing me away. I dream about it all the time. How could she do that? I
have so many questions. Marie Paule's
story: Surviving life on the streets of Kinshasa Joyce Brandful,
United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF, [accessed 22 August 2011] The girls were
saved from being burnt alive when a vigilant neighbour
alerted police. That night, however, they were thrown out of the uncle's
house – and that's when their life on the streets began. Christian B. Schaeffler,
Editor-in-chief, Adventist Press Service APD, www.wfn.org/1999/01/msg00011.html [accessed 22 August 2011] Enrique, a typical
11-year-old Bolivian boy, was one of these street children. "I slept on the streets, but I was
always hungry and needed to feed my addictions," Enrique says. Prior to living on
the streets, Enrique lived with his grandparents. He was physically abused by his grandmother
and, after many beatings, ran away from home. Rebecca's Story Rebeccas Community www.homeless.org.au/people/rebecca.htm [accessed 22 August 2011] "Two things
happened when I turned 12, my Father who used to beat the hell out of us left
home and the other thing that happened is I started using drugs... One of my
friends said 'Here try this it will make you feel better', and it did. When I turned 13, my Mum found a new
partner who lived at home with us. He raped me regularly and abused my
younger sisters as well. I was only 13. Homeless People -
Jazmin's Story Rebeccas Community www.homeless.org.au/people/jazmin.htm [accessed 22 August 2011] Jazmin was raised
by her alcoholic father for the first eight years of her life and foster
parents until she was 12 years old.
She ran away from foster care to escape a foster father who was
violent. Living on the streets using
whatever drugs or alcohol she could get her hands on to escape her pain,
Jazmin was using heavily when she became pregnant at 15. "Social
Cleansing" Of Children Human Rights Watch/Americas,GENERATION
UNDER FIRE - Children and Violence in www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/1994/colombia/gener1.htm#cleansing [accessed 22 August 2011] Frankie has been on
the street since he was eight years old and has survived three "social
cleansing" attempts on his life.
Now a convicted murderer at twenty-three, he says that his mother died
of an illegal abortion and his father was killed in the service of a drug
trafficker. Children
without childhood Lua Viet 1995 Magazine www.luaviet.org/English/treem.htm [accessed 22 August 2011] This is T., a
three-year-boy whose mother was a streetwalker who died recently leaving him
on a street corner. No one knew her, except that she had wandered to The
Amani Children Amani Children’s Home amanikids.org/children-at-amani [accessed 22 August 2011] Each
child rescued by Amani has his or her own unique story. All of the children
have their own special talents, interests and dreams for their future. You
can learn more about the children who call Amani home here. Honduran
president addresses child murders A.M. Costa Rica, Vol. 2, No. 200, www.amcostarica.com/100902.htm [accessed 22 August 2011] [scroll down] After two weeks of
intense international attention to the issue, as well as a U.N. report demonstrating
the killing of homeless children by the police, the President promised to
reduce "in the shortest time possible" the assassination of
children in this Central American nation. Collins had been
living on the street for over a year 1st African Clothing, a project of the
non-profit organization, Expanding Opportunities www.1stafricanclothing.com/collins.html [accessed 22 August 2011] Collins
Kipkoech is 12 years old. He never knew his father.
He ran away from his home because he was continuously abused. His mother
would come to find him and bring him home where he would be severely abused
again. Give me 5 shillings Expanding Opportunities www.exop.org/pub/fiveshillings.htm [accessed 22 August 2011] The ragged dirty boy
held out his hand. My heart tried to ignore him. But there he was standing in
front of me. I shake my head and move on, a bundle of mixed emotions. I didn't have any change but that wasn't
the real reason. We were told not to give them money. They would only go buy
glue to sniff. Meet Fernando, Just
Ann M. Augherton,
Catholic Herald Managing Editor, 11/20/2003 www.catholicherald.com/stories/bMeet-Fernando-Just-One-Street-Kid-in-Mexico-Cityb,2986 [accessed 22 August 2011] He is a con-man, a
beggar, an entrepreneur and perhaps the mayor of his "little town."
His town is Plaza Francisco Zarco, a square in Help For Arie Farnam,
The Christian Science Monitor, hpn.asu.edu/archives/2002-April/005854.html [accessed 22 August 2011] In the narrow space
around the pipes in a From the Field -
Stories from Street Children in [access information unavailable] We all slept in a
garden. They started smoking and told
me to try it, but I had heard that smoking glue is bad and told them no. They insisted and called me a sissy for not
trying it, but I didn't pay attention and kep
sleeping. Then they started smoking
marijuana with coca base paste. They
wanted me to try that, too. I wanted
to, but I had a friend named Posheco who liked me,
and he told them not to give my any, so they stopped insisting. I had other friends
who stole things, and their girlfriends were or are prostitutes. I started hanging out with them and learned
to steal things. Gish's Journal Rebeccas Community [accessed 22 August 2011] I'm 26 years old
and have lived on the streets since I was 6 years old. A year ago I moved
into Rebecca’s Community 'Hospitality House.' This website chronicles my life
journey through foster care, homelessness, drug addiction, prison and my new
life off drugs and off the streets. Rape fades to
normality - Melissa's Story Rebeccas Community www.homeless.org.au/people/melissa.htm [accessed 22 August 2011] Melissa has been
treated like a toilet all her life, as a child, as a teenage girl and now as
a woman she has been raped sometimes daily by whatever male wants to use her. Adolphine’s Story War Child At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 22 August 2011] Adolphine is a 13 year old
girl who set out on foot with her parents to escape the brutal fighting in
the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
During her journey both her parents died. She was left alone and homeless in one of
the largest primary rainforests in the world.
Attacked and abused along the way, she endured with courage until she
finally reached Street Freedom - Mohammad Anwar, DAWN, 12 December 2002 www.paklinks.com/gs/culture-literature-and-linguistics/81843-hired-for-a-massage.html [accessed 22 August 2011] Thirteen year-old
Zahid spends his nights at Cantt railway station in
A
toolkit for life: Fixing Francis' future Ngabohl Kodkandji,
United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF, 22 December 2004 www.unicef.org/spanish/infobycountry/chad_2482.html [accessed 22 August 2011] The children stayed
with their father, a policeman, who has not remarried. On a policeman's wage
the family struggled to survive. Francis recounts his descent into poverty
and misery: "My parents divorced and, after that, my father was hardly
ever at home. That all affected me badly. But I also mixed with the wrong
crowd, and that's how I ended up on the streets." For a while, this became a way of life for
Francis. Once or twice - he doesn't remember how many times exactly - he
tried to go back to his father but he wasn't welcome there any more. True Stories - Street children in Malawi Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 17 June 2011] Emmanuel problems
with stealing / Maloyano stole food / Doreen, an
orphan accused of witchcraft./ Nakiline, an
adolescent mother, raped / Real Lives - Lynn Geldof, United Nations Children's Fund
UNICEF www.unicef.org/ceecis/reallives_1495.html [accessed 2 April 2011] “We have regular
customers who park their cars and we wash them. When they leave work, they
pay us." The police don’t hassle them on the proviso that they take 60%
of the boys’ earnings. So net profit usually ends up as approximately a
dollar per boy per day. The boys drop
in and out of school. Ridicule appears to be a feature of the alienation
process. "They jeer at me for not having a change of clothes. Even the
principal told me not to come to school if I didn’t wear the right
clothes" Ralph Fiennes’ visit
to United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF, 6th
October 2003 ralphfiennes-corner.net/index.php?id=22 [accessed 21 August 2015] MONDAY 6TH OCTOBER - His father was
drunk, had beaten up the mother, destroyed the home.
Andrey had run away and was living the wild migrant gypsy existence on the
streets. Eventually, the young people from the center took Andrey back to his
mother. And this woman, confronted with her son, was clearly wounded and
bereft, and at a loss as to how to take care of him. She let him go to an
orphanage rather than taking him back. Now he’s back on the street. Children
with Nowhere to Go Ulugbek Babakulov
- iwpr.net/global-voices/kyrgyzstan-children-nowhere-go [accessed 21 August 2015] His parents, he
said, had tried to put him into an orphanage in his home village, complaining
that they couldn't afford to look after him. When he had been refused, they
tried to palm him off at the local police station but were turned away
again. At this point, Slava says, his mother and father just abandoned him
before leaving for Ex–street kids thrive in doc Pieta Woolley, straight.com, April 27, 2006 www.straight.com/article/ex-street-kids-thrive-in-doc-0 [accessed 22 April 2011] And there's
Christin. Her mom, who often left her three children alone in a house with no
food, died of a heroin overdose at 27. As a teen, Christin begged jail staff
to keep her there, but she was released to the street over and over again.
She is now studying to graduate high school and raising her toddler-aged son. Parul Gupta, Agence France-Presse AFP, May
11, 2006 archives.dailytimes.com.pk/foreign/11-May-2006/indian-street-kids-offer-glimpse-into-their-lives [accessed 2 March
2015] Javed Khan left his village
home at the age of nine to see monuments in the Indian capital During that time,
Khan lived in an empty sewer, went without food for five days, was stabbed,
reported to a gang leader of street children and saw his friends lose their
lives to alcohol and drug addiction. |