Street Children

The Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children

Resources for Teachers

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Essay Questions

1. List three major societal factors that drive a child to the street. How do they contribute and how might they be mitigated?

2. In 2005, aneki.com listed the top-10 poorest countries in the world as follows: East Timor, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Tanzania, Burundi, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Comoros, and Eritrea. Furthermore, aneki.com listed the top-10 richest countries in the world: Luxembourg, Norway, United States, San Marino, Switzerland, Denmark, Iceland, Austria, Canada, and Ireland. Focusing only on Africa, Mauritius and South Africa were listed as the two richest countries. How does a poor country compare to a rich one with respect to the prevalence of street children?

3. Is it true that there are very few street children in cities whose climate is hostile to outdoor living? Is abandonment and rejection of children basically a weather-related phenomenon?

4. A website posting [http://www.cyc-net.org/features/ft-streetkids2.html] asserts that street children are predominantly healthy and that when they are ill, they are usually looked after by a relative. It went on to state that street child earn on average, as much as the adults in their vicinity and often up to one and a half times the minimum wage of most of these adults. It further stated that their income is generally sufficient to meet the cost of decent and nutritious meals, in contrast to a bleak picture at home. Are these assertions consistent with other reports posted on the web?