Prevalence,
Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the first decade
of the 21st Century gvnet.com/streetchildren/Chile.htm
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CAUTION: The following links and
accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation
in HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspect(s) of street life are of particular
interest to you. You might be
interested in exploring how children got there, how they survive, and how
some manage to leave the street.
Perhaps your paper could focus on how some street children abuse the
public and how they are abused by the public … and how they abuse each
other. Would you like to write about
market children? homeless children? Sexual and labor exploitation? begging? violence? addiction? hunger? neglect? etc. There is a lot to the subject of Street
Children. Scan other countries as well
as this one. Draw comparisons between
activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Street Children: A
New Liberation Movement? Arnon Bar-On, Chapter 10:
"African Women and Children: Crisis and Response" 2001, ISBN
0-275-96218-0 [accessed 28 April
2011] [page 189] Another
misconception about street children is that they are highly individualistic
or that they are driven to individualistic behavior by their circumstances.
Research shows, however, that they are more likely to live and operate in
groups, where solidarity extends from sharing food so that "everybody at
least gets something" (Burling, 1990a, 1990b) to providing emotional
support. These groups are also highly
organized. They usually have a recognized leader, whose position is rarely
based on harassment, while other members treat each other as equals. Indeed,
it is as if they create for themselves new families. For example, Vittachi (1989) describes a group of children in Chile who lived under a bridge. Every
morning they drew up shopping lists and distributed tasks, and while the
older members went to work, the middle aged children cared for the youngest. ***
ARCHIVES *** The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/chile.htm [accessed 28 January
2011] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - The National Statistics Institute of Chile estimated
that 3.3 percent of children ages 5 to 14 years were working in the country
in 2003. The survey found that the
percentage of working boys is higher than that of girls, and that the rate of
child work is higher in rural than in urban areas. The most common
activity for children who work is selling goods on the street and performing
odd jobs. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61720.htm [accessed 7 February
2020] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– SENAME, the ministries of government and health, and other government
agencies formed the Protect Network, which conducted general public awareness
and education campaigns to prevent sexual violence and abuse, including the
commercial sexual exploitation of minors. Nearly 80 percent of SENAME's budget
supported NGO programs, particularly those that worked with street children. SECTION
6 WORKER RIGHTS
– [d] In August SENAME released a report indicating that, as of September
2004, there were 1,123 cases of children and adolescents involved in the
worst forms of child labor. Of this number, approximately 68 percent were
boys; 75 percent were 15 years or older; and 66 percent did not attend
school. Thirty-seven percent of the individuals were involved in hazardous
activities such as mining; 24 percent in commercial sexual exploitation; 21
percent in dangerous jobs such as working with chemicals or toxins; and 14
percent in illegal activities. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 1 February 2002 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/chile2002.html [accessed 28 January
2011] [49] The Committee,
while noting that the State party has ratified ILO Conventions No. 138
concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment and No. 182 concerning the
Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of
Child Labour and increased the minimum age for admission to work to 15,
expresses its deep concern at the large number of children, including those
under 15, who are exploited economically, especially in the farming sector,
and the large number who have to leave school because they cannot conciliate work
and school. Jen Ross, The
Christian Science Monitor, www.csmonitor.com/2004/0113/p06s01-woam.html [accessed 28 April
2011] HIDDEN TRAGEDIES - Francisco is one
of the hidden tragedies. His mother died giving birth, and his father was
shot shortly after that. He grew up in orphanages, and at the age of 7, he
escaped to an even rougher life on the streets. For half his life, he worked
in the sex trade. It was the only way to feed himself,
he says. "I saw that other kids
were doing it, but all of them did it out of need," says Francisco. He
is 15 now and has been off the streets for three months. Francisco also had it
rough. He was beaten by pimps and clients. He now lives in a shelter called
Margin, which tries to get children off the street by helping them find
alternative forms of work. Margin is made up of former sex-trade workers like
Maria, who search the streets for others and offer them alternative ways to
make money. That was the selling point for Francisco. "This foundation made me change,"
he says, a twinkle in his eye. "I left prostitution and now I'm working,
as a traveling salesman - and legally." He peddles key chains on buses
and is learning to make crafts. Your Gifts Are
Helping The Street Children Of Salesian Missions At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 28 April
2011] The I Connect Online
Street Children Project Klaus Stoll,
2000-08-19 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 19
September 2011] The Street Children
Telecentre project in The Protection
Project - Human Rights Reports of The The www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/chile.doc [accessed 2009] FORMS OF TRAFFICKING - A recent study
estimates that 4,000 children work in the commercial sex industry in Testimonials from
Ray's Chilean friends [access information
unavailable] Ray
Gatchalian spent
the last week of his life "in Chile doing what he loved: engaging
people, learning, sharing of himself and his family, making connections that
built bridges across countries and cultures, showing his photos and videos,
visiting with and raising awareness about poor and abandoned children and
about those who devote their lives to helping these children. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
Prof. Martin, "Street Children - |
