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Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the early years of the 21st
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and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the
situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** A new approach to Egypt’s street children United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF, www.unicef.org/infobycountry/egypt_30616.html [accessed 9 May 2011] Among the swirling
crowds of But the life he
found on the streets was no better, Adel admits. Now after four years of a
rootless, vulnerable existence, he longs to return home. “When I see other
children on their way to school, I wish I could be like them. Here on the
streets, I have no future,” Adel adds with a helpless shrug. Mass Arrests of Street Children in Human Rights Watch, 02/19/03 [accessed 9 May 2011] The Egyptian
government conducts mass arrest campaigns of children whose "crime"
is that they are in need of protection, Human Rights Watch said in a new
report released today. Children in police custody face beatings,
sexual abuse and extortion by police and adult criminal suspects, and police
routinely deny them access to food, bedding and medical care. Young girls learn ABC of Reuters, Dec 12, 2007 www.reuters.com/article/2007/12/12/us-egypt-streetgirls-idUSL2355233720071212 [accessed 9 May 2011] Nora, a mother at
just 14, jingled keys above her infant daughter's head, drawing smiles from
the baby she conceived while living on the streets of ***
ARCHIVES *** UNICEF
– www.unicef.org/infobycountry/egypt.html [accessed 10 May 2011] The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/egypt.htm [accessed 3 February 2011] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Urban areas are also host to large numbers of street
children who have left their homes in the countryside to find work, and often
to flee hostile conditions at home.
Street children work shining shoes, collecting rubbish, begging,
cleaning and directing cars into parking spaces, and selling food and
trinkets. Street children are
particularly vulnerable to becoming involved in illicit activities, including
stealing, smuggling, pornography, and prostitution. In particular, the commercial sexual
exploitation of children is greatly under-acknowledged given that Egyptian
cities ( Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61687.htm [accessed 3 February 2011] CHILDREN
- The
government remained committed to the protection of children's welfare; in
practice, the government made some progress in eliminating FGM and in
affording rights to children with foreign fathers. However, the government
made little progress in addressing the plight of street children, which
remained a significant problem. Concluding Observations of the Committee on
the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,
26 January 2001 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/egypt2001.html [accessed 27 February 2011] [47] In light of
its previous concluding observations and taking note of significant efforts
by the State party to improve education coverage, enrolment and retention
levels and the inclusion of the Convention in the school curricula, the
Committee remains concerned at the poor quality of education in general. The
Committee is further concerned at the lack of success of literacy programs for
school dropouts. [49] In light of
its previous concluding observations, and taking note of efforts by the State
party to address child labor, the Committee remains concerned about this
problem. Its main concerns are: (a) There are insufficient comprehensive and
accurate data available on children working in A child of Jeffrey Fleishman, The articles.latimes.com/2009/feb/17/world/fg-egypt-streetkid17 [accessed 10 May 2011] AMIRA HAS A BABY
GIRL AND IS EXPECTING. SHE IS 13, WITH NO PERMANENT PLACE TO STAY, ONE OF
THOUSANDS OF STREET CHILDREN IN EGYPT, WHOSE LAWS MAKE A HARD LIFE HARDER FOR
A SINGLE MOTHER LIKE HER She has a baby in
her arms and another growing inside. She says she knows about love, says she
found it on the streets, where boys fight with razors and a one-armed glue-huffer whispers the pretty things a girl yearns to hear
before she curls and sleeps in the abandoned buildings that clutter Cairo's
heart. "I love
him," says Amira, holding Randa,
the 18-month-old daughter she had with Ahmed. "I had an affair with him
four years ago. I love him because he protected me. When anybody bothered me,
he'd fight for me, and when it got cold he took me into his house. I still
love him. I saw him last Friday." Agence France-Presse AFP, afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5irLH7Qjul1GXkAjwWd77CN0vBtlQ [accessed 10 May 2011] While the situation
is difficult for the children who work while living at home, it is dire for
those living on city streets who are vulnerable to
protection rackets, prostitution and AIDS.
"Their situation is worse. Reintegrating the children living at
home into school is relatively easy. Those on the street are so traumatised that psychological help is the
priority," says Nevine Osman, coordinator of
the state-run National Council for Motherhood and Childhood. Authorities, protective of the country's
reputation for reform and modernity, are eager to keep the problem of street
children as quiet as possible, with few officials willing to speak on the
subject. According to UNICEF, a few
encouraging signs are emerging such as NGOs like the Hope Village Society,
which takes in street children and teaches them to mentor others in tougher
circumstances. In The www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=97097 [accessed 3 February 2011] In large cities
like In Jill Carroll, The Christian Science
Monitor, January 31, 2008 www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2008/0131/p01s04-wome.html [accessed 9 May 2011] Kareem and Mustapha
were little more than toddlers when their parents sent them onto Young girls learn ABC of Reuters, Dec 11, 2007 www.reuters.com/article/2007/12/12/us-egypt-streetgirls-idUSL2355233720071212 [accessed 9 May 2011] Nora, a mother at
just 14, jingled keys above her infant daughter's head, drawing smiles from
the baby she conceived while living on the streets of Egypt fights ignorance on HIV/Aids Alasdair Soussi,
BBC News, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7120737.stm [accessed 9 May 2011] TARGETING THE YOUNG - Meanwhile,
HIV/Aids peer education programmes
have been introduced by a range of NGOs dealing with young people. Particular attention is given to those most
at risk, such as Egypt's estimated one million street children. At a reception centre run by the
Cairo-based Hope Village Society, HIV and the risks associated with the
disease are a regular topic of discussion with groups of street
children. "HIV is a very
dangerous disease, so because of the training, I'm more aware of risks, and
it's influenced my behaviour," says 15-year
old Emad. "I look after myself better now when
I'm on the streets than I ever did before." Zizou kinder and gentler Reem Leila, Al-Ahram
Weekly, Issue No. 870, 8-14 November 2007 weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/870/eg11.htm [accessed 9 May 2011] It is hard to tell
how many children are living on the streets of Zidane launches homeless
children project in Cairo Agence France-Presse AFP, afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gMssjSz75L89Luczw9CURfMpQR1A [accessed 9 May 2011] Besides setting up
a home to take in some of Cairo has between 200,000
and one million street children, according to the UN's children agency
UNICEF. On this trip to Joel Carillet,
The Christian Science Monitor, August 3, 2007 www.csmonitor.com/2007/0803/p19s01-hfes.html?page=1 [accessed 9 May 2011] Being a veteran
traveler as well as having once lived in Colouring pain - Amira El-Noshokaty delves into
a spontaneous yet harrowing world of imagination, and reality Amira El-Noshokaty, Al-Ahram Weekly, 19-25 July 2007 -- Issue No.
854 weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/854/fe2.htm [accessed 10 May 2011] "I don't dream
of anything in particular. I just wish someone could take me off the street
because I'm so fed up with it." Thus Hoda, 20,
a street artist who paints whatever gives her "a feeling". She is
one of many contributors to On the Street, an art book composed entirely of
the work of street children. Nisrine, 13, speaks of the
public garden where she lived as her home -- a state of affairs constantly
undermined by undercover policemen who would take her in. "at night,
when I am alone, I sit and think what if I get sick? I do not know what I am
doing on the street, I don't know." According to a
UNICEF study on street children in Greater Cairo in 2007, out of 191 street
boys and girls, 64 per cent of the boys and 39.3 per cent of the girls were
abused at home by their fathers; 78.9 per cent of the boys have sex with
people of the same sex; 61.7 per cent of boys and 58.6 per cent of girls
sniff glue. Out of a total of 167 children, 48.6 per cent of the girls work
as prostitutes. Two get death for killing street kids Reuters, [accessed 10 May 2011] Two leaders of an
Egyptian children’s gang were sentenced to death yesterday for raping and
killing at least three, and possibly up to 26, street children in British Airways staff visit street children
centres in Cairo United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF, www.unicef.org/media/media_39599.html [accessed 10 May 2011] Five British
Airways Cabin Crew had the opportunity to visit centres
that have been set up to help street children in the city. The number of
street children is a big issue in Egypt and is on the rise. Estimates on the
number of street children range from 200,000 to one million, a quarter of the
street child population is believed to be less than 12 years old. Streets apart Sara Carr, Al-Ahram Weekly, 5-11 April 2007
-- Issue No. 839 weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/839/cu23.htm [accessed 10 May 2011] Accompanying
"On the Street" is a photographic exhibit by Hesham
Labib. "Cut Short", a collection of
portraits of five street children, is inspired by Tahani
Rached's 2006 documentary film El-Banat Dol (Those Girls), which presented a harrowing glimpse
into the world of Cairo's street children. Despite their vulnerability and
the misery of their circumstances, Rached's
homeless girls demonstrate a resilience that defies pity; they are proud, and
it is a trait that defines Labib's photographs: the
cinematic quality of these images, their pared down simplicity and above all
their subjects combine to make something beautiful. Even the infuriating and
presumably deliberate absence of any kind of background information about the
photographs and their subjects only contributes to their enigma. Vilified for voicing dissent Zvi Bar'el,
Haaretz, 04.March .07 www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/vilified-for-voicing-dissent-1.214551 [accessed 10 May 2011] Last month, al-Sadawi published another article in Al Hayat, blaming
male society for the phenomenon of over two million street children in When she tried to
transfer her daughters to a school in the Shubra neighborhood, she was told
that she had to obtain her husband's approval to do so. She was unable to
locate the deadbeat husband and her connections to the education minister
were useless. In the end, she turned to her mother-in-law, who managed to
persuade her son to submit the paperwork and permits needed to transfer the
girls. However the husband set one condition: that his wife
waive her monthly alimony payments in court. Solidarity unlimited Amira El-Noshokaty, Al-Ahram Weekly, 1-7 March 2007 -- Issue No.
834 weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/834/feature.htm [accessed 10 May 2011] NGOs marked a
national day for street children, but, asks Amira El-Noshokaty, what
about the rest of the year? UNICEF Executive Director commends Egypt’s
progress towards Millennium Development Goals United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF,
Cairo/Geneva/ www.unicef.org/media/media_38371.html [accessed 10 May 2011] The need to provide
protection to more vulnerable children – including those living on the
streets and girls subjected to female genital cutting -- were high on the
agenda of the UNICEF Executive Director’s meetings with senior government
officials. Excluded and invisible Amira El-Noshokaty, Al-Ahram Weekly, 21-27 December 2006 -- Issue
No. 825 weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/825/feature.htm [accessed 10 May 2011] WHY, ASKS AMIRA
EL-NOSHOKATY, ARE NUMEROUS EGYPTIAN CHILDREN LIVING ON THE STREETS? - According to Fadia Abu Shehba, professor at
the National Centre for Social and Criminal Research, "the factors are
numerous, including fragile families, broken homes and the absence of one of
the two pillars of the family. Lack of compatibility within homes gives way
to domestic violence, forcing children to run away. And this is not to
mention the complete lack of any form of parental guidance. Besides, crammed
into little apartments with as little as one room for 10 people, children
often see their parents having sex and want to copy them, initially with
siblings, hence rape and harassment. Children choose the street, where there
is enough room, only to be exploited by street gangs, whether sexually, in
the drug trade or, more recently, trading internationally in their body
parts." Killing Kids Manal el-Jesr, Egypt Today, January 9, 2007 This article has been archived by World
Street Children News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 10 May 2011] They admitted that
they had lured street children onto the tops of trains en route from Forgotten children Salama A Salama, Al-Ahram Weekly, 14-20 December 2006 -- Issue No.
824 weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/824/op4.htm [accessed 10 May 2011] As the tragic
circumstances of the rape and killing of street children unfolded, one would
have expected the government to form a committee to look into the phenomenon
and find appropriate solutions. The recent
atrocity, attributed to a gang led by someone called El-Turbini,
involved up to 30 victims. This alone tells us that the phenomenon is as
widespread as it is alarming. We have a Ministry for Social Welfare that is
supposedly in charge of children's homes around the country. We have several
NGOs that receive no financial help from the ministry and rely on funding
from private citizens and foreign aid organisations.
And yet the government has been unable to find real solutions to the problem
of homeless children. The latter are falling prey to gangs of racketeers and
drug dealers who have no qualms or conscience. The phenomenon resonates with
the history of some Latin American countries where belts of poverty around
major cities produce child gangs as well as gangs that kill children. Of mice and men Pierre Loza,
Al-Ahram Weekly, 14-20 December 2006 -- Issue No. 824 weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/824/eg10.htm [accessed 10 May 2011] The two-week saga
surrounding the capture of an 11-member gang that is believed to have
committed a series of rapes and murders in a number of governorates,
including Cairo, Alexandria, Al-Beheira and Qalioubya, has prompted concern about the perennial
problem of street children. According to interrogations, 26-year-old Ramadan
Abdel-Rahman, also known as El-Torbini
(meaning express train), is the gang leader who ordered the murders of
numerous street children. Although Abdel-Rahman and his accomplices allegedly led investigators to
more than 10 bodies in scattered parts of the country, they also took them to
Marsa Matruh where no
bodies were found. But after being remanded in custody for an additional 10
days, gang members are said to have confessed to killing more than 30 street
children. Street children worst hit by violence,
experts say UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
IRIN, www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=61949 [accessed 10 May 2011] "We get chased
and hit all the time by all kinds of people, from police to taxi drivers to
passers-by," said 12-year-old Mohammed, who spends most of his time at
the gates of Abla El-Badri, who heads the government-run National Council for
Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM) committee for street children, said Egypt's
half a million street children were always vulnerable to physical attacks. "If boys find
life on the streets hard, then girls, who might face more frequent sexual
attacks and rape, live in near-constant fear," El-Badri
said. A Firm Foundation Business Today, August 11, 2006 — Source:
www.businesstodayegypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=6892 www.nextbillion.net/news/social-entrepreneurship-awards-in-egypt [accessed 10 May 2011] Iskandar put two and two
together, and the result is a program in which garbage collectors recycle the
empty containers instead of reselling them in return for educational funding
from the companies looking to protect their brands. Big business is happy,
plastic goes eco and the garbage collectors get a chance at educational
mobility. It’s a win-win situation. Alasdair Soussi,
BBC News, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5036382.stm [accessed 10 May 2011] Many Egyptians
regard street children as a nuisance, or at worst as petty criminals fully
meriting the harsh treatment to which they are often subjected. Their health
problems are often severe, ranging from cholera to tuberculosis and anaemia. Studies show they
are exposed to a variety of toxic substances, both in their food and in the
environment around them. They are also at
risk of various kinds of abuse. In one survey, 86%
of street children questioned identified violence as a major problem in their
life, while 50% stated that they had been exposed to sexual molestation. A new approach to United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF, www.unicef.org/infobycountry/egypt_30616.html [accessed 9 May 2011] Among the swirling
crowds of But the life he
found on the streets was no better, Adel admits. Now after four years of a
rootless, vulnerable existence, he longs to return home. “When I see other
children on their way to school, I wish I could be like them. Here on the
streets, I have no future,” Adel adds with a helpless shrug. Mass Arrests of Street Children in Human Rights Watch, 02/19/03 [accessed 9 May 2011] The Egyptian
government conducts mass arrest campaigns of children whose "crime"
is that they are in need of protection, Human Rights Watch said in a new
report released today. Children in police custody face beatings,
sexual abuse and extortion by police and adult criminal suspects, and police
routinely deny them access to food, bedding and medical care. Police
Criticized On Child Arrests Steven Lee Myers, The New York Times,
February 21, 2003 [accessed 10 May 2011] Street children and
truants were being arrested on the basis that they were ''vulnerable to
delinquency,'' even if they had committed no crime. Violence Against
Girls in Conflict with the Law Human Rights Watch,
20 February 2007 www.hrw.org/legacy/english/docs/2007/02/20/global15345.htm [accessed 10 May
2011] VIOLENCE
IN DETENTION FACILITIES - “He
[the officer] curses me and makes me stand while he hits me with a stick.
When I fall to the ground he makes me stand again. He hits me all over my
body—from my head to my feet.” — Amal A.,
sixteen, detained in Cairo, Egypt Mass arrests of street children Human Rights Watch, www.hrea.org/lists/child-rights/markup/msg00170.html [accessed 10 May 2011] [scroll down] VOICES OF EGYPT'S
STREET CHILDREN SELECTED CHILDREN'S
ACCOUNTS SEXUAL ABUSE AND
VIOLENCE
- The guard here says, 'You are a woman [sexually].' He keeps saying that to
me. I keep saying, 'No, I'm a girl [i.e. a virgin].' Yesterday, he said, 'If
you are really a girl, take your clothes off so we can examine you. -Warda N.,
sixteen The guards at the [ Every little bit
[the guards at al Azbekiya] hit us. They hit us
with belts. When they come to wake us, they wake us up with belts. If someone
says anything, they hit all of us -Marwan ` They ask you where
you are from. Then the prosecutor says 'You stole something.' I say, 'I
didn't steal anything.' Then he says, 'O.K. Begging.' - Khaled
M., eleven Information About Street Children - This report is taken from “A Civil Society
Forum for North Africa and the Middle East on Promoting and Protecting the
Rights of Street Children”, 3-6 March 2004, At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 22 September 2011] A quarter of the
street child population is believed to be less than 12 years old, with
two-thirds between 13 and 16 years old and only 10% over 17. The key factors pushing children onto the
streets in Child Protection - United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 10 May 2011] These children lead
an unhealthy and often dangerous life that leaves them deprived of their
basic needs for protection, guidance, and supervision and exposes them to
different forms of exploitation and abuse. For many, survival on the street
means begging and sexual exploitation by adults. Update December 2001 – United Nations
Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention [PDF] UN Office for Drug Control and Crime
Prevention UNODCCP, December 2001 www.unodc.org/pdf/newsletter_2001-12-01_1.pdf [accessed 10 May 2011] [page 12] HOPE FOR STREET
CHILDREN IN EGYPT
- With some 16 million inhabitants Cairo is the biggest city in Africa and
the Middle East. It is also home to a rapidly growing street children
population of around 150,000. Many of these unfortunate children have to deal
with broken families, poverty, abuse and violence. Sadly, drugs such as
cannabis herb, tablets, and solvents, are all too often used to cope with the
pain, violence, and hunger of the streets. Drug Demand
Reduction among Street Children in UN Office on Drugs and Crime UNODC www.unodc.org/egypt/en/drug_demand_reduction_egypt.html [accessed 10 May 2011] The project builds
up comprehensive drug abuse prevention and treatment services for street
children in All
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