Prevalence,
Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the first decade of the 21st
Century gvnet.com/streetchildren/Fiji.htm
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CAUTION: The following links and
accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation
in Fiji. Some of these links may lead
to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even
false. No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to
verify their content. 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 ARTICLES *** Homes for street
people Verenaisi Raicola,
The streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2007/10/25/homes-for-street-people/ [accessed 17 January
2017] In He said those who wanted to establish missions for street people should promote the strengthening and development of families as a proactive solution. Mr Khan said the
increase in the number of street children indicated the failure of Fiji's education
and economic systems and the lack of social planning in developing a safety
net for them. Another looming issue was the care and protection of
older street persons. Psychotherapist Selina Kuruleca,
who echoed similar sentiments, said there was an urgent need to monitor those
that operated homes for street kids. She said professional counselling
was needed for the street people. Nadi wants street kids
out The streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2007/02/18/nadi-wants-street-kids-out/ [accessed 17 January
2017] The "We want them
off our streets. "Anyone coming in to Nadi
to shop should be given space to move freely and not be harassed or hassled
by these street boys. "Shoppers coming into Nadi
don’t need street kids to be harassing them while they shop. ***
ARCHIVES *** The Department of Labor’s 2005 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor [PDF] www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2005/tda2005.pdf [accessed 10 November
2010] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Statistics on the number of working children under
the age of 15 in Other children,
especially those that are homeless, work in the informal sector and on the
streets. Children shine shoes, collect bottles, run
errands for restaurants, repair cars, and work as domestics in homes.
Children on the streets are susceptible to commercial sexual exploitation and
are lured into the commercial sex industry by both local and foreign adults
wishing to profit from the pornography trade. Human Rights
Reports » 2006 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78773.htm [accessed 8 February
2020] CHILDREN
- The
government devoted 18 percent of the national budget to education and also
worked to improve children's health and welfare. School is mandatory until
age 15, but the inability of some families to pay school fees and bus fares
limited attendance for some children. There was no significant difference
between the school enrollment rates for boys and girls. The government
provided free medical care for children at public health centers and
hospitals, including immunizations in primary schools. Corporal punishment
was common both in homes and in schools, despite a Ministry of Education
policy forbidding it in the classroom. Increasing urbanization, overcrowding,
and the breakdown of traditional community and extended family-based
structures led to an increasing incidence of child abuse. Multiple reports
suggested that child prostitution increased during the year. Child
prostitution was evident in poverty-stricken urban areas and among homeless
urban youth (see section 5, Trafficking). Urban migration and the subsequent
breakdown of community structures, children from outer islands living with
relatives while attending high school, and homelessness all appeared to be
factors that increased a child's chance of being exploited for commercial
sex. Increasing
urbanization led to more children working as casual laborers, often with no
safeguards against abuse or injury. SPG and Beggars [DOC] [access information
unavailable] Asking the ‘why’
question is a little more difficult. Why are they on the streets? Why can’t
they get a job? Perhaps we should be asking the more fundamental question:
Why is there poverty? Why is a society like Fiji
well versed in communal living and sharing, and affirmed by the teachings of
religion, allow the cycle of poverty to continue right in our own city? Report of the
Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child
pornography, Ms. Ofelia Calcetas-Santos - Addendum UN Economic and
Social Council, Commission On Human Rights, Fifty-sixth session, 27 December
1999 www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/0/4aeb5780d6b8516e802568960053e092?Opendocument [accessed 13 May
2011] VII. CONCLUSIONS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS 104. The Special
Rapporteur is disturbed that the contagion of commercial exploitation of
children does not seem to have spared even a relatively isolated country like
Recommendations of
the Children's Forum in Pacific Consultation
on Violence Against Children, www.crin.org/violence/search/closeup.asp?infoID=6372 [accessed 13 May
2011] The Pacific region held
a sub-regional Consultation on Violence against Children in Worst Forms of
Child Labour Data Global March Against
Child Labour beta.globalmarch.org/worstformsreport/world/fiji.html [accessed 12 October
2012] CHILD
PROSTITUTION AND PORNOGRAPHY - Street children in Couple cares for
street kids Aqela Lalakato,
Monday, May 28, 2007 streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2007/05/28/couple-cares-for-street-kids/ [accessed 17 January
2017] At 17, Alifereti found himself a job in Nadi
but the street was still home. "When I found a job I was still a street
kid," he said. "It amazes me
sometimes to be working among other people who were also living on the
street." Though living on a
meagre income and a limited education, Alifereti
dreamt of a decent life. He finds
himself fortunate to have travelled to other countries while working on a
container ship for nine years. At 59, married with
a 25-year-old daughter, he finds his calling in the ministry a divine
one. "People living on the streets
have so much to tell, if only someone cares to listen. Street kids secure
jobs May 24, 2007 streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2007/05/24/street-kids-secure-jobs/ [accessed 17 January
2017] "While the
people living on the streets have their own unique story on why fate has
dealt them an unfair hand, most of them claim they have been abandoned by
their families," Adi Laufitu
said. "They wished their
circumstances were better and they didn’t like what they had become, but they
had no choice," she said Police monitor kids
on the street The streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2007/03/13/police-monitor-kids-on-the-street/ [accessed 17 January
2017] Police are working
with the Lautoka City Council to ensure that street
kids are rehabilitated and kept out of trouble. West police chief Emori Laqai said his officers
in Lautoka were co-operating with the local
municipality to ensure that street kids do not break the law but are also
stopped from using city facilities for shelter. Senior
Superintendent Laqai said while other stakeholders
were looking at the rehabilitation of the kids, it was the duty of the police
to see that law and order was not compromised. SSP Laqai said a
committee at the Lautoka Police Station, headed by
the officer-in-charge Rusiate Saini, was looking
into the issue. He said the main
priority was for the boys not to break the law. 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 - |
