Human Trafficking in [Georgia] [other countries]Street Children in [Georgia Child Prostitution in [Georgia] [other countries] |
Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the
first ten years of the 21st
Century - 2000 to 2009
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CAUTION: The following links and accompanying text have been culled
from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** From the streets to the stage, a young woman plots her
path in life www.messenger.com.ge/issues/1429_august_24_2007/feature_1429.htm Lika grew up with a mother and six
brothers, five of whom left the family home and never looked back. She lived
with her mother and youngest brother in a Lotkini
district apartment; the family's only income was what they could get begging
on Rustaveli Avenue. The fall from poverty to homeless was
sudden. When Lika was seven, her small family lost
what little they had in a house fire. With nowhere to go, they slept in the
streets. Within a year, her mother was able
to rent a small room for the three of them. But Lika
was accustomed to street life, and left their new home when she was eight.
She didn't have a bad relationship with her mother, she said, but felt at
home on the street-and craved inhalants. She and her friends would beg for
money to buy food and glue. They slept nights under balconies and in cars. Street Children – Our Concern This article has been archived by
World Street Children News and may possibly still be accessible [here] Many street children work in
markets and in other busy areas. Some are employed in small enterprises.
Saying the children are “employed” is perhaps misleading. They do not sign
any type of work agreement, so employers can treat them as they see fit. Many
of these children are homeless and addicted to drugs. They spend nights in
underground stations, which costs them some money,
often 5 GEL or more. To whom do they pay? To the police and to the
underground administration. The daily income of street children is estimated
to be, on average, at 10-15 GEL. Police salaries are also very small, but
this does not justify their actions. District inspectors often force street
children to share their income. If a child refuses to share their income with
the inspector, he is often detained, and must bribe his way out of custody. ***
ARCHIVES *** UNICEF - The Big Picture U.S.
Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - There are reports of significant numbers of children, some as young
as 5 years old, engaged in begging or working on the streets. Children
as young as 9 years old are found working in markets, sometimes at night, and
involved in carrying or loading wares. Children also work in cafes,
bistros, gas stations, and for street photographers. According to the UN Committee on the Rights
of the Child, police violence against street children is a problem. In
general, there is a lack of social safety services for children living on the
street. Trafficking of children
occurs, and thousands of children living in the streets and in orphanages are
vulnerable to trafficking. Some
families experiencing economic hardship have separated, which has increased
the number of children living on the street. Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 CHILDREN - Difficult economic conditions
broke up some families and increased the number of street children. NGOs estimated that
there were approximately 1,500 street
children between 3 and 15 years old in the country, with 1,200
concentrated in Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2003 [64] The Committee shares the
concern expressed by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
and the findings of the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child
prostitution and child pornography regarding the high number of street
children who are often victims of trafficking networks and various other
forms of exploitation, indicating that the number of children living on the
streets is increasing and that families are allowing children as young as 7
to make a living on the streets.
Furthermore, the Committee is deeply concerned by allegedly widespread
police brutality towards street children. Georgian
street children and caregivers trained to deliver life saving aid More than 75 street children and
150 social workers and teachers in four regions in Georgia are equipped to
deliver life-saving assistance thanks to recent trainings on emergency care
conducted by World Vision. The
trainings are provided by the 'Learning the Principles of First Emergency
Care' project, which aims to increase the capacity of street and at-risk
children aged 10-16 in Tbilisi, Telavi, Kutaisi and Batumi, as well as
among social workers of various youth centers and institutions, to avoid
risks and dangers to their health and wellbeing. There are some 1,500 children
living on the streets of Georgia and thousands of Georgian youth are at risk
of becoming street kids, according to World Vision and other NGO reports.
There are no official statistics on the number of street children in Georgia. Protection
of Georgian children promoted in trainings There are approximately 2,000
street children in Georgia, according to the World Vision Street Kids program
and other NGO reports. No official statistics on the number of street
children in Georgia exist. Children aged
10 to16 make up a significant portion of Georgia's street children, and there
are thousands of youth at risk of living on the street due to poverty and a
lack of community services. These youth come from troubled families who
struggle to cope with the difficulties of economic collapse and unemployment
that have plagued Georgia for the past decade. Georgian
street children to find life safety and hope Street children in Georgia will
find safe shelter and the opportunity to develop to their fullest potential
as a result of a recently launched World Vision project. The Laboratories of
Learning (LOL) project will improve understanding of the issues surrounding
Georgia's street children, resulting in the design of more effective
prevention and care models. From the streets to the stage, a young woman plots her
path in life www.messenger.com.ge/issues/1429_august_24_2007/feature_1429.htm Lika grew up with a mother and six
brothers, five of whom left the family home and never looked back. She lived
with her mother and youngest brother in a Lotkini
district apartment; the family's only income was what they could get begging
on Rustaveli Avenue. The fall from poverty to homeless was
sudden. When Lika was seven, her small family lost
what little they had in a house fire. With nowhere to go, they slept in the
streets. Within a year, her mother was able
to rent a small room for the three of them. But Lika
was accustomed to street life, and left their new home when she was eight.
She didn't have a bad relationship with her mother, she said, but felt at
home on the street-and craved inhalants. She and her friends would beg for
money to buy food and glue. They slept nights under balconies and in cars. Street Children – Our Concern This article has been archived by
World Street Children News and may possibly still be accessible [here] Many street children work in
markets and in other busy areas. Some are employed in small enterprises.
Saying the children are “employed” is perhaps misleading. They do not sign
any type of work agreement, so employers can treat them as they see fit. Many
of these children are homeless and addicted to drugs. They spend nights in
underground stations, which costs them some money,
often 5 GEL or more. To whom do they pay? To the police and to the
underground administration. The daily income of street children is estimated
to be, on average, at 10-15 GEL. Police salaries are also very small, but
this does not justify their actions. District inspectors often force street
children to share their income. If a child refuses to share their income with
the inspector, he is often detained, and must bribe his way out of custody. New haven for
street children in Georgia About 2,500 children in Dishing Out Food And Hope To Georgia's Street Children www.wfp.org/newsroom/in_depth/Asia/georgia/georgia_streetchildren040206.html At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
"There are 1,500 street
children in Street Wise Project Reaches Out To Georgia’s Forgotten Youth Georgian, Russian, Armenian,
Kurdish and Roma, these young people, aged 10 to 20 comprise the forgotten
youth of this former Soviet-bloc country.
They either live on the streets of its capital, Tbilisi, or are at
risk of becoming homeless as they ‘graduate’ from Georgia’s children’s
institutions with no welcoming family to turn to and no skills to support
themselves. Their lack of choices and
protection mean that they are vulnerable to traffickers, drug abuse and
sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS. They are easy prey for
criminal rings. www.cidi.org/humanitarian/hsr/04b/ixl114.html At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] Starting from September 2004, with
financial support from USAID, Save the Children is implementing a new project
Rebuilding Lives Street Children (RLSC). The goal of the RLSC project
is to strengthen and expand local capacities to promote the physical,
cognitive, emotional and psychosocial well being of street children in INTERNEWS www.internews.org/news/2001/062901_georgia/062901_georgia.htm At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] "Children of the Street"
is a 56-minute film documenting the lives of Tbilisi's street children, with
footage showing these children living in the subway tunnels and parks of the
city as well as alternatives to street life that exist for some of these
children. The film was directed by Rusiko Tchkunia and was premiered at the Free Theatre at SOUTH CAUCASUS - Conditions in Georgia's state
orphanages are so harsh that many youngsters prefer to take their chances on
the streets. Just 40 miles from Project NGO Beliki www.afgeorgia.org/project08.html At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] The combination of high
unemployment, and the arrival of refugees from the civil war in Abkhazia, led
to many children going out into the street to sell things to help feed their
families. They are not getting
educated because these same families cannot afford to buy the clothes and
notebooks their children need to attend school. Project Title: Medical Examination And Treatment Of Street Children In Tbilisi OBJECTIVES
OF THE PROJECT - Most of them spend
the night in the street, railway stations, abandoned basements, half
destroyed houses and lavatories. Under such conditions it is impossible to
observe even elementary hygiene. Obviously their health requires immediate
attention and improvement. Medical examinations, disease prevention and
special treatment should be carried out for each of these children. Committee On The Rights Of The Child (CRC) - Consideration of Reports - 1997 www.hri.ca/fortherecord1997/documentation/tbodies/crc-c-41-add4.htm At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] 196. The average age is 13.
Eighty-seven per cent of the children completely or partially give their
income to their families. Out of these children 54 per cent are of school age
but cannot read or write; 22 per cent do not study, but rather work; 42 per
cent have health difficulties, 24 per cent smoke, 2 per cent are prone to
alcoholism, 2 per cent have inclinations towards narcotics. In general, 234
children are beggars. The average age is 10; 140 are boys and 94 are girls. 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 - Georgia",
http://gvnet.com/streetchildren/Georgia.htm, [accessed <date>] |
Human Trafficking in [Georgia] [other countries]Street Children in [Georgia Child Prostitution in [Georgia] [other countries]