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Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the early years of the 21st
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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 Eter Tsotniashvili,
The Messenger, August 24-September 7, 2007, #162 (1429) www.messenger.com.ge/issues/1429_august_24_2007/feature_1429.htm [accessed 16 May 2011] 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 Tskriala Shermadini
and Nana Naskidashvili, 12 May 2004 www.humanrights.ge/index.php?a=main&pid=5888&lang=eng [accessed 23 September 2011] 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
– Georgia www.unicef.org/infobycountry/georgia.html [accessed 16 May 2011] The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/georgia.htm [accessed 6 February 2011] 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. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61649.htm [accessed 6 February 2011] 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) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 3
October 2003 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/georgia2003.html [accessed 6 February 2011] [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. Ana Chkhaidze,
World Vision, 03/15/2008 www.messenger.com.ge/issues/1571_march_21_2008/1571_street.html [accessed 16 May 2011] More than 75 street
children and 150 social workers and teachers in four regions in 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 28 Jan 2008 This article has been archived by World
Street Children News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 16 May 2011] There are
approximately 2,000 street children in World Vision meero.worldvision.org/news_article.php?newsID=1437&countryID=11 [Last access date unavailable] Street children in From the streets to the stage, a young
woman plots her path in life Eter Tsotniashvili,
The Messenger, August 24-September 7, 2007, #162 (1429) www.messenger.com.ge/issues/1429_august_24_2007/feature_1429.htm [accessed 16 May 2011] 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 Tskriala Shermadini
and Nana Naskidashvili, 12 May 2004 www.humanrights.ge/index.php?a=main&pid=5888&lang=eng [accessed 16 May 2011] 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 Thomas Nybo,
United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF, www.unicef.org/infobycountry/georgia_27572.html [accessed 16 May 2011] About 2,500
children in Dishing Out Food And Hope To Mia Turner, Tblisi,
Feb 6 2004 This article has been archived by World
Street Children News and may possibly also be accessible [here] [accessed 16 May 2011] "There are
1,500 street children in Street Wise Project Reaches Out To
Georgia’s Forgotten Youth Keti Nozadze,
Communications Assistant, World Vision, 11 Jul 2005 [accessed 16 May 2011] 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. UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs, Report for October 2004, 10 November 2004 At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 16 May 2011] 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 Internews, June 29, 2001 At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 16 May 2011] "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 Children Of The Women Aid International www.womenaid.org/silkrdchildren.htm [accessed 16 May 2011] SOUTH CAUCASUS - Conditions in Project NGO Beliki American Friends of Georgia AFG At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 16 May 2011] 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 International Foundation for Children's
Health Care "Posterity", www.civilsoc.org/nisorgs/georgia/psterity.htm [accessed 16 May 2011] 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 UN Committee On The Rights Of The Child
CRC, 26 May 1997 At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 16 May 2011] 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>] |
Torture in [Georgia] [other countries]Human Trafficking in [Georgia] [other countries]Street Children in [Georgia Child Prostitution in [Georgia] [other countries]