Human Trafficking in [Guyana] [other countries]Street Children in [Guyana Child Prostitution in [Guyana] [other countries] |
Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the early
years of the 21st Century - 2000 to 2010 gvnet.com/streetchildren/Guyana.htm
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CAUTION: The following links and accompanying text have been culled
from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** The Boys From Nowhere Editorial, Stabroek News, April
24, 2007 www.landofsixpeoples.com/news702/ns070424.html [accessed 21 May 2011] A city magistrate was at his wit's
end recently to decide what do with a 10-year-old boy who had been charged
for robbery with an offensive weapon. Posing as beggars, the boy and his 13-
and 15-year-old partners approached an unsuspecting victim, threatening her
with an ice pick, and robbing her of her valuables. Unrepresented in court, clad in
filthy garments and of no fixed place of abode - police talk for homeless -
the boy was a member of one of the several posses who now live on the street
and who seem to have come from nowhere and to be going nowhere. Uneducated,
unwashed and uncared for, street children live in a catch-as-catch-can world
around fast-food restaurants and supermarkets in the central business
district by day, outside night clubs and bars in the entertainment circuit at
night and sleeping on makeshift cardboard cots on the city's pavements and
parapets. The children survive by begging,
gambling, stealing and working at odd jobs. They are usually victims of
sexual molestation by men; bullying; fighting; stealing, and drug use and
abuse. Beyond the care of adults, many juveniles are increasingly being
seduced into criminal activity by their peers and older boys. *** ARCHIVES
*** UNICEF – www.unicef.org/infobycountry/guyana.html [accessed 21 May 2011] The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on the Worst Forms
of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/guyana.htm [accessed 8 February 2011] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - UNICEF estimated that 27 percent of children ages 5 to 14 in Human Rights Reports » 2005
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61730.htm [accessed 8 February 2011] CHILDREN - Public education was available
to age 20. Education was compulsory until age 16, universal, and free through
secondary school. Children often did not attend school because their families
needed them to contribute to the household by working or providing child care
to siblings or younger relatives. According to 2004 statistics, primary
school attendance was 87 percent, although only 50 percent of the children
completed secondary education. SECTION 6
WORKER RIGHTS – [d]
Although the law sets minimum age requirements for employment of children,
child labor in the informal sector was a problem, and it was common to see
very young children engaged in street
trading in the capital. Concluding Observations of the
Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 30 January 2004 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/guyana2004.html [accessed 8 February 2011] [51] While noting the study with
UNICEF on street children and the State party’s awareness of the phenomenon
of increasing numbers of street children, the Committee remains concerned at
the situation of street children and at the lack of adequate and sufficient
measures to address this situation. ‘Tis the season Editorial, Stabroek News,
December 22, 2007 www.stabroeknews.com/2007/opinion/editorial/12/22/tis-the-season/ [accessed 21 May 2011] Another not so new phenomenon is
children begging on the streets. Of course, this is not limited to Christmas
time. Child beggars were on the streets year-round. Several months ago, the
Ministry of Human Services and Social Security launched a programme,
which saw the children being removed from the streets and taken to a
specially designated home from where they could be reunited with their
parents who would have received counselling. The ministry is now busy with
its sexual violence consultation and it appears that the street children programme might have suffered as a result. One
particularly glaring example is the mother with about five children near Muneshwer’s Store on Water Street targeting shoppers and
customers visiting the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry next door. The
children, who are dirty, ragged and wear no shoes, are the ones who approach
the targets asking for “a little help” and receiving it. Govt promises residential facility for
street children July 13th 2007 This article has been archived by World Street Children
News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 21 May 2011] Government says it will provide a
residential facility for street children as part of its efforts to clamp down
on the social ill and keep them off the streets. Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon at a
press briefing yesterday made the disclosure and said that the current centre
would be rehabilitated and dedicated to housing street children. However he cautioned that the facility
would not be a "forever institution", adding that the focus would
be on having the children placed in permanent, appropriate shelters through
adoption or putting them in the custody of relatives. The Boys From Nowhere Editorial, Stabroek News, April
24, 2007 www.landofsixpeoples.com/news702/ns070424.html [accessed 21 May 2011] A city magistrate was at his wit's
end recently to decide what do with a 10-year-old boy who had been charged
for robbery with an offensive weapon. Posing as beggars, the boy and his 13-
and 15-year-old partners approached an unsuspecting victim, threatening her
with an ice pick, and robbing her of her valuables. Unrepresented in court, clad in
filthy garments and of no fixed place of abode - police talk for homeless -
the boy was a member of one of the several posses who now live on the street
and who seem to have come from nowhere and to be going nowhere. Uneducated,
unwashed and uncared for, street children live in a catch-as-catch-can world
around fast-food restaurants and supermarkets in the central business
district by day, outside night clubs and bars in the entertainment circuit at
night and sleeping on makeshift cardboard cots on the city's pavements and
parapets. The children survive by begging,
gambling, stealing and working at odd jobs. They are usually victims of
sexual molestation by men; bullying; fighting; stealing, and drug use and
abuse. Beyond the care of adults, many juveniles are increasingly being
seduced into criminal activity by their peers and older boys. Editorial, Stabroek News, March
17, 2007 wiig.wordpress.com/2007/03/17/mission-possible/ [accessed 21 May 2011] 'Mission Child Protection', much
like the operation that had seen the same ministry under Ms Manickchand's predecessor undertake to get aged street
people into the Night Shelter, involves officers trawling the areas where
street children are known to be. The officers were able to pick up 37
children ranging in ages from four years old to 15 years old, with no
resistance from any of them, and take them to a home, which had previously
been set up specifically for this purpose. This speaks volumes. The first
thing that is obvious is that these children wanted to be rescued. Committee
On Rights Of Child Reviews Initial Report Of UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Press Release,
14 January 2004 www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/0/6B52BD948E963BC6C1256E1C00360C3C?opendocument [accessed 21 May 2011] The task force created to
investigate the increase in the number of street children had concluded that
many of them were school dropouts who had been unable to get jobs because
they did not have birth certificates, the delegation said. Others gave myriad
reasons that prompted them to live on the streets. Drop in Centre youths engaging in literacy and numeracy programme Government Information Agency GINA, www.gina.gov.gy/archive/daily/b070227.html [accessed 21 May 2011] Several youths at the Drop-in
Centre for street children are currently engaged in literacy and numeracy programmes, and based
on an assessment since the programme commenced one
month ago, the 10 participants are showing significant signs of improvement. According to Wilson, the remedial programme covers several areas, including computer
classes, craft programmes and tie-dying. Children
of the Joshua House, Georgetown are also benefiting from the programme. The Drop in Centre has recorded significant
success during the past year. It has helped to reunite more than 30 children
with their families after counselling, and reintegrate about 50 of them into
the school system. Street children in training programmes Government Information Agency GINA, www.gina.gov.gy/archive/daily/b061205.html [accessed 21 May 2011] Children at the Drop in Centre for
street children on Country Overview [access information unavailable] Irregular working hours make it
difficult for parents to provide adequate care for their children and as a
result, many are either left on their own or are cared for by extended
family. The inability of the extended family network to cope in a time of
poverty, migration and AIDS is linked to the growth in the number of AIDS
orphans, street children living and working in the center of Preserving The Innocence Of Children www.landofsixpeoples.com/news303/nc308293.htm [accessed 21 May 2011] By their very presence
on the streets, these youngsters are demonstrating that the nomadic and
unsheltered existence on the pavements and around the markets is infinitely
more palatable than the terrors of home life. Volunteer Youth Corps Collaborates With UNICEF To Empower
Children & Young Adults www.vycguyana.com/news.html#the [Last access date unavailable] The program, which initially
encompassed the teaching of Peace Education, now entails Sexual &
Reproductive Health, Information Technology, Career Guidance and Office
Protocol and Etiquette. The project
targets thirty (30) out of schools youths residing in the Lodge community and
fifteen (15) street children from the Drop in Center, their age’s range from
12-20 yrs. Drop In Center Offers A Beacon Of Hope For Street Children Angela Osborne, Stabroek News,
May 2, 2004 www.landofsixpeoples.com/news402/ns4050216.htm [accessed 21 May 2011] The majority of these children are
boys, who have run away from home for any of a number of reasons, or who were
driven out into the streets. But the ones who remain on the street are there
mostly by choice. Drop In Center Extends Its Services Government Information Agency GINA, www.gina.gov.gy/archive/daily/b050404.html#2 [accessed 21 May 2011] Among the objectives of the Center
are to ‘recreate a generation of responsible children in a harmonious family unit',
to keep children off the street and to re-integrate the child into a family
system and possibly the school system, to re-educate and provide family
counseling for children and families.
The program offered at the Center provides these children opportunities
to develop their self-esteem and learn skills that will enhance their future
performance. Partner's
Profile - Everychild Government of www.hiv.gov.gy/partner.php?id=32 [accessed 21 May 2011] The newly formed organisation has since increase its impact by developing
a more strategic approach that addresses the unfulfilled rights of the most vulnerable
and isolated children in the community. Tate and
Lyle Award for Sustainable Development Worldaware www.worldaware.org.uk/awards/awards1995/courts.html [accessed 21 May 2011] FIND arranged for woodwork
students to have work placements in the furniture industry. It organized work
with manufacturers for school dropouts, street children and truants, Courts
paying 50 per cent of their wages. The 50 furniture makers in the FIND program
are expected to double employment in the coming year, to about 750 people. Protection Project Report - The www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/guyana.doc [accessed 2009] FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO THE
TRAFFICKING INFRASTRUCTURE - A high unemployment rate and poor economic conditions have
contributed to the problem of prostitution and drug trafficking. Because
Guyana is one of the poorest countries in the Caribbean, children work in
agriculture, domestic service, sawmills, street vending, and textile
factories. The number of street children, who are particularly vulnerable to
exploitation, is also increasing. 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 - |
Human Trafficking in [Guyana] [other countries]Street Children in [Guyana Child Prostitution in [Guyana] [other countries]