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Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the early
years of the 21st Century 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 - |
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