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Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the early
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FEATURED ARTICLE *** Street children becoming a new problem on Deutsche Presse-Agentur
(German Press Agency) DPA, This article has been archived by World
Street Children News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 20 September 2011] Street children are
becoming a common sight in Zeina, with her green
eyes, taps on a car window wither dirty little hands, begging to sell her
chewing gum before nightfall. "So please buy one, I have to sell them
all in order to buy bread for my family," Zeina
pleads, with tears in her eyes. The
little blonde girl said she has mainly lived on the streets since she was
eight to help her family survive.
"I have been begging, selling roses, chewing gum, or washing
windows since I was eight," she said. "My father left us because my
mother got sick." ***
ARCHIVES *** UNICEF
– Lebanon www.unicef.org/infobycountry/lebanon.html [accessed 13 June 2011] The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/lebanon.htm [accessed 17 February 2011] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - It is common for children to earn family income by
working in the fields or begging in the streets. Non-Lebanese children constitute 10 to 20
percent of children working in the formal sector, but make up a larger share
of children working on the street. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61693.htm [accessed 17 February 2011] SECTION
6 WORKER RIGHTS
– [d] In December 2004 the MOL completed a study on working street children, which provided a
snapshot of the condition and nature of street
children in the country. The report showed that the average street child was a boy (9 percent
were girls), foreign (only 15 percent were citizens, the others were most
often Palestinian and Syrian), 12 years of age, and poorly educated or
illiterate. Street children
were concentrated in large urban centers where approximately 47 percent of
them were forced to work long hours on the streets by adults. The most common
types of work were selling goods, including lottery tickets, shoe polishing,
and washing car windshields. The children earned between $2 and $15 (3 thousand
to 25 thousand pounds) per day. Only 19 percent of the children interviewed
said they kept their income. Street children becoming a new problem on Deutsche Presse-Agentur
(German Press Agency) DPA, This article has been archived by World
Street Children News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 20 September 2011] Street children are
becoming a common sight in Zeina, with her green
eyes, taps on a car window wither dirty little hands, begging to sell her
chewing gum before nightfall. "So please buy one, I have to sell them
all in order to buy bread for my family," Zeina
pleads, with tears in her eyes. The
little blonde girl said she has mainly lived on the streets since she was eight
to help her family survive. "I
have been begging, selling roses, chewing gum, or washing windows since I was
eight," she said. "My father left us because my mother got
sick." UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
IRIN, www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73288 [accessed 13 June 2011] Abdullah lives like
no eight year-old-boy should. Two years ago, the youngster from Raqqa, a town in the north of Syria on the banks of the
River Euphrates, travelled to Lebanon with his three brothers, looking for
work. Today, Abdullah lives with
around 20 other workers in a ramshackle encampment on a patch of wasteland in
Lailaki, a poor suburb of south Beirut. By night, the boy picks through the city’s
rubbish, hoping to find objects of value.
By day, instead of going to school, Abdullah sorts through his
discoveries with his “boss”, an aggressive middle-aged woman who claims to
own the camp and who, Abdullah says, beats the children if they do not make
her enough money. A few hours sleep in
a filthy, cramped tent with no heat or running water and a bowl of rice is
his reward. Eter estimated Lebanon has
as many as 5,000 street children, 80 percent of them foreigners mainly from
Syria, Jordan, Iraq or the Palestinian territories, who carry no
identification papers and who therefore cannot attend state school and can be
arrested any time. UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
IRIN, news.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=27096 [accessed 13 June 2011] In Samir is only 12
years old, but living on the streets has made him grow up quickly.
Palestinian of origin, his story is a sad –but all too common – one. “I’ve
been begging since I was eight,” he said. “My mother left when I was five,
and now my father beats me and makes me beg for money.” Information about Street Children - This report is taken from “A Civil Society
Forum for North Africa and the Middle East on Promoting and Protecting the
Rights of Street Children”, 3-6 March 2004, At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 13 June 2011] Most children on
the streets spend their days selling trinkets or begging for their
parents/other family members before returning home at night. However, there
is a small number for whom the street is their permanent residence, and these
are usually children who have suffered emotional and/or physical abuse within
their families due to poverty, overcrowding, or family disintegration. LEISWAD Home of Hope Mennonite Central Committee, Global Family
Program stories, July 2005 At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 13 June 2011] Mohammed, 15, came
to Home of Hope about three years ago from the streets of the Rauche section of 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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