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Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the early years of the 21st Century gvnet.com/streetchildren/Nigeria.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the
situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** Area
Boys -- A Growing Menace On The Streets Of
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
IRIN, www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=55442 [accessed 27 June 2011] For the past two
decades, the 13 million residents of Sorry Story Of Chioma Anyagafu
and Fred Iwenjora, OnlineNigeria,
February 04, 2006 nm.onlinenigeria.com/templates/?a=6865&z=12 [accessed 27 June 2011] Their outlook
paints a vivid picture of their state of helplessness. They appear unkempt
and totally hopeless of what the future holds. In their tattered clothes,
they find homes in the most filthy and awkward places like abandoned
buildings, under overhead bridges and school premises. Usually, they
retire to these “abodes” at dusk and dash out early in the morning before
the prying eyes of security agents or the rightful owners of the structures
turn out for business. The cries of the next generation, the
conscience of hope weblog by adefemi adefemiisrael.wordpress.com/2009/03/15/the-cries-of-the-next-generation-the-conscience-of-hope/ [accessed 27 June 2011] While unethical
fetish cultural practices are abolished in some parts of ***
ARCHIVES *** UNICEF
– www.unicef.org/infobycountry/nigeria.html [accessed 27 June 2011] Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on the
Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/nigeria.htm [accessed 13 December 2010] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - In urban areas, children work as domestic servants,
street hawkers, vendors, beggars, scavengers, shoe shiners, car
washers/watchers, and bus conductors. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61586.htm [accessed 13 December 2010] SECTION
6 WORKER RIGHTS
– [d] Economic hardship resulted in high numbers of children working to
enhance meager family income. Children frequently were employed as beggars, street peddlers, bus conductors, and
domestic servants in urban areas. Little data was available to analyze the
incidence of child labor. The National Modular Child Labour Survey Concluding Observations of the Committee on
the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,
28 January 2005 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/nigeria2005.html [accessed 13 December 2010] [69] In view of the
increasing number of children living and working on the street and street
families, the Committee regrets the lack of information about specific
mechanisms and measures to address their situation. [73] The Committee
notes with appreciation the State party’s ratification of the ILO Convention
No. 138 concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment and the ILO
Convention No. 182 concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the
Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor in October 2002. However, it
remains concerned at the significant number of children in Nigeria working as
domestic servants, in plantations, in the mining and quarrying sector, and as
beggars on the streets. Sonnie Ekwowusi,
This Day, 5 October 2010 allafrica.com/stories/201010060483.html [accessed 27 June 2011] Aside child labour,
Nigerian children are victims of legal injustice. For example, many Awaiting
Trial Inmates (ATMs) languishing in our various prisons are children below
the age of 16. Many them are children caught loitering in the streets and
dumped in prison for no reason. Some of them are tortured and abused in
prisons. The juvenile court system seems to have collapsed. A few times I
have visited the prisons I have been shocked by the huge number of young
persons and children loitering around the prison premises without hope of
getting justice. The cries of the next generation, the
conscience of hope weblog by adefemi adefemiisrael.wordpress.com/2009/03/15/the-cries-of-the-next-generation-the-conscience-of-hope/ [accessed 27 June 2011] Eight-year-old Uduak was said to possess supernatural powers and was
declared a witch by a prophetess at a vigil in Eket,
Akwa Ibom, His mother had take!” him to the church for
“spiritual deliverance”, That was the beginning of Uduak’s
tortuous road to living as his mother publicly disowned him. More troubles
awaited the child the next day at home.
His father splashed acid at his face, leaving him with blisters, and
chased him out of the family’s one room apartment. Uduak now finds shelter
among other abandoned children at the Eket Sports
Stadium. But he still dreams about home, and pleads with anyone who cares to
hear his story to take him home to his parents. “I want to go back to my parents; I want to
go back to school, but I am scared of the prophetess,” he says. Funmi Ogundare,
This Day, allafrica.com/stories/200801100295.html [partially accessed 28 June 2011 - access
restricted] He said the Child
Rights Act as enacted has given the government some powers to prosecute
parents or guardians who maltreat children by sending them to beg or hawk on
the streets when they should be in school. Badru
added that such children, after some time, are forced into armed robbery or
even become tools in the hands of robbers who used them as gun keepers
because they are underage. "For example,
in Lagos, people come from all parts of the country to 'hustle'; it is now
getting to an alarming stage where you see underage children come on their
own. So when this happens there is no where to stay except under the bridges.
They join bad gangs and many other vices and armed robbers use them as an
opportunity to keep guns because they are under aged", he said. Some other
children, the special adviser also noted, aside running away from home
because the guardians or parents are maltreating them, some parents even send
them to be used as house helps elsewhere by collecting money. "For those
children, when they are maltreated there, they run away and knowing fully
well that if he goes back home, he would be taken back there or to another
place for the same purpose", he said. Digital Diary: Christine Jaulmes,
United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF, www.unicef.org/infobycountry/nigeria_42282.html [accessed 28 June 2011] Isaiah has spent 5
of his 15 years living on the streets of Tayo Agunbiade,
This Day, allafrica.com/stories/200709280307.html [partially accessed 28 June 2011 - access
restricted] Recently, the first
lady of Sisters Unite for Street Children Hilda Okoisor,
This Day, May 10, 2007 This article has been archived by World
Street Children News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 28 June 2011] Ibrahim Tijani, a young boy of 17 said that he used to sleep
under the bridge in Oshodi sometimes under a car or
a bus or inside a dry gutter. He does not know his parents as he was left alone
by his parents when he was three years old.
He started attending the Foutain of Life
Church, Oshodi where they took a particular
interest in him because they thought he was well behaved. He worshipped with
them every time especially on Fridays for the night vigils and Sundays for
worship. They accomodated him and promised to
help him settle down. Eventually, after two years of which he did not run
away, a member of the church took him to the Child Life Line Centre, Ibeshe vilage, Ikorodu where he currently resides. Since he is an old
boy, he is learning the art of welding while the Centre takes care of his
other needs. For Street Children, What Kind of Future? Godwin Haruna,
This Day, October 4, 2006 This article has been archived by World
Street Children News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 28 June 2011] The problem of
street children in several cities in Pupils of Precious Childcare Foundation
during an anniversary August 14, 2006 This article has been archived by World
Street Children News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 28 June 2011] “In some cases,
their parents sent them out to go and bring money in; in fact, they had
become bread winners for their parents and some are just abandoned children
right from childhood. So I went through these experiences and I felt that
something should be done to take care of this category of children,” she
explained in an interview with the Nigerian Tribune. Therefore, Princess
Adetokunbo Wande Abimbola established a non-governmental organisation called Precious Childcare Foundation (PCF)
in 1995 with the objective of educating and empowering the abandoned and
neglected children as well as highlighting the social and health problems
facing this group with a view to finding solutions to them. It is a big mistake to be barren and not
adopt Jemi Ekunkunbor,
The Vanguard, At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 28 June 2011] For many years, the
state of the Nigerian child has never been one of good tidings. In spite of
public and private efforts geared at alleviating the sufferings of the Nigerian
child, the reality stares us in the face with children still hawking
wares on the street, many too numerous to estimate not being in school and
many at birth abandoned to fate on street corners and on rubbish heaps.
Those who are lucky among these categories of people have landed in the
padded arms of Rev. Mrs Dele George and hubby, co
founders of the Strong Tower Mission who for years, have been on a mission to
rescue abandoned children. What are the issues
that make people abandon children? Of course the issue is poverty. I
would say that the national income per head in this country is still very low
compared to Europe or US in spite of the fact that Area
Boys -- A Growing Menace On The Streets Of
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
IRIN, www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=55442 [accessed 27 June 2011] For the past two
decades, the 13 million residents of Sorry Story Of Chioma Anyagafu
and Fred Iwenjora, OnlineNigeria,
February 04, 2006 nm.onlinenigeria.com/templates/?a=6865&z=12 [accessed 27 June 2011] Their outlook
paints a vivid picture of their state of helplessness. They appear unkempt
and totally hopeless of what the future holds. In their tattered clothes,
they find homes in the most filthy and awkward places like abandoned
buildings, under overhead bridges and school premises. Usually, they
retire to these “abodes” at dusk and dash out early in the morning before
the prying eyes of security agents or the rightful owners of the
structures turn out for business. Consortium for Street Children Consortium for Street Children At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 28 June 2011] Children work as
vendors or hawkers, beggars, shoe shiners, car washers and watchers,
head-loaders, scavengers and bus conductors. The majority are boys but there
are a few girls. Street families, a variant of street living, are also
becoming prominent Dateline Adesola Orimalade,
The Globalist, February 07, 2005 At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 28 June 2011] The entire urban
landscape of NGO Periodic Report for The African Network for the Prevention and
Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect ANPPCAN Child Rights Monitoring
Center, November 26, 2004 www.crin.org/docs/resources/treaties/crc.38/Nigeria_ANPPCAN_ngo_report.doc [accessed 28 June 2011] The number of
children who live and sleep on the streets has been on the increase in most
major urban areas in Information on the
Child Welfare League Of Child Welfare League of Nigeria, October
1995 -- presented at the 13th Session of the UN Committee on the Rights of
the Child CRC, Sept - Oct 1996 www.crin.org/docs/resources/treaties/crc.13/Nigeria_CWL_Info_Report.pdf [accessed 28 June 2011] [page 1] In Social correlates
and coping measures of street-children: a comparative study of street and
non-street children in south-western Aderinto AA, Department of
Sociology, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11057706?dopt=Abstract [accessed 28 June 2011] OBJECTIVE: This paper sought
to achieve two objectives: First, to identify the social correlates
attributable to street-children in south-western A community based study of patterns of
psychoactive substance use among street children in a local government area
of Nigeria Morakinyo J & Odejide AO, Department of Psychiatry, University College
Hospital, Oyo State, Ibadan, Nigeria, 2003 Aug 20 -- PubMed, U.S. National
Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, PMID: 12927648 www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12927648?dopt=Abstract [accessed 28 June 2011] The nature of
continuous exposure to the street and its associated lifestyles make street
children vulnerable to the use of psychoactive substances. Youth Get A Second
Chance Remi Oyo, Inter Press
Service News Agency IPS, www3.unesco.org/planetsociety/sp/spune/articles/DEVO03/dev06.html [accessed 28 June 2011] 1000 youth have
been identified for an agricultural project under the ''Good Boys and Good
Girls'' program. The youth will be placed on allocated land where they will
farm cassava and maize, two of VSA Arts of Nigeria goes awakening the
creative of the less priviledged Children VSA Arts of At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 28 June 2011] In a
major drive to bring reformations and opportunities to these so called
"Street Children" VSA arts of Nigeria has embarked on an
Art awareness project at the Juvenile Remand & Rehabilitation center in
Ibadan, Oyo state. Self Help Effort Education for All EFA 2000 Assessment
Country Reports - www.unesco.org/education/wef/countryreports/nigeria/rapport_3_1.html [accessed 28 June 2011] 12.2.9 RESCUING, REHABILITATION AND RETURNING STREET CHILDREN - The
Street Children phenomenon in ECPAT International At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 28 June 2011] It had been stated
that in Nigeria children as young as four or five years old were sometimes
taken into families as domestic helpers because their parents were poor or in
debt. These children are prone to sexual abuse and exploitation. When ill
treated, they run away and end up in the streets where they are vulnerable to
commercial sexual exploitation (CSEC).
Nigerian
“Shade Tree Theatre” with Street Children Salami, Irene and Henk
van Beers, Children, Youth and Environments 13(1), Spring 2003. pp. 23-47 www.colorado.edu/journals/cye/13_1/Volume13_1FieldReports/ShadeTreeTheatre_Salami_vanBeers.htm [accessed 28 June 2011] Shade Tree Theatre
is a project with working children in the streets of Street Children's Experiences In The
Injustice System [PDF] Interagency Panel on Juvenile Justice www.unicef.org/tdad/PART202%282%29.pdf [accessed 12 October 2012] Amongst the list of
practices that street children in Pre-trial detention
of children has been found to last as much as one year. Some criminal cases
are just left unattended to while children languish away on remand. Children
in the homes feel the police have forgotten them there. Children are not
given the chance to speak or defend themselves; Children are held in
handcuffs; Sometimes children become hopeless and feel like they want to die;
Children do not reply to the police statement. 4. Addressing Child Labor and Promoting
Schooling www.dol.gov/ILAB/media/reports/iclp/Advancing1/html/nigeria.htm [accessed 28 June 2011] a. Child Labor
Initiatives UNICEF
has established a series of programs for street children in Street Children and the Juvenile Justice
System in Human Development Initiatives, Committee on
the Rights of the Child CRC -- Publisher: Consortium for Street Children ,
2004 At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 28 June 2011] Report discusses
the framework for the juvenile justice system in All
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