Torture in [Somalia] [other countries]Human Trafficking in [Somalia] [other countries]Street Children in [Somalia Child Prostitution in [Somalia] [other countries] |
Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the early years of the 21st
Century gvnet.com/streetchildren/Somalia.htm
|
||
|
CAUTION: The following links
and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the
situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Survival of the fittest Independent Online (IOL) News, www.iol.co.za/news/africa/survival-of-the-fittest-1.392590 [accessed 20 July 2011] Stray bullets and
molesters are only some of the dangers 11-year-old Abdi
Mohamed Abdusamad faces when he chooses a place to
sleep in the streets of ***
ARCHIVES *** UNICEF
– www.unicef.org/infobycountry/somalia.html [accessed 20 July 2011] The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/somalia.htm [accessed 23 December 2010] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Self-employment and casual labor were more often
observed in urban areas, while unpaid farm labor was the primary form
observed in rural areas. Boys as young
as 14 or 15 have participated in combat and many belong to gangs who raid
indiscriminately. In 1999 UNICEF
estimated that 58.4 percent of primary school-age children attended school,
and that 72.5 percent of children who had started primary school were likely
to reach grade 5. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61592.htm [accessed 23 December 2010] CHILDREN
– The
authorities were generally not committed to children's rights and welfare.
The lack of resources limited the opportunity for children to attend school.
Approximately 22 percent of the school-aged population attended school,
according to UNICEF officials. Children remained
among the chief victims of the continuing violence. Boys as young as 14 or 15
years of age have participated in militia attacks, and many youths were
members of the marauding gangs known as "morian" (parasites or
maggots). This year's annual report of the Secretary-General on children and
armed conflict documented grave violations against children in UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
IRIN, Hargeisa, 16 June 2009 www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=84864 [accessed 20 July 2011] My family lives in Burao [about 150km east of Hargeisa],"
one child said. "We were so many children. One day I decided to travel
to Hargeisa and never went back home." Social workers in the city say drought and
economic hardship have forced an unprecedented number of children on to the
streets. The children lack adequate
shelter, healthcare, education, protection and guidance. Drug abuse is common
and many are involved in activities such as pick-pocketing to cover drug
costs. "We interviewed 150
street children, scattered throughout the city, and 88 percent confessed to
have experienced different abuse, including sexual abuse and
harassment," Khadar Nuur,
chairman of Hargeisa Child Protection Network,
said. In their struggle
to survive, some of the children have committed crimes and found themselves
in prison. "We know that a
number of street children were sent to prison by the security committees in Hargeisa," Kalil said.
"We are worried about their situation in prison because they are
detained with old people, including criminals." Lul Hassan, who
is in charge of child protection at the Somaliland National Human Rights
Commission, said the children's prison at Mija Asseye would be rehabilitated soon. According to the
commission, an estimated 60 children join others on the streets monthly. Many of the new arrivals are girls - a
phenomenon that was previously uncommon. "We met about 15 female street
children, who had suffered sexual abuse," Kalil
said. "The number of female street children has increased from 4 to 8
percent." Mustafa Haji Abdinur,
Middle East Online, www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=30975 [accessed 20 July 2011] In THE CHILDREN ARE
FACING THE WORST TIME EVER - The young boy lives with his mother and two sisters
in a shelter made of plastic lining stretched over a flimsy structure of
twigs, in one of the camps for the displaced where fighting in Mogadishu has
regurgitated hundreds of thousands of families. Abdurrahman Warsameh,
Inter Press Service News Agency IPS, www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45482 [accessed 20 July 2011] Hassan Maye, 13, has been fending for himself and his family in
the streets of There are other
street children who do not work but are instead engaged in begging to
survive. Most of those beggars are from the more recently displaced people
who have left their home villages to come to Mogadishu because of violence,
famine or drought that prevent them from continuing to farm on their
lands. They are rarely able to find
even low-paid work like Maye because the small cost
of setting up - brushes and polish, needles and thread to repair damaged
shoes - are beyond them. Maye and his mates were
fortunate to be set up by a relative or neighbour. UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
IRIN, Hargeisa, 22 October 2008 www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81052 [accessed 21 July 2011] Shoe-shining and
car-washing are the jobs of choice for most of the street boys in Hargeisa,
while the girls mostly clean or sweep business premises or clean people’s
homes. Most beg, Osman said. While on
the streets, many children often suffer abuse, violence and particularly
sexual abuse. "Many of those… that sleep on street corners have been
victims of sexual violence," Osman said. "On the street at night
they are easy prey with no one to protect them." RISKS - Many have been
infected with "all sort of diseases, including HIV/AIDS and they don't
even know what that is," he added.
He said many of the street children had taken to tying a sack over the
lower part of their bodies when sleeping at night. "It is an attempt to
protect themselves." Nasir Ahmed, 12,
survives by washing cars. On average, he takes home 40,000 Somaliland
shillings (about US$6.50) per day.
"What I make from washing cars is what my mother and sisters and
I eat,” he told IRIN. Ahmed’s father
died in 2007, when the responsibility of caring for the family fell on
him. “My mother used to sell
vegetables in the market but she was not making enough so I told her `I will
do the work. You stay at home and take care of the girls’,” he said. Garowe Online, www.garoweonline.com/artman2/publish/Africa_22/Somalia_children_homeless_on_Kenya_streets.shtml [accessed 21 July 2011] Somali journalist Abdikarim Muhsin, the Garowe Online correspondent in Street children in www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-196064177.html [partially accessed 21 July 2011 - access
restricted] Mohamed Ali Madey, an eight-year-old shoe shiner, came to Although his
clothes are filthy, Madey is a tall, handsome boy.
Seemingly embarrassed by this he explains that he usually tries to bathe once
a week at his aunt’s house in the Howlwadaag
neighborhood, but he only gets a little food and a short time to wash each
time he visits her. Madey arrives at the street corner early every morning in
an attempt to get more customers, but this is a dangerous practice because
Ethiopian/TFG troops often set up roadblocks nearby. He is afraid he may be
wounded in a roadside bombing or shot dead like his friend Yasin Adle Ahmed, who was
killed by Ethiopian troops on Makka Al-Mukarrama Street nearby. “My friend Hassan Muruq was killed when Ugandan troops came under attack by
armed men at KM4, where Hassan had been sleeping in front of a shop. I was
with him, but I crawled away and escaped as I saw my friend Hassan pouring
blood and taking his final breath,” he says.
Madey adds that a third friend, Hussein Shelare, died after a soldier shot him, mistaking him for
an Islamist insurgent. Witnesses confirm Shelare
was unarmed and had only been walking home from work in the Waberi district, a route he took regularly. Clutching a glue
bag in his right hand, Madey says he likes to sniff
it for pleasure. Told that such habits are harmful, he responds that he did
not know the practice was unhealthy. Madey also collects the remains of the khat (a mild stimulant plant chewed for pleasure) at the
teashop and hawks them, along with packets of cigarettes he buys to make some
additional profit. The main concern of Madey and
his fellow shoe shiners are bullying and robbery at the hands of older street
children armed with knives and the occasional firearm. UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
IRIN, www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79823 [accessed 21 July 2011] Survival of the fittest Independent Online (IOL) News, www.iol.co.za/news/africa/survival-of-the-fittest-1.392590 [accessed 20 July 2011] Stray bullets and
molesters are only some of the dangers 11-year-old Abdi
Mohamed Abdusamad faces when he chooses a place to
sleep in the streets of The Long Journey Peter Koch, Artvoice
AV, Issue v5n40, 5 October 2006 artvoice.com/issues/v5n40/long_journey [accessed 21 July 2011] AHMED HASSAN
… In 1991, he was shot in the back and robbed by one of Separated
Somali Children - A Gap in their Hearts UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
IRIN, In-Depth, January 2003 www.irinnews.org/InDepthMain.aspx?InDepthId=44&ReportId=71635 [accessed 21 July 2011] [scroll down] THE PLIGHT OF SOMALI
CHILDREN
- In Hargeysa, young homeless girls sleep in among the petrol containers in
the hope that the smell and the danger of the petrol will keep away potential
attackers. Having to live on the streets of the large urban centers is one of
the most dangerous prospects for Somali children. In some cases street
children were forced to beg for gangs after being raped and beaten. UNICEF Humanitarian Action: United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF, 4
Jun 2004 [accessed 21 July 2011] [scroll down] ACTION - PROTECTION
AND YOUTH PARTICIPATION
-
During the first quarter of the year, child protection coordination networks
have been established in Bari, Nugal, Mudug, Benadir, Lower Shabelle and
Hiran regions, and similar initiatives are under way in other areas. Successful efforts include: access to
education for disadvantaged children; commitment from businesspeople to provide
support and care to street children; community action to protect children
against prostitution and exploitative labor; and the commitment of some
militia leaders to support children's attendance in school as opposed to
involvement in the conflicts. Profile of Internal Displacement : Norwegian Refugee Council/Global IDP
Project, [accessed 21 July 2011] [page 148] In the
ICRC-supported hospital south of Profile of Internal Displacement : Norwegian Refugee Council/Global IDP
Project, www.madhibaan.org/in-depth/Somalia+-June+2003.pdf [accessed 21 July 2011] [page 53] DISPLACED CHILDREN
LACK PROTECTION
- Displaced children often from southern minority groups are forced to seek
‘protection’ by joining urban gangs … Displaced children are often exploited
and have jobs dangerous to their health … Children displaced from minority
groups suffer from deprivation and abuse … Displaced children are sexually
abused … Displaced children in single-headed families often end up on the
streets and are often drawn into drug-dependency Decision by Giselle Guedes,
Pravda Ru, 05 February 2004 english.pravda.ru/world/africa/05-02-2004/4777-somalia-0/ [accessed 21 July 2011] Several orphanages
will be forced to close their doors in the coming days due to a lack of
financing, resulting in at least three thousand children being abandoned in
the streets. The reason: the entity which financed these orphanages, the aid
agency Al-Haramayn, from Horn of Novib Civil Society Organisations - Profiles At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 21 July 2011] [scroll down] STREET CHILDREN
REHABILITATION PROJECT
- 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 - |
Torture in [Somalia] [other countries]Human Trafficking in [Somalia] [other countries]Street Children in [Somalia Child Prostitution in [Somalia] [other countries]