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Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the early years of the 21st Century -
2000 to 2010 gvnet.com/streetchildren/Somalia.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 *** 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 - |
Human Trafficking in [Somalia] [other countries]Street Children in [Somalia Child Prostitution in [Somalia] [other countries]