Taking street kids off the streets

THE rise in the number of street kids has reached alarming proportions. Due to poor living conditions at home and the inaccessibility of a means of livelihood, many young people have been pushed onto the streets.

However, despite being cognisant of the problem, more can be done to put remedial mechanisms in place to curb the menace it bears at times. These efforts should be collective, engaging the public and private sectors, and NGO’s support to make a greater impact on this negative trend of living.

In the absence of their educational, food and health requirements being met by their families, young people are forced to take to the streets to fend for themselves. This, however, does not in any way constitute healthy living for our country’s youth nor does it give hope for the future or welfare for our democracy; hence, there’s a need for us to create awareness of the plight of young people on the streets in order to facilitate actions that would lead to initiating programmes for alleviating of their suffering.

We must embark on awareness programmes with the primary aim of emphasising that if the street youth’s potential is tapped in the right direction and diverted for development purposes, they would be genuinely a resource for development.

What can we do to help?

While not suggesting a universal approach to curbing the number of street children in our towns, cities and regions, some of the programmes suggested below could be adapted to given environments.

First and foremost however, there is the important need to carry out a thorough needs analysis of a proposed intervention before implementation, as the features of street children differ from town to town and one region to another.

Parents of street kids need income that enables them to meet at least their basic needs, thus keeping their offspring off the streets, especially if the kids are not old enough to work for themselves. There is a need to provide income generating programmes for such parents, including easy access to credit for those most likely to be involved in the informal sector.

Younger children, who have dropped out of school or have never been to school, need to be assisted to attend school or taught through special educational programmes. Older groups of street kids might not be interested in formal education but might opt for vocational training that will enable them to earn a living.

There is a great need for intensification of family planning and family life education, especially among low-income households and the unemployed. The need for training street educators who would work with street children and other service-oriented staff, such as health educators, cannot be overemphasised.

We need to make health facilities available to street children particularly preventive health education and where possible right out on the streets where they work, such as mobile clinics.

The interventions entail establishing a relationship with the children on the streets to gain their confidence and also create a sense of mutual trust.

The street educators must go to the streets to come to grips with the problems experienced by the children. The programme tries to help the children right in their own habitat by giving them advice on various issues like health, drug use and abuse, and human rights.

Outreach is a fact-finding exercise. Educators can also try to enlighten street children about drop centres and what services are offered there. Usually this comes to the fore when children complain of their inability to benefit from certain services like medical care, etc. The outreach programme can broaden its conceptualisation by including social diagnosis aimed at appreciating the child’s disposition on the street and how his or her home environment has adversely affected him or her.

A more systematic approach is being pursued; records are now being kept, like the bio-data of street children in a certain locality, while street educators are designated certain areas of operation where they undertake such exercises. The rationale behind record keeping stems from the need to comprehend the demographic patterns of street children in a given area. It is in this manner that one understands the reasons behind sudden fluctuations in the number of children on the streets at given times.

In conclusion, with our challenging economy, there are greater possibilities for more families to become poorer and for more youth taking to the streets if adequate action is not taken to address the problems of street youth now.

We need to realise that the problems of street youth are usually a mirror of broader national socioeconomic problems in our nation. Consequently, by tackling the problems of street kids, we are, in effect, tackling wider national socio-political and economic issues.

At the commemoration of World Children’s Day in November 2022, His Excellency, the late Hage Geingob, said: “As leaders and caregivers, it is our responsibility to bring awareness to children about violence in the forms of abuse, rape, exploitation, and discrimination, and to provide an environment in which children are cared for, loved, and provided with basic services to grow to their full potential.”

*Reverend Jan A Scholtz is the former chairperson of the // Kharas Regional Council and former !Nami#nus constituency councillor. He holds a Diploma in Theology, B-Theo (SA), a Diploma in Youth Work and Development from the University of Zambia (UNZA), as well as a Diploma in Education III (KOK) BA (HED) from UNISA.