Human Trafficking in [Georgia] [other countries]Street Children in [Georgia Child Prostitution in [Georgia] [other countries] |
Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the early years of the 21st Century -
2000 to 2010 gvnet.com/streetchildren/Georgia.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 *** From the streets to the stage, a young woman plots her
path in life Eter Tsotniashvili,
The Messenger, August 24-September 7, 2007, #162 (1429) www.messenger.com.ge/issues/1429_august_24_2007/feature_1429.htm [accessed 16 May 2011] Lika grew up with a mother and six brothers,
five of whom left the family home and never looked back. She lived with her
mother and youngest brother in a Lotkini district
apartment; the family's only income was what they could get begging on Rustaveli Avenue.
The fall from poverty to homeless was sudden. When Lika
was seven, her small family lost what little they had in a house fire. With
nowhere to go, they slept in the streets. Within a year, her mother was able
to rent a small room for the three of them. But Lika
was accustomed to street life, and left their new home when she was eight.
She didn't have a bad relationship with her mother, she said, but felt at
home on the street-and craved inhalants. She and her friends would beg for
money to buy food and glue. They slept nights under balconies and in cars. Street Children – Our Concern Tskriala Shermadini
and Nana Naskidashvili, 12 May 2004 www.humanrights.ge/index.php?a=main&pid=5888&lang=eng [accessed 23 September 2011] Many street children work in
markets and in other busy areas. Some are employed in small enterprises.
Saying the children are “employed” is perhaps misleading. They do not sign
any type of work agreement, so employers can treat them as they see fit. Many
of these children are homeless and addicted to drugs. They spend nights in
underground stations, which costs them some money, often 5 GEL or more. To
whom do they pay? To the police and to the underground administration. The
daily income of street children is estimated to be, on average, at 10-15 GEL.
Police salaries are also very small, but this does not justify their actions.
District inspectors often force street children to share their income. If a
child refuses to share their income with the inspector, he is often detained,
and must bribe his way out of custody. ***
ARCHIVES *** UNICEF –
Georgia www.unicef.org/infobycountry/georgia.html [accessed 16 May 2011] The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on the Worst Forms
of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/georgia.htm [accessed 6 February 2011] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - There are reports of significant numbers of children, some as young
as 5 years old, engaged in begging or working on the streets. Children
as young as 9 years old are found working in markets, sometimes at night, and
involved in carrying or loading wares. Children also work in cafes,
bistros, gas stations, and for street photographers. According to the UN Committee on the Rights
of the Child, police violence against street children is a problem. In
general, there is a lack of social safety services for children living on the
street. Trafficking of children
occurs, and thousands of children living in the streets and in orphanages are
vulnerable to trafficking. Some
families experiencing economic hardship have separated, which has increased
the number of children living on the street. Human Rights Reports » 2005
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61649.htm [accessed 6 February 2011] CHILDREN - Difficult economic conditions
broke up some families and increased the number of street children. NGOs estimated that
there were approximately 1,500 street
children between 3 and 15 years old in the country, with 1,200
concentrated in Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of
the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 3 October 2003 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/georgia2003.html [accessed 6 February 2011] [64] The Committee shares the
concern expressed by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
and the findings of the Special Rapporteur on the
sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography regarding the high
number of street children who are often victims of trafficking networks and
various other forms of exploitation, indicating that the number of children
living on the streets is increasing and that families are allowing children
as young as 7 to make a living on the streets. Furthermore, the Committee is deeply
concerned by allegedly widespread police brutality towards street children. Ana Chkhaidze, World Vision,
03/15/2008 www.messenger.com.ge/issues/1571_march_21_2008/1571_street.html [accessed 16 May 2011] More than 75 street children and
150 social workers and teachers in four regions in There are some 1,500 children
living on the streets of Georgia and thousands of Georgian youth are at risk
of becoming street kids, according to World Vision and other NGO reports.
There are no official statistics on the number of street children in Georgia. Protection of Georgian children promoted in trainings 28 Jan 2008 This article has been archived by World Street Children
News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 16 May 2011] There are approximately 2,000
street children in World Vision meero.worldvision.org/news_article.php?newsID=1437&countryID=11 [Last access date unavailable] Street children in From the streets to the stage, a young woman plots her
path in life Eter Tsotniashvili,
The Messenger, August 24-September 7, 2007, #162 (1429) www.messenger.com.ge/issues/1429_august_24_2007/feature_1429.htm [accessed 16 May 2011] Lika grew up with a mother and six
brothers, five of whom left the family home and never looked back. She lived
with her mother and youngest brother in a Lotkini
district apartment; the family's only income was what they could get begging
on Rustaveli Avenue. The fall from poverty to homeless was
sudden. When Lika was seven, her small family lost
what little they had in a house fire. With nowhere to go, they slept in the
streets. Within a year, her mother was able
to rent a small room for the three of them. But Lika
was accustomed to street life, and left their new home when she was eight.
She didn't have a bad relationship with her mother, she said, but felt at
home on the street-and craved inhalants. She and her friends would beg for
money to buy food and glue. They slept nights under balconies and in cars. Street Children – Our Concern Tskriala Shermadini
and Nana Naskidashvili, 12 May 2004 www.humanrights.ge/index.php?a=main&pid=5888&lang=eng [accessed 16 May 2011] Many street children work in
markets and in other busy areas. Some are employed in small enterprises.
Saying the children are “employed” is perhaps misleading. They do not sign
any type of work agreement, so employers can treat them as they see fit. Many
of these children are homeless and addicted to drugs. They spend nights in
underground stations, which costs them some money, often 5 GEL or more. To
whom do they pay? To the police and to the underground administration. The
daily income of street children is estimated to be, on average, at 10-15 GEL.
Police salaries are also very small, but this does not justify their actions.
District inspectors often force street children to share their income. If a
child refuses to share their income with the inspector, he is often detained,
and must bribe his way out of custody. New
haven for street children in Thomas Nybo, United Nations
Children's Fund UNICEF, www.unicef.org/infobycountry/georgia_27572.html [accessed 16 May 2011] About 2,500 children in Dishing Out Food And Hope To Mia Turner, Tblisi, Feb 6 2004 This article has been archived by World Street Children News
and may possibly also be accessible [here] [accessed 16 May 2011] "There are 1,500 street
children in Street Wise Project Reaches Out To Georgia’s Forgotten
Youth Keti Nozadze,
Communications Assistant, World Vision, 11 Jul 2005 [accessed 16 May 2011] Georgian, Russian, Armenian,
Kurdish and Roma, these young people, aged 10 to 20 comprise the forgotten
youth of this former Soviet-bloc country.
They either live on the streets of its capital, Tbilisi, or are at
risk of becoming homeless as they ‘graduate’ from Georgia’s children’s
institutions with no welcoming family to turn to and no skills to support
themselves. Their lack of choices and
protection mean that they are vulnerable to traffickers, drug abuse and
sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS. They are easy prey for
criminal rings. UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs,
Report for October 2004, 10 November 2004 At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 16 May 2011] Starting from September 2004, with
financial support from USAID, Save the Children is implementing a new project
Rebuilding Lives Street Children (RLSC). The goal of the RLSC project
is to strengthen and expand local capacities to promote the physical, cognitive,
emotional and psychosocial well being of street children in INTERNEWS Internews, June 29, 2001 At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 16 May 2011] "Children of the Street"
is a 56-minute film documenting the lives of Tbilisi's street children, with footage
showing these children living in the subway tunnels and parks of the city as
well as alternatives to street life that exist for some of these children.
The film was directed by Rusiko Tchkunia
and was premiered at the Free Theatre at Children Of The Women Aid International www.womenaid.org/silkrdchildren.htm [accessed 16 May 2011] SOUTH CAUCASUS - Conditions in Project NGO Beliki American Friends of Georgia AFG At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 16 May 2011] The combination of high
unemployment, and the arrival of refugees from the civil war in Abkhazia, led
to many children going out into the street to sell things to help feed their families. They are not getting educated because these
same families cannot afford to buy the clothes and notebooks their children
need to attend school. Project Title: Medical Examination And Treatment Of Street
Children In International Foundation for Children's Health Care
"Posterity", www.civilsoc.org/nisorgs/georgia/psterity.htm [accessed 16 May 2011] OBJECTIVES
OF THE PROJECT - Most of them
spend the night in the street, railway stations, abandoned basements, half
destroyed houses and lavatories. Under such conditions it is impossible to
observe even elementary hygiene. Obviously their health requires immediate
attention and improvement. Medical examinations, disease prevention and
special treatment should be carried out for each of these children. Committee On The Rights Of The Child (CRC) - Consideration
of Reports
– 1997 UN Committee On The Rights Of The Child CRC, 26 May 1997 At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 16 May 2011] 196. The average age is 13.
Eighty-seven per cent of the children completely or partially give their
income to their families. Out of these children 54 per cent are of school age
but cannot read or write; 22 per cent do not study, but rather work; 42 per
cent have health difficulties, 24 per cent smoke, 2 per cent are prone to
alcoholism, 2 per cent have inclinations towards narcotics. In general, 234
children are beggars. The average age is 10; 140 are boys and 94 are girls. 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 -
Georgia", http://gvnet.com/streetchildren/Georgia.htm, [accessed
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