Prevalence,
Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the first decade of the 21st Century gvnet.com/streetchildren/Latvia.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the
situation in Latvia. Some of these links
may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or
even false. No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or
to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking for
material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this
page and others to see which aspect(s) of street life are of particular
interest to you. You might be
interested in exploring how children got there, how they survive, and how
some manage to leave the street.
Perhaps your paper could focus on how some street children abuse the
public and how they are abused by the public … and how they abuse each
other. Would you like to write about
market children? homeless children? Sexual and labor exploitation? begging? violence? addiction? hunger? neglect? etc. There is a lot to the subject of Street
Children. Scan other countries as well
as this one. Draw comparisons between
activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** The
Littlest Victims of Global 'Progress' Robin Wright, LOS
ANGELES TIMES, 11 January 1994 pangaea.org/street_children/world/rights2.htm [accessed 12 June
2011] The children show
up in Riga's quaintly restored old town in the late afternoon. None looks
older than about 7. Among a group of
four boys, one has no socks and all wear only light sweaters, despite the
cold in northern Europe. With their
hands outstretched, the boys trail people leaving Latvia's new privatized
hotels, boutiques and restaurants.
Late at night, they loiter under the bright lights of a new
casino. Both Latvian and Russian
children now beg on Riga's streets. ***
ARCHIVES *** The Department of Labor’s 2003 Findings on the
Worst Forms of Child Labor U.S. Dept of Labor
Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 2004 www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2003/latvia.htm [accessed 17
February 2011] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - The number of children not attending primary school
is increasing. In 1997, the Ministry of Education and Science had a record of
1,311 children ages 5 to 15 who were not attending school. According to the Education Ministry’s
annual report, 2,512 children did not attend school in 2002. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, March 8, 2006 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61658.htm [accessed 9 February
2020] CHILDREN
-
Abandonment and child abuse, including sexual abuse, were common. TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– Women, including well‑educated women, homeless teens, and minors graduating
from orphanage boarding schools, were among those most at risk to be
trafficked. Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the
Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 26 January 2001 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/latvia2001.html [accessed 17
February 2011] [49] The Committee
expresses its concern at the significant number of children living in the
streets. It notes that even though the Law on the Protection of the Rights of
the Child covers children living in the street, no specific mechanisms have
been established for its implementation and that assistance to the children
living in the streets is generally provided only by non-governmental
organizations. Street Children In
Latvia: Problems And Solutions Inga Lukasinska, Soros Foundation-Latvia Public Policy Fellow,
Association for Street Children, 2002 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 12 June
2011] Although Latvia's
laws protect the rights of all children, they have proved inadequate for
dealing with the problem of street children. The question is whether this
situation can be changed in a way that is financially and administratively
feasible. Soros Foundation
Latvia - Program Description web142.deac.lv/index.php/?id=70&tid=6&pid=71&date=2001 [Last access date
unavailable] Over the course of
four years the Soros Foundation Latvia took significant steps toward dealing
with the problem of street children by creating an NGO network, setting up an
information resource center, and organizing a series of training workshops for
NGOs. As a result of the activities of
the NGO network, at the end of 2000, 13 organizations founded the NGO
Association for Street Children (ASC).
The organization’s goal is to form a powerful, functional and
influential association that can provide comprehensive support to NGOs that
are involved in seeking solutions to the problem of street children and
shaping state policy that would help resolve this social problem on a state
level. Summary of Received
Grants in Latvia in 2004 The World Bank go.worldbank.org/RO5FFLKRY0 [accessed 12 June
2011] YOUTH INTEREST
CENTER TO SUPPORT, TO EDUCATE AND TO MOTIVATE IN LIEPAJA - Involvement in
attractive activities has to be offered to those children and society’s
attention has to be drawn to the necessity of solving this problem. During the project the street children will
create short films about themselves, which later on will be displayed in
schools and on Television. The school
children and students will then be asked to come up with ideas about solving
the problem. The relevant discussions
will be held in schools, internet and solutions will be drafted, for
submission to the Commission for Youth Affairs of the Liepaja City council
and for publication in media. ELCL Diaconia Center - Day Center For Street Children www.iclub.lv/dcb/english.htm At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 12 June
2011] OBJECTIVES AND AIMS
OF THE DAY CENTER
- To provide children with: Meals one time a day / Possibility to wash
themselves / First medical aid DONATIONS AND OUR
NEEDS
- VHS video tape player / sewing-machine / schoolbags / child winter closes /
child shoes / elementary school books / copybooks / stationery / Food /
Medicines / hygiene goods / Household goods including dishes, tableware,
detergents and disinfectants World Childhood
Foundation Projects in Russia and the Baltic States, January 2001 World Childhood
Foundation www.childcentre.info/projects/institutions/ifid1210.html [accessed 12 June
2011] [scroll down] LATVIA - Livslust runs a combined home/school for adolescents who have
spent most of their lives in orphanages and other institutions. Livslust's
objective is to prepare the children for a life on their own. The children
are offered vocational training (carpentry, agriculture, sewing, construction
work and cooking) as well as social training. 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 -
Latvia", http://gvnet.com/streetchildren/Latvia.htm, [accessed
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