Human Trafficking in [Mongolia] [other countries]Street Children in [Mongolia Child Prostitution in [Mongolia] [other countries] |
Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the early years of the 21st Century -
2000 to 2010 gvnet.com/streetchildren/Mongolia.htm
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FEATURED ARTICLES *** Street Children Remain Neglected Damien Dawson, 06 April 2007 This article has been archived by World Street Children
News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 21 June 2011] Her name is Narantuya, which roughly translates as bright sunshine. Nara is 10 years old and the sole guardian of her little sister Moogii. These sisters spend their days rummaging through piles of rubbish. They look for enough food to last through the day, wandering from place to place, sometimes walking across the whole city in search of food. They share this daily task with homeless drunks and street dogs, all searching through the same piles of scraps. They make ends meet (barely) by begging, collecting bottles that they sell to recycling plants and anything else that they can scavenge that might have some monetary value. Mongolians suffer wrath of winter blight Robert B. Gilbert, Seattlepi, www.seattlepi.com/default/article/Mongolians-suffer-wrath-of-winter-blight-1230691.php [accessed 21 June 2011] Among these migrants are a growing
number of runaway and abandoned children, some as young as 5. An estimated
3,000-4,000 children live on the streets of Homeless Kids Fight For Survival Underground Menaced by
Sinister Jobless Adults Kentaro Kurihara,
The Asahi Shimbun, www.asahi.com/english/world/TKY200503050152.html [accessed 21 June 2011] ``Not many grown-ups knew of this
location,'' says Sukhbold, a 14-year-old who gulps
down the soup offered by staff members of the ***
ARCHIVES *** ECPAT Global Monitoring Report on the status of action
against commercial exploitation of children - Mongolia [PDF] ECPAT International, 2006 www.ecpat.net/A4A_2005/PDF/EAP/Global_Monitoring_Report-MONGOLIA.pdf [accessed 21 June 2011] The study Perception, Trends, and
Nature of Child Prostitution, conducted in 2001 in Factors pushing children into
prostitution include sexual abuse, poor living onditions,
and being lured, forced or influenced by others. The high rates of divorce
and domestic violence (often accentuated by alcohol abuse) also lead many
children to run away from abusive home environments to find themselves in
highly vulnerable situations. At the end of the Soviet occupation, Mongolia
experienced a severe economic collapse, but the various changes in the
country’s economic structure were not accompanied by social welfare programmes targeting children and young people. – sccp UNICEF – www.unicef.org/infobycountry/mongolia.html [accessed 21 June 2011] The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on the Worst Forms
of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/mongolia.htm [accessed 21 February 2011] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - UNICEF estimated that 36.6 percent of children in Human Rights Reports » 2005
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/62653.htm [accessed 21 February 2011] CHILDREN - Although society has a long
tradition of raising children in a communal manner, societal and familial
changes have orphaned many children. The government was more willing than in
the past to admit the extent of the problem, but it lacked the resources to
improve the welfare of children who have become victims. NGOs continued to
assist orphaned and abandoned children. The government did not publish
statistics on street children; however, the 2002 census identified
approximately 1,300 homeless youths between 7 and 18 years of age. Of those,
840 lived in shelters provided by 21 children's centers sponsored by
international NGOs. Groups working in the field disagreed on the number of
street children, but they estimated that there were as many as three
thousand. Female street children, who
accounted for one‑third of all street children, sometimes faced sexual
abuse. The government established the National Committee for Children to
address this and other child welfare problems. The government supported two
government-funded but privately owned and administered shelters, one for
children from birth to the age 3 and the other for children from ages 3 to
16. While these facilities received some government funding, it was
inadequate, and foreign aid was needed to sustain the orphanages. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 3 June 2005 sim.law.uu.nl/SIM/CaseLaw/uncom.nsf/0/6665ba6cee999821c12570350028974c?OpenDocument [accessed 21 February 2011] [49] The Committee is deeply
concerned at the persistent high rate of poverty in the State party. The
Committee notes that as a consequence of increasing migration from rural
areas poverty is becoming more urbanized and this change has created a range
of new social issues, such as children living on the streets. While noting,
inter alia, the adoption of, in 2004, "Money
for hope" benefit system for children living in families with a minimum
income and the State party's efforts to implement poverty reduction plan,
programs and projects, the Committee reiterates its concern at the high
number of children, who do not enjoy the right to an adequate standard of
living, including adequate housing and other basic services, both in urban
and rural areas of the country. [62] The Committee regrets that the
State party report did not provide it with adequate information about the
situation of street children. While noting with appreciation the
establishment of child centers for children living in the street, the
Committee is concerned at the increasing number of street children living in
very harsh conditions and that the causes leading to this phenomenon are
often abusive family situations. According to the Law on Temporary Detention
of Children without Supervision adopted in July 1994, a runaway child can be
detained up to one week. The Committee is concerned that the State party's
domestic legislation does not remain in full conformity with the principles
and provision of the Convention in this respect. Furthermore, the Committee
notes with concern that the negative public attitudes and prejudices against
street children exacerbate their difficult situation. Fattige barn i
Mongolia www.norsknettskole.no/gs/view.cgi?&link_id=0.8758.1503498&session_id=0 [accessed 21 June 2011] HOW DOES THE STREET CHILDREN
SURVIVE? - The street
children survive by holding together. They help each other and they also
support each other. They also help each other get warm. They share all stuff
together and help each other collecting bottles and cans for food. HOW THE OLDER GROUPS TREATS THE
YOUNGER GROUPS - It
is the older kids that rule the streets of street children. They steal money
from what the younger groups have collected. They beat them up and also make
many scars on their arms of the younger groups. Sometimes they kill one of
the members in the younger groups. All the young groups fear that they will
get killed. So the younger groups tries to escape each time the older groups
come. WHAT DO THEY DO IF THEIR HEALTH
GETS BAD? - If one of
the groups gets sick or ill they try to help him/her. They share the food
they get with him and give a bit more food to him/her. They always try to
keep him alive so they don’t loose him/her. They collect also money from
bottles and cans so that he can go to the doctor to see how sick he is. Few
times they try to reunite him/her with his/her parents so they can help
him/her survive. If he/she gets really sick they hope that he/she will
survive so they don’t loose a member of the group. When he/she gets better
again they treat him/her the same way as they treated him/her before he got
sick. City of The Daily Pilot, August 01, 2008 articles.dailypilot.com/2008-08-01/news/dpt-mongoliashort080208_1_manholes-live-full-story [accessed 21 June 2011] In the words of Treptow, “An enduring legacy of the communist downfall is
the phenomenon of The children live in manholes
littered with rat feces and cockroaches. They rummage through trash for
scraps of food. Many are malnourished or sick from eating bad meat. Others,
as young as 7, drink. The girls live in fear of sexual assaults. Hope is an
abstract in this underground society. But they also sing, laugh, look
out for each other and fight with remarkable resilience and resourcefulness
to live to see another day. City of Kent Treptow, The Daily Pilot,
July 12, 2008 [accessed 21 June 2011] Aizam’s parents divorced when he was 10.
His mother remarried, but her husband threw the boy out on the street because
he didn’t want a child who was not his own. Aizam
returned to his father’s door, but no one answered. Eventually he joined a group of
children who lived in a manhole between a music kiosk and a movie theater. In
the seven years since, he has seen his father several times walking down the
street with his new wife. They stroll past and ignore him, as if he is not
there. City of Kent Treptow, The Daily Pilot,
July 12, 2008 articles.dailypilot.com/2008-07-12/features/doc486d5992d5d7e250885083_1_manholes-truck-success-story [accessed 21 June 2011] Davga says the stomach pain is probably
food poisoning from bad meat scavenged from trash. She checks her legs and
finds an open, circular wound about 2 inches wide. It’s from burning herself
on a pipe that runs through the hole she lives in. The injuries are so common
that Byamba didn’t bother to mention it. Davga cleans her wound and gives her medicine and fresh
food. “Byarlalaa!”
the girl shouts ⎯ thank you! ⎯ as she skips off and disappears
into her hole. Word spreads that the clinic is
here. Children appear in bunches, and soon the truck is elbow-to-elbow with
excited kids. It looks like recess at an elementary school, except that some
of these kids could pick your pockets in five seconds flat. In 15 minutes the
50 sack lunches the team prepared have been handed out, and the children
disperse into the night. City of Kent Treptow, The Daily Pilot,
July 12, 2008 articles.dailypilot.com/2008-07-12/features/doc486d59fb211d4832590405_1_pipes-faces-arcade [accessed 21 June 2011] Otgonbayar claims to be 10 but the others
say he is 7. He makes considerably more money than the rest because his
small, vulnerable appearance elicits more sympathy ⎯ and therefore more
money ⎯ when he begs. He spends his cash playing Internet games at a nearby
computer arcade. “Counter Strike,” a violent military game, is his favorite.
If he spends enough, the owner lets him sleep there. The youngest is Bilguun, a 7-year-old boy who drifts in and out of the
hole like a ghost, disappearing for days at a time before turning up with
little explanation. There are girls here as well: Soyolerdene, 17, Solongo, 16,
and Ariungerel, 13. When I first meet them, they
sit with their backs to me, not out of disdain but out of embarrassment for
the way they live. Many days go by before they feel comfortable enough to
speak. But when they do, it is clear they endure hardships beyond those of
the boys, living in constant fear of being raped or forced into prostitution
by roving gangs of adult males whom the children call “gods” because of their
size and strength. City of Kent Treptow, The Daily Pilot,
July 12, 2008 [accessed 21 June 2011] A few nights later the hole is packed
with bodies. It’s warm enough for the boys nearest the pipes to lounge
without shirts. Summer is a couple of months away. Soon they will leave the
holes for the roof of a nearby apartment building, where they will sleep
beneath passing thunderstorms. City of Kent Treptow, The Daily Pilot,
July 12, 2008 [accessed 21 June 2011] On Saturday night the Tengis kids are making money. The theater is showing the
movie “Chinggis Khan,” a Japanese-produced epic about
the 13th century founder of the Mongol empire. Liberty Square is overflowing
with cars. The children haggle with drivers for money to watch their
vehicles. Essentially, they are being paid not to steal. If the owner pays
them, the car is left alone. If not, there might not be any side-view mirrors
or hubcaps left when he returns. Street Children Remain Neglected Damien Dawson, 06 April 2007 This article has been archived by World Street Children
News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 21 June 2011] Her name is Narantuya,
which roughly translates as bright sunshine. Nara is 10 years old and the
sole guardian of her little sister Moogii. These
sisters spend their days rummaging through piles of rubbish. They look for
enough food to last through the day, wandering from place to place, sometimes
walking across the whole city in search of food. They share this daily task
with homeless drunks and street dogs, all searching through the same piles of
scraps. They make ends meet (barely) by begging, collecting bottles that they
sell to recycling plants and anything else that they can scavenge that might
have some monetary value. Nurturing Other Precious Resources The Australian, April 05, 2007 www.volunteers.anandamarga.us/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20&Itemid=9 [accessed 21 June 2011] Today she is better known as Didi Kalika, an Ananda Marga nun with intense
blue eyes, who came to Mongolians suffer wrath of winter blight Robert B. Gilbert, Seattlepi, www.seattlepi.com/default/article/Mongolians-suffer-wrath-of-winter-blight-1230691.php [accessed 21 June 2011] Among these migrants are a growing
number of runaway and abandoned children, some as young as 5. An estimated
3,000-4,000 children live on the streets of Traffickers profit from vulnerability of street children
in Mongolia Daryhand Bayar,
United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF This article has been archived by World Street Children
News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 21 June 2011] Information about Street Children - This report is taken from “A Civil Society Forum for East
and South East Asia on Promoting and Protecting the Rights of Street
Children”, 12-14 March 2003, At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 21 June 2011] There are 22 care centers/shelters
for street children in Street Children in acr.hrschool.org/mainfile.php/0104/23/ [accessed 21 June 2011] Supporting Street Children In Save the Children At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 21 June 2011] Poor health is common among both
street children and children who work. They often risk injury from dangerous
work, poor living conditions and gang violence. Children are also exposed to
sexually transmitted diseases - especially girls working in the sex industry.
But many children are unaware of the risks, and often don't even realize they
are ill. Even if they recognize symptoms, it's often impossible to get
professional help. Many of them are not officially registered, or have lost
proof of identity. Without it, they can't get free health cover, and
hospitals are reluctant to treat them because they won't get paid. Out in the Cold: The Street
Children of Kristine Weber, People's News Agency PNA Dispatch, 1997 www.prout.org/pna/mongolian-street-children.html [accessed 21 June 2011] To a few shrewder Mongolian
businesspeople, the explosion of capitalism has brought prosperity. But the
boom has also left fallout - the country's youth. Along with the decline of the communist
economic structure went most of the country's social welfare money and
programs for young people. Homeless Kids Fight For Survival Underground Menaced by
Sinister Jobless Adults Kentaro Kurihara,
The Asahi Shimbun, www.asahi.com/english/world/TKY200503050152.html [accessed 21 June 2011] ``Not many grown-ups knew of this
location,'' says Sukhbold, a 14-year-old who gulps
down the soup offered by staff members of the Tom Boland, 8 Nov 1998 hpn.asu.edu/archives/Nov98/0127.html [accessed 21 June 2011] This has resulted in the
phenomenon of Circus Training As An Alternative Educational System Lutaa Badamkhand,
The Independent, 26 December 2003 At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 21 June 2011] To children attending Boxing Day
circuses across the world, juggling balls or balancing a spinning plate may
not seem essential for success. But 40 children in Street-Children Pay The Price For Parliament's Neglect Michael Salguero, 2002 mglausnsw.wordpress.com/2008/05/09/foreigner-and-mn-street-kids/ [accessed 21 June 2011] According to the Sinkhat family, their situation was hopeless. None of the
children were in school and the mother did little to help out the
situation. She had moved from her
community to Numbers of Street Children in Phoebe Lai, Senior Communications Officer, World Vision www.worldvision.org/worldvision/pr.nsf/stable/nv033198_mongolia2 [accessed 21 June 2011] In 1991, there were no street
children in Inside the Children's Prison in EurasiaNet.org, March 15, 2002 www.eurasianet.org/departments/culture/articles/eav031602.shtml [accessed 21 June 2011] In the capital, Ulan Bator,
juveniles between the ages of 14 and 18 who are accused of crimes are kept in
a separate detention center, which is also designated a training center.
Here, inmates are kept apart from the adult population, schooled and
hopefully rehabilitated. Why Street Children? World Vision New mongolia.worldvision.org.nz/streetchildren.html [accessed 21 June 2011] In 1990, Dark Side Of Conor O'Clery,
The Irish Times www.mongoliatoday.com/issue/2/dark_side_2.html [accessed 21 June 2011] The street children sleep in the open when the
weather is warm and during the freezing winter nights they take refuge in
communal flats or in the city sewers. Below ground they huddle in gangs of
about 25 for safety and sleep close to the insulated pipes carrying hot water
to apartment blocks. William M. Balsamo At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 21 June 2011] Although the children have all
been taken from the sewers of Catholic priest climbs into manholes to minister to
Mongolian poor Dianne Hardisty , The At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 21 June 2011] The manholes provide shelter to
the thousands of homeless men, women and children seeking refuge from winter
temperatures that sometimes dip to minus 50 degrees. The priests began collecting the children
from the streets -- at first 15 and then 40. They built a four-story center
that now houses 120 children and also feeds and cares for homeless adults. 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 [Mongolia] [other countries]Street Children in [Mongolia Child Prostitution in [Mongolia] [other countries]