Human Trafficking in  [Mozambique]  [other countries]
Street Children in  [Mozambique]  [other countries]
Child Prostitution in  [Mozambique]  [other countries]
 

Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children

Republic of Mozambique                                                          [ Country-by-Country Reports ]

The Republic of Mozambique is located in SE Africa [map] and is bordered by the Indian Ocean (E); by South Africa and Swaziland (S); by Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi (W); and by Tanzania (N).  Maputo is its capital and largest city.  Mozambique is a vast country of almost 800,000 square kilometers with more than 2,500 kilometers of rich coastline.  Forest and woodlands make up about 70 percent of the country. The majority of its 18 million people live in rural areas with an urban population of only 29 percent. The Mozambican society is very young with than half of its members under 18 years old.

 

CAUTION:  The following links and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Mozambique.  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.

UNICEF - The Big Picture

U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs

INCIDENCE AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Children work on family farms and in informal work including guarding cars, collecting scrap metal, and selling goods in the streets.  Large numbers of children in the informal sector work in transport, where they are employed as conductors, collecting fares in minibus taxis known as “chapas.”  Other forms of informal work done by children include collecting scrap metal, and selling of food or trinkets in the street.  Street children are reported to suffer from police beatings and sexual abuse.

Bur of Democracy, Human Rights & Labor - Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005

CHILDREN - The country continued to have a problem with street children. There were no reliable figures on the number of street children nationwide. In 2004 the NGO Rede de Crianca, comprised of 33 community organizations that work with youth in Maputo, identified 3,419 street children in their programs.

The Maputo City Office of Women and Social Action continued its program of rescuing abandoned orphans and assisting single mothers who head families of three or more persons. They also offered special classes to children of broken homes in local schools. NGO groups sponsored food, shelter, and education programs in all major cities.

Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2002

[68] The Committee is concerned that:  (a) There are large numbers of children living on the street in urban areas;  (b) Street children are vulnerable to, inter alia, sexual abuse, violence, including from the police, exploitation, lack of access to education, substance abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS and malnutrition;  (c) The primary response to the situation of these children, as described by the State party in its report, is placing them in institutions.

FOCUS: A place for Maputo's children

We were in the rubble-strewn back yard of a derelict shell of a building in downtown Maputo. Home, if you can call it that, to a gang of street children aged between 15 and 21. We were here to try to talk to them for a short film on the work of architects for Aid, to be shown next month at BD's Architect of the Year Awards. But as their hostility made clear, they weren't keen to talk to us. Another British journalist had been here a few months before and had paid them for interviews. Information was now a currency to be traded, a commodity like the junk the children scavenge to sell on the street. There would be no filming without an exchange of cash.

Information about Street Children - Mozambique [DOC]

45.7% of the population is under the age of 15; 30% of the population lives in urban areas; there has been economic improvement in the last 5 years. Numbers of street children are estimated between 3,500 and 4,500 with numbers growing due to the impact of HIV/AIDS.

Mozambique Journal: February 9th. 2002

As we drove through town, we were told many of the apartment blocks had no running water on the top floor, and we saw more than a few street children in the stylish avenues and around the garbage dumps.

Saving 'Street Kids' in Mozambique

FINDING A SOLUTION - Two years ago, Bishop Felton E. May came to Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique. I drove him past an area where Maputo's street children live. When he returned last November, he asked me about these children. I told him that the ones he had seen were all still there, growing up, some having babies of their own. Meanwhile, smaller children were being added to the outcast group. The government was doing nothing–saying that the churches should provide the help.

Accao Voluntario em Mocambique (AVM)

Accao Voluntario em Mocambique (AVM) is dedicated to helping the neglected and abused street children of Maputo.  AVM strives to improve their quality of life with programs that house, feed, educate, and offer comfort, stability and hope.  Most of the children are either orphans or victims of extreme poverty that makes it impossible for their parent(s) to care for them.

Meninos de Mocambique

Meninos de Mocambique operates a clinic that helps malnourished street children, who are even more susceptible to malaria, skin diseases and sexually transmitted diseases.  Meninos also has outreach workers who visit the streets of Maputo on a daily basis and befriend the street children. Through the gradual development of a trusting relationship, Meninos can help street children make choices about leaving the streets.

Save the Children in Mozambique

http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/en/docs/Moza.pdf

Over the past 22 years, we have improved the lives of tens of thousands of children through providing basic services such as healthcare and education, and through our child protection work, focusing on orphans and other vulnerable children. We have provided food, access to clean water and other basic assistance to children and their families during times of emergency. We have helped thousands of children register their birth so they are eligible for government benefits and other support. And we continue to help children who are affected by HIV and AIDS.

Mozambique Floods Unleash Children's Fears

Most of the girls arrive at the center from the street, having fled abusive family situations, or their parents have died and a stepparent rejected them.

Birth Registration -  Right From The Start [DOC]

Most babies in Mozambique are still denied their “membership card” to society, because they are not registered at birth.  This has serious consequences, particularly for orphans and other children made vulnerable by being excluded from basic social services and entitlements such as the right to be exempted from school fees.

Massacre Of The Innocents

Missionary beaten to death with a hammer. After denouncing the ever more frequent cases of children and adolescents disappearing from Nampula, in the north of Mozambique.

World Congress Against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children

Poverty increasingly drives children onto the streets of Mozambique's big cities. There, they hope to survive. There, they hope to earn a little money for themselves and their families. UNICEF estimates the number of street children in Mozambique at 5,000. For many girls, life on the streets leads to prostitution.

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Human Trafficking in  [Mozambique]  [other countries]
Street Children in  [Mozambique]  [other countries]
Child Prostitution in  [Mozambique]  [other countries]