Human Trafficking in [Sierra Leone] [other countries]Street Children in [Sierra Leone Child Prostitution in [Sierra Leone] [other countries] |
Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children The |
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CAUTION: The following links and accompanying
text have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in UNICEF - The Big Picture U.S.
Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - UNICEF estimated that 71.6 percent of children aged 5 to 14 years
in Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 CHILDREN - Public education is available up
to the university level. The law requires school attendance through primary
school; however, only 41 percent of primary school-aged children were
enrolled in school, according to UNICEF. Schools, clinics, and hospitals
throughout the country were looted and destroyed during the 11-year
insurgency, but the majority have been rebuilt. A
large number of children received little or no formal education. Formal and
informal fees largely financed schools, but many families could not afford to
pay them. SECTION 6
WORKER RIGHTS – [d]
In rural areas children worked seasonally on family subsistence farms.
Children also routinely assisted in family businesses and worked as petty
vendors. Adults engaged a large number of street children to sell, steal, and
beg. There were reports that children
whose parents sent them to friends or relatives in urban areas for education
were forced to work on the street. Concluding
Observations Of The Committee On The Rights Of The Child (CRC) - 2000 [50] The Committee is deeply
concerned at the large numbers of children who have been deprived of a family
environment through the death of, or separation from, their parents or other
family, and at reports of the difficulties and slow progress in tracing
separated families and children. The Committee is concerned,
further, that children deprived of their family environment may increasingly
travel to the main towns, where they may live on the streets and be
particularly vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. [80] The Committee is concerned by
the increasing incidence of child labor, in particular on the streets of the
main towns, and anticipates that, in the current post-conflict situation, the
number of children engaged in such labor is likely to increase. The Committee
is especially concerned at the situation of children begging in cities and
major towns. What does the
future hold for these children?...Child rights must be preserved Most or all of these disadvantaged
children the Roaming Pen spoke to expressed interest in education. The fact
however is, their parents cannot afford the expensive education system in the
country, hence have no alternative but to follow them in the degrading act of
begging. One of the destitutes,
an old blind man named Pa Momodu Kamara intimated that it is not his wish to use his only
child in begging, but he is left with no option other than what they are
presently engaged in as he cannot afford sending his child to school. C.C. Y. O vows
to help street children in Sierra Leone Mr. Freeman further stated that
children and youths have become the prey of drug barons, human traffickers
and prime targets for prostitution due to poverty. To a large extent youths and children were
the unwitting perpetrators and victims of the ten-year war the nation endured
just five years back, and their continued plight has the potential to make
this nation implode. Mr. Freeman noted.
He also stated that some of the street children are being treated
callously be society in a manner the civilize world would frown at. Thousands of them need protection which has
not been forthcoming and such protection is necessary as many of them were
orphaned as a result of the war. Benefit
will help feed orphans in Sierra Leone Aminata concentrated her efforts on the
orphaned street children. In the spring of 2004, when she herself was only 21
years old, Aminata asked the Rev. Gibson if she could
adopt the children she was helping. He agreed and with the government’s
approval she adopted 20 street children and opened what she calls Savior of
the World Children’s Center. Back in
the U.S., friends of the Rev. Gibson organized the relief efforts into a
nonprofit charity and Savior of the World, Inc. was born. Aminata, now 24,
is the legal mother of 30 children rescued off the street. She and the
children live in a small, rented apartment that is without running water,
electricity or even doors. The 30 children share two bedrooms and 14 single
beds. They do not have a yard to play in. Youth
Organization Promotes Street children in Sierra Leone In expressing thanks and appreciation,
one of the beneficiaries, Komba Kelley, said he is
thankful to PMBF for affording him those needed
items which will greatly improve his condition. Asked by our reporter why he
decided to stay in the streets, he had this to say: "I lost my father
during the war and my mother is so sick that she can not support me now. She
is staying with her friend in a single room which can not accommodate all of
us. So I have nobody to care for me that is why I
decided to fend for myself in the streets." He however, said that he
wants to go to school if he has the support as he wants to become a medical
doctor in future to help his ailing mother. AYPAD to reform street kids in Sierra Leone Speaking on behalf of the street
children, 12-year old, shabby-looking Francis Amara
narrated a tragic story that led him to take to the streets. According to
Francis, he has been living in the street for the past three years, after he
left his poor parents in Guinea in search of fortune in Sierra Leone.
"My only source of livelihood is sweeping, toting and doing other odd
jobs," Francis informed the gathering. Street Children of
Sierra Leone Lead Brutal, Dangerous Life A decade of conflict has made
poverty in Sierra Leone's
Children are Pushed onto Streets It is a common sight to see street
children in In trying to combat Sierra Leone's
streetchildren epiemic, preventing street children
International Sierra Leone (PSCISL) has developed a
diverse setttttt of programs, including regular
orientation programs directed for the police. The purpose of this is to cause
attitudinal changes
among the police pertaining to street children who are wrongly understood by
society in general and the police in particular. Once children are onto the
streets they are branded by
the society as "hopeless cases, vandals, uncultured,
etc". Many people don't seem to take the hardship of questioning why
these children are out on the street with little or no family control? what the pull and push
factors are? What corrective measures are required? what
they could contribute to mitigate this growing urban social phenomenon? Information
about Street Children – Sierra Leone [DOC] Constraints and challenges: Lack
of basic needs (shelter, clothing, medical care and food), lack of access to
education, vulnerability to HIV/AIDS/STIs, a
negative societal attitude towards street children arising from a
misconception that they are responsible for all the ills of the society and a
failure to consider their plight; harassment by police and local hoodlums. Children Working In
Sierra Leone Mines HIRED – Abou, a boy aged nine
whom I spoke to at the mines, told me that he and his brother, who is 14,
work for their father, who is disabled.
Abou has never been to school and he told me
that he is not at all interested in school.
Other children, some of them former combatants, some orphans and
street children, are hired by adults to do their
dirty work for them. Yet, Mr. Otunnu
noted, tremendous challenges lay ahead - some a legacy of the decade-long
conflict and others linked to persistent poverty. Uppermost is the education
sector, where many classrooms require repair or rehabilitation, there are
acute shortages of teaching materials, and teaching staff need training and
adequate remuneration. Another is the condition and dire needs of the
disabled, particularly the amputees and other war-wounded. A third area of
concern is the extensive use of children as labour
in diamond mining, preventing their schooling. Mr. Otunnu
noted that child labour and other social ills
aggravated by the war, for example, growing numbers of street children and an
increase in child prostitution, are linked to pervasive poverty and dramatic
disparities in development between urban centres
and the rural areas. He also drew attention to the particular plight and
vulnerability of girls. Many girls associated with the fighting forces were
bypassed in the disarmament process and ostracized from their families and
communities. Many others are victims of sexual abuse and violence, with an
inadequate response by the judicial system. CHILDREN - Over 1,700 child combatants
were demobilized before the collapse of the peace process, but from the May
collapse to this date, only 115 had been registered. While some eight hundred
children were reunified with their families between January and August, some
four thousand children were still registered as missing (most abducted by
rebel forces). All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC §
107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use |
Human Trafficking in [Sierra Leone] [other countries]Street Children in [Sierra Leone Child Prostitution in [Sierra Leone] [other countries]