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 In the first ten years of
the 21st Century - 2000 to 2009
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FEATURED ARTICLE *** Sierra Leone's Children are Pushed onto Streets It is a common sight to see street children in Freetown. After a decade of conflict, Sierra Leone is so poor, that many children are sent out to work instead of going to school. The lucky ones will have some place to go, but many of them have been pushed out of their homes, and are sleeping on the street. Stop
The Abuse Now! Children In Sierra Leone Deserves a Better Life standardtimespress.net/cgi-bin/artman/publish/article_3288.shtml
Dr. Ibrahim
Sallieu Kamara, a senior
lecturer at the MMECT recently drew the attention of Sierra Leoneans to what he termed the emergency of “second
generation of street children”, referring to street children who have given
birth to children and are raising them in the streets. He warned that until something concrete is
done about these children, moral decadence, violence and crime in the Sierra
Leone society will likely escalate. He
said unlike their parents, the second generation of street children have no
definite cultural heritage or background except the culture the “survival of
the fittest”. This is because they
only learn about violence, cheating, armed robbery and illicit business like
the drug trade just for them to survive.
He said that they lack the opportunity to learn cultural values like
discipline, hard work, love and respect which are needed in every stable and
civilized society. ***
ARCHIVES *** 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. Street children are embarrassment to the nation awoko.org/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=5948&cntnt01returnid=15 He said they have been monitoring most
of their activities to ensure its sustainability. Contrary to wide
spread speculations that most of the street kids and child guides do
not go school , he said they do go to school, explaining that those
child guides in the afternoon shift accompany their disable parents to
the street in the morning hours and help them beg for
some hours before leaving for school, but those in the morning shift
only drop their parents in the morning hours to join them when schools
are over. He therefore attributed the
alarming situation street children to poverty as he put he has never seen a
child of a rich man beg for his living in the street. Stop
The Abuse Now! Children In Sierra Leone Deserves a Better Life standardtimespress.net/cgi-bin/artman/publish/article_3288.shtml
Dr. Ibrahim
Sallieu Kamara, a senior
lecturer at the MMECT recently drew the attention of Sierra Leoneans to what he termed the emergency of “second
generation of street children”, referring to street children who have given
birth to children and are raising them in the streets. He warned that until something concrete is
done about these children, moral decadence, violence and crime in the Sierra
Leone society will likely escalate. He
said unlike their parents, the second generation of street children have no
definite cultural heritage or background except the culture the “survival of
the fittest”. This is because they
only learn about violence, cheating, armed robbery and illicit business like
the drug trade just for them to survive.
He said that they lack the opportunity to learn cultural values like
discipline, hard work, love and respect which are needed in every stable and
civilized society. What does the future hold for these children?...Child
rights must be preserved news.sl/drwebsite/publish/article_20057603.shtml 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 news.sl/drwebsite/publish/article_20057350.shtml 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 news.sl/drwebsite/publish/article_20056487.shtml 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 news.sl/drwebsite/publish/article_20054103.shtml 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 www.voanews.com/english/2005-05-27-voa1.cfm At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
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 Letter from Collins Kamara projects.is.asu.edu/pipermail/hpn/2001-November/004990.html At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] In trying to combat Information about Street Children – www.streetchildren.org.uk/reports/Sierra%20Leone%20Child.doc At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
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. UN Special Envoy for Children and Armed Conflict applauds progress www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/40658142EEC597B4C1256CDE002C8734?opendocument
www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/AllDocsByUNID/7ea80a16b952712185256cdb006897d6 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. PLEASE
RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin,
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