Human Trafficking in [Sudan] [other countries]Street Children in [Sudan Child Prostitution in [Sudan] [other countries] |
Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the
first ten years of the 21st Century -
2000 to 2009
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CAUTION: The following links and accompanying text have been culled
from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** Juba's street children survive at risk of HIV One of the main dangers faced by homeless boys and girls is the sexual predators. "Sometimes it happens that men come and look for boys for sex; they are looking for boys and girls, but where I stay there are only boys," Mabior said. "It is a mixture: Arabs, southerners, soldiers from all over ... some boys will go straight away for the money, others will resist and refuse, but this means they can get beaten." He said the children earned between US$0.05 and $0.10 for providing sexual services. Although Mabior had heard of HIV, he had no real understanding of how it is spread, or the dangers posed by unprotected sex. "There needs to be a campaign to raise awareness of HIV amongst children living on the streets; children need to be encouraged to know their status so they can avoid risky behaviour," Lemi said. "But testing is voluntary, and they will only come forward to be tested if they have been educated." A dozen boys discuss the allure of glue and solvents during their time on the streets of the Sudanese capital Khartoum. Solvents made them braver when they attempted to pick pockets or pilfer from shops. The beatings the police administered hurt less when they were high. Their dreams were vivid and pleasant. Glue filled their empty stomachs for hours when a piece of bread would only stave off hunger for a few minutes. Making The Best Of A Home Away From Home Rahman says his parents left him in a railway station in western Sudan when he was very young. He finally made his way to the capital, Khartoum, where he says he has grown up. ''I know what is good and what is bad,'' says Rahman, adding that he entered the school of life early. Another young boy, from Southern Sudan, told IPS that the young and the old on the streets, who have found themselves cast out of society, have tended to form new families among themselves to survive. Pointing to an elderly man nearby, who is a leper, the young boy says: ''This man is my father, but not my real father, because he treats me like a son'' ***
ARCHIVES *** UNICEF - The Big Picture Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 CHILDREN - The government operated
"reformation camps" for vagrant children. Police typically sent
homeless children who had committed crimes to these camps, where they were detained
for indefinite periods. Health care and schooling at the camps generally were
poor, and basic living conditions often were primitive. All of the children
in the camps, including non‑Muslims, must study the Koran, and there
was pressure on non‑Muslims to convert to Islam. In the camps, the PDF
often conscripted teenage males (and, in the South, some females). Conscripts
faced significant hardship and abuse in military service, often serving on
the frontline. There were reports that abducted, homeless, and displaced
children were discouraged from speaking languages other than Arabic or
practicing religions other than Islam. Concluding
Observations Of The Committee On The Rights Of The Child (CRC) - 2002 [67] While taking note of the
adoption by the President of a decision on 19 June 1999 "to deal with
the problem of street children", the Committee remains concerned
that: (a) There are large numbers of
children living on the street in urban areas and that these children are
vulnerable to, among other things, sexual abuse, violence, exploitation and
the abuse of various substances and that they lack access to education and
adequate health services; (b) Street
children are classified as "vagrants" in the context of government
practices. In order to shed some light on the
plight of children in Sudan under the reign of the National Congress Party
(NCP) regime, it is worthwhile to obtain background information. Numbers of
children on the streets of Khartoum have started to increase rapidly ever
since the early 1980s, when many families moved there to escape the war in
southern Sudan and the drought afflicting the western regions of Kordofan and Darfur. Two-thirds
of the street children in Khartoum the National Capital of Sudan are
estimated to sniff petrol-based tyre repair glue.Available data on child labour
and street children in Sudan suggests that the number of street children in
northern Sudan was around 70000 by the end of the year 2002, with 73% of
these living in the streets of Khartoum. Boys make up around 86% of those on
the streets, and girls 14%. Juba's street children survive at risk of HIV One of the main dangers faced by
homeless boys and girls is the sexual predators. "Sometimes it happens
that men come and look for boys for sex; they are looking for boys and girls,
but where I stay there are only boys," Mabior
said. "It is a mixture: Arabs,
southerners, soldiers from all over ... some boys
will go straight away for the money, others will resist and refuse, but this
means they can get beaten." He said the children earned between US$0.05
and $0.10 for providing sexual services.
Although Mabior had heard of HIV, he had no
real understanding of how it is spread, or the dangers posed by unprotected
sex. "There needs to be a campaign
to raise awareness of HIV amongst children living on the streets; children
need to be encouraged to know their status so they can avoid risky behaviour," Lemi said.
"But testing is voluntary, and they will only come forward to be tested
if they have been educated." Sudanese
children abducted for fighting and sex-UN www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L08174523.htm The committee did not spell out
whether the forced recruitment was by official Sudanese armed forces, by its
allied janjaweed militias, rebel groups or all
sides. But street children and youths
uprooted by the conflict which has racked Darfur
since 2003 are particularly vulnerable to all forms of exploitation, the U.N.
body said. - htsccp Human Rights Watch - Street Children www.hrw.org/children/street.htm At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
In several countries where we have
worked, notably Saving
Khartoum's abandoned babies Sharia law in Sudan demands that a woman
who gives birth out of wedlock be lashed 100 times. Along with official punishment comes
lifelong shame for both mother and child. Rather than face such consequences,
many women hide the pregnancy under their robes, deliver the baby in secret
and abandon it to the streets. In 2003, government figures show,
babies were being abandoned to Khartoum streets at the rate of 110 a month.
And in the five years from 1998 to 2003, roughly half of abandoned babies
died before being found – some of dehydration, others of blood poisoning
through the umbilical cord. A few were eaten by dogs. Survivors usually ended up at the Maygoma institution for illegitimate babies, only to be
treated as outcasts not worthy of care. During the same five years, of the
2,500 babies admitted to Maygoma, 2,100 died – a
mortality rate of 84 per cent. Press
Conference by Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict - 8 Feb 2007 According to Ms. Coomaraswamy, communities were also ill-equipped to
absorb child soldiers who were demobilized, leading many to return to the
armed forces where they seemed to enjoy a clearer sense of status and
belonging. As a result of the finding, it had been decided that UNICEF
would conduct a study to determine the types of social services needed to
ensure that children were better rooted in the community upon leaving the
military. While in Juba, she said she had
also noted the burgeoning number of orphans and street children throughout
the Sudan, saying it would require programmatic intervention by the United
Nations. A dozen boys discuss the allure of
glue and solvents during their time on the streets of the Sudanese capital
Khartoum. Solvents made them braver when they attempted to pick pockets or
pilfer from shops. The beatings the police administered hurt less when they
were high. Their dreams were vivid and pleasant. Glue filled their empty
stomachs for hours when a piece of bread would only stave off hunger for a
few minutes. Information About Street Children - www.streetchildren.org.uk/reports/Sudan%20Child.doc At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
The privatization of public
services, together with limited public awareness of children’s rights, has deprived
street children of access to health, education, shelter and other social
services. They are forced instead to rely on leftovers as a source of food,
and to washing themselves and their clothes on the streets. This renders them
vulnerable to a wide range of illnesses and infections such as cholera,
gonorrhea, STDs and HIV/AIDS. AIDS Orphans Throng
The Streets The boy,
aged 13, claims he was kicked out of the house and told that his parents died
of carelessness. Before he was brought
to the hostel, he had spent one year on the streets, eking out a living by
begging. Social workers accuse [scroll down] SHAMS STREET CHILDREN PROJECT, The streetboys of Khartoum, ranging in age from 8 to 18. In December 1997, twenty football teams were formed with street children and children in reformatories, orphanages, drop-out schools and displaced community centres. Making The Best Of A Home Away From Home Rahman says his parents left him in a
railway station in western Sudan when he was very young. He finally made his
way to the capital, Khartoum, where he says he has grown up. ''I know what is
good and what is bad,'' says Rahman, adding that he
entered the school of life early. Another young boy, from Southern
Sudan, told IPS that the young and the old on the streets, who have found
themselves cast out of society, have tended to form new families among
themselves to survive. Pointing to an elderly man nearby,
who is a leper, the young boy says: ''This man is my father, but not my real
father, because he treats me like a son'' 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 [Sudan] [other countries]Street Children in [Sudan Child Prostitution in [Sudan] [other countries]