Human Trafficking in [Tanzania] [other countries]Street Children in [Tanzania Child Prostitution in [Tanzania] [other countries] |
Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the
early years of the 21st Century - 2000 to 2010 gvnet.com/streetchildren/Tanzania.htm
|
||
|
CAUTION: The following links and accompanying text have been culled
from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** Tanzanian children struggle with homelessness Andrew Rosten, The Daily Vidette, At one time this article had been archived and may possibly
still be accessible [here] [accessed 28 July 2011] “[As a result of urbanization], a
lot of fathers are leaving the rural areas for the urban areas to find
work," Stewart said. "If they don't find work in these places, they
can't go back because of certain attitudes in terms of a male's responsibility
for his family, so they abandon their families and leave mom in the villages
with all these kids. She can't do it, so a lot of these kids say, 'OK, mom
can't take care of me, so I need to just go away.' ” Those budding criminals! Gasirigwa Sengiyumva,
Daily News, 3rd June 2011 www.dailynews.co.tz/feature/?n=20406 [accessed 28 July 2011] These children are in most cases
neglected by parents. They survive on rancid leftovers of food often scooped
out of garbage cans. They sleep in the dank alleys. Many blame their
"cruel" parents in particular and society in general for their
predicament. Some of the children I
spoke to recently sleep in abandoned kiosks and shacks. In coastal cities and
towns street children sleep in junked boats, abandoned homes, semi-finished
houses and dilapidated vehicles, canopies of trees or on the open beach. Many do not trust anyone. They are security
sensitive and always carry knives for self-defence.
In some cases, it is these needy children who engage in criminal activities
for reasons of sheer survival. Some of
these delinquents may have been brought up by parents who have no respect for
the rule of law or who are criminals themselves. ***
ARCHIVES *** UNICEF –
Tanzania www.unicef.org/infobycountry/tanzania.html [accessed 28 July 2011] The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on the Worst Forms
of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/tanzania.htm [accessed 28 December 2010] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - In the informal sector, children are engaged
in scavenging, fishing, fish processing, and quarrying. Other children work as barmaids, street
vendors, car washers, shoe shiners, cart pushers, carpenters, auto repair
mechanics, and in garages. In 2001,
56.9 percent of children aged 5 to 17 years attended school. Human Rights Reports » 2005
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61596.htm [accessed 28 December 2010] CHILDREN - UNICEF estimated there were two
million child orphans, most of them orphaned by AIDS. There were significant
numbers of street children in both Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of
the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 8 June 2001 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/tanzania2001.html [accessed 28 December 2010] [36] The Committee is concerned
about the incidence of police brutality, particularly against children living
and/or working on the streets, refugee children and those in conflict with
the law. Concern is also expressed at the inadequate enforcement of existing
legislation to ensure that all children are treated with respect for their
physical and mental integrity and their inherent dignity. [60] The Committee notes that the
State party joined the ILO International Program on the Elimination of Child
Labor (IPEC) in 1994 and subsequently committed itself to a time-bound
program to eliminate the worst forms of child labor, starting in mid-2001.
However, in light of the current economic situation, the increasing number of
school drop-outs and the increasing number of children living and/or working
on the streets, the Committee is concerned about the large number of children
engaged in labor and the lack of information and adequate data on the
situation of child labor and economic exploitation within the State party. No solution in sight yet to salvage street children The Observer, 2009/01/11 kurayangu.com/ipp/observer/2009/01/11/129482.html [Last access date unavailable] Driving his Coaster commuter bus
on the 15-kilometre journey from Mwenge to Kariakoo, Rashid Juma is always
confronted by little girls and boys who beg for money at the Fire Bus Stop in
Time bomb that must be defused Daily News dailynews.habarileo.co.tz/analysis/index.php?id=7617 [Last access date unavailable] The fast-increase in the number of
street children in almost all major and small urban areas in the country,
with There are several causes for the
increase as advanced by researchers, the most hyped about being children who
are left with no families after their parents died of HIV/AIDS. Other causes
mentioned are family poverty, mistreatment by irresponsible parents or
guardians and rebellious behaviour among some
children for one reason or another. Some lazy parents who think that
begging is the only way of earning a living, take their children with them to
the streets and introduce them to the world of begging, a very sad case of beggar-begetting-beggar.
To the poor children, this is the world they would learn to know for the rest
of their lives if no intervention will be forthcoming along the way. Experience and research has shown
that some of the street children, bitter with the way the world has treated
them, graduate into hardcore criminals on reaching adulthood or even much
earlier. Who is to blame for this undesirable state of affairs other than the
larger society in which the displaced children live? Revealed: The dark side of Reinier Carabain,
Sunday Observer, mwanzanewsblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/revealed-dark-side-of-mwanza-street.html [partially accessed 28 July 2011] One of the African countries,
which have witnessed a tremendous increase in unsupervised children either
living alone or working on urban streets, is Urban street children are seen as
a problem which further compounds the nature of an urban crisis. Tanzanian
politicians, policy-makers and urban planners seem to be helpless in their
efforts to either solve the problem or to assist street children and have
failed to prescribe plausible concrete solutions. In fact, the official government attitude
towards street children has been very negative. Street children are
considered to be hooligans, vagabonds and prone to commit crimes. As a result of this, they have been target
of harassment by law enforcement organisations;
there are many cases of street children being beaten by police, detained and
sometimes repatriated to their rural homes.
Nevertheless, these draconian measures have not provided long-term
solutions to this social problem. The
number of urban street children has continued to escalate every year. – sccp Aids 'ravaging street children' Cosmas Makalla,
The Citizen ( allafrica.com/stories/200809010734.html [partially accessed 28 July 2011 - access restricted] Available figures indicate that
currently there are 411 street children in the two region's cities compared
to 301 the previous year. A study
conducted in 2006 shows that the number is increasing at the rate of 26 per
cent per year. Most of the street
children in Arusha are boys while in Moshi the majority are girls. More than 90 per cent are
aged over 15 years in Arusha while in Moshi the same age group accounts for 50 per cent of the
street kids. The Centre says most
children end up in the street due to poverty, alcoholism, divorces and
related family disputes. Others prefer the streets to being forced to work on
farms by their parents to supplement family incomes. Once on the streets, the majority of them
engage in risky behaviour that exposes them to
HIV/Aids. Mkombozi spearheads child protection Daily News dailynews.habarileo.co.tz/magazine/index.php?id=6644 [Last access date unavailable] Street children in Arusha and Moshi municipalities
can now access free medical treatment and health care, thanks to an
initiative of an organisation working on their
behalf. According to Anna Thor of Mkombozi center for street children, street children in
the two municipalities are issued with a special “sick sheet” which they need
only to present to a hospital or clinic in order to receive treatment. The
health centre will then be reimbursed by the organisation. Ms Thor says that her organisation
tries to capture local potential through learning and reflection and acts as
a catalyst for children's holistic development She says in a recent report
released recently that the number has gone up by 67 per cent in five years
since the last census in 2003. Verbal, physical and sexual abuses are often
mentioned as the reasons for children to leave for the streets. Once there
they face more violence and abuse in a constant struggle to access food,
safety and opportunities to disengage with street life. There is no practical
state support for these children.
Through its outreach programme, Mkombozi supports children outreach programmes
in Arusha and it is looking forward to provide mobile
unit that will enable more children to be reached and a more comprehensive
array of services to be offered on the street. Those budding criminals! Gasirigwa Sengiyumva,
Daily News, 3rd June 2011 www.dailynews.co.tz/feature/?n=20406 [accessed 28 July 2011] These children are in most cases
neglected by parents. They survive on rancid leftovers of food often scooped
out of garbage cans. They sleep in the dank alleys. Many blame their
"cruel" parents in particular and society in general for their
predicament. Some of the children I
spoke to recently sleep in abandoned kiosks and shacks. In coastal cities and
towns street children sleep in junked boats, abandoned homes, semi-finished
houses and dilapidated vehicles, canopies of trees or on the open beach. Many do not trust anyone. They are security
sensitive and always carry knives for self-defence.
In some cases, it is these needy children who engage in criminal activities
for reasons of sheer survival. Some of
these delinquents may have been brought up by parents who have no respect for
the rule of law or who are criminals themselves. MIND THAT CHILD : Spare a thought for young scavengers Daily News, Jul 04, 2008 www.camon-line.org/new/news.php [accessed 28 July 2011] Some of the children were in the
company of a parent or, in few cases, both parents. I was amazed. Indeed, I
found it a sorry spectacle. Families living in grinding poverty think they
have no dignity to defend. So, to them, scavenging is a small, acceptable
matter. In most cases it is the same
street children that we see eating from garbage cans that visit dumpsites.
Young beggars and other socially disadvantaged children also scavenge. The
habit is so compelling that the dumps are sometimes swarming with
scavengers. The most notorious
scavengers are found in the city of Dar es Salaam
where dumpsites are almost always overflowing with refuse shunted in from
various sources including the port, hospitals, factories, garages and
homes. Scavenging children make their
living by picking up and selling used paper, plastic, bottles, metal pieces,
tins, rags, clothes and other objects from street garbage or dumpsites. Adult
scavengers do exactly the same thing. Growing army destitutes
alarming, House told Daily News, July 03, 2008 This article has been archived by World Street Children
News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 28 July 2011] Over half of the parents residing
along Tanzanian children struggle with homelessness Andrew Rosten, The Daily Vidette, At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 28 July 2011] “[As a result of urbanization], a
lot of fathers are leaving the rural areas for the urban areas to find
work," Stewart said. "If they don't find work in these places, they
can't go back because of certain attitudes in terms of a male's
responsibility for his family, so they abandon their families and leave mom
in the villages with all these kids. She can't do it, so a lot of these kids
say, 'OK, mom can't take care of me, so I need to just go away.' ” Gordon's work to live on in trust www.sunderlandecho.com/news/local/gordon_s_work_to_live_on_in_trust_1_1148025 [accessed 28 July 2011] A new Wearside
charity is to bring fresh hope to poverty-stricken street children in "The poverty over there is
unimaginable. One of the families who were considered 'comfortable' had three
of four children sleeping in one bed, a charcoal fire in a basic hut." "Children over there often
come down from the country and villages to try to get work. You'll often see
little kids breaking rocks by the side of the road. It's absolutely
heartbreaking." Street boy soldiers on Peter Mwangu, Sunday Observer, 8
July 2007 At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 28 July 2011] It may sound fictitious but it`s real: Nicholaus Issa is three-people-in-one. From sunrise to noon, he is
a student and then converts to part-beggar and part-odd jobs operative in the
streets up to late evening. The
``third person`` rounds off the day when he retires for the night, not in the
conventional sense of sleeping under a roof, but in the open. 15-year-old Nicholaus
is a street child, who shares the degrading label with several other boys and
girls in Dar es Salaam and other Tanzanian urban centres. The only
difference for him, which makes him luckier than several of his core
community-mates, is that education is one of the components of his life while
that of others is confined to two, and both negative. Council Embarks On Exercise to Round Up Beggars and Street
Kids Innocent Kisanga, Arusha Times (Arusha), April
14, 2007 This article has been archived by World Street Children
News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 28 July 2011] According to the Arusha municipality public relations officer, Elias Malima, this exercise is done repeatedly to make sure the
streets remain clear without beggars or street kids who disturb pedestrians
and motorists by asking them money. In December last year more than
300 beggars were sent back to their home villages but up to mid January this
year most of them were back in Arusha and begging
as usual with glee and relish. Mind That Child: Save a prayer for child scavengers Daily News, Jul 04, 2008 www.camon-line.org/new/news.php [accessed 28 July 2011] [scroll down] Some of these highly vulnerable
and socially disadvantaged were in the company of a parent or, in some cases,
both parents. This was a sorry spectacle indeed. I was amazed. Families
living in grinding poverty often think they have no dignity to defend. So, to
them, scavenging is a small, compelling matter. In most cases, it is the same
street children that we see eating from garbage cans that visit dumpsites.
Young beggars and other socially disadvantaged children also scavenge. The habit is so compelling that
the dumps, especially those in Dar es Salaam,
sometimes swarm with scavengers. It is a pity that some people make
scavenging a life-long undertaking. Marunde Mboni (47), a resident of Dodoma,
has scavenged in the municipality for nearly 40 years. Scavenging children
make their living by picking up and selling used paper, plastic, bottles,
metal pieces, tins, rags, clothes and other objects from street garbage or
dumpsites. Former journalism student reflects on Victor Lugala, Daily News,
January 20, 2007 At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 28 July 2011] Not far from the dance halls,
there was a negative street phenomenon that has overtaken Mwanza
and authorities seem not to care, although they notice. As early as 10 pm you
can see a group of girls standing under lamp posts. Some of these girls are
probably as young as ten years old, dressed like young adults in tight
trousers while others are skimpily dressed in cheap mitumba
(second-hand clothes). When a car approaches they gesture
to catch the attention of the motorist. These are the child prostitutes of Mwanza. Some of these are said to be homeless children or
street children, if you like. During the day, they are seen as street
children, and at night they moonlight as commercial sex workers serving
pedophiles. In their nocturnal exploits these young flesh hawkers are bound
to be exposed to cruelty, abuse and infection with sexually transmitted
infections including HIV/AIDS. Those young criminals! Sosthenes Mwita,
Daily News, 3 September 2010 www.dailynews.co.tz/columnist/?n=12870&cat=columnist [accessed 28 July 2011] It has been determined that some
homeless children share the mean streets with adult underworld criminals --
thieves, drug peddlers, and others. These adults get into contact with street
children easily. They, indeed, exploit them for criminal ends. Sometimes the
children wind up in prisons. Thieves often send street children
on errands. The children are instructed to steal mobile phones, handbags and
gold chains from pedestrians. The young thieves are paid small sums of money
in return but in the process they risk being caught and battered to death by
rowdy mobs. Street children are also used to
push narcotic drugs for adult criminals. Children are invariably deemed to be
innocent young souls who cannot afford to buy and sell expensive narcotic drugs.
So drug barons often exploit this notion to the fullest. 04 January 2007 This article has been archived by World Street Children
News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 28 July 2011] By the time he was nine, both of
his parents had died from Aids, and Sospeter was
forced to fend for himself, begging for scraps as he made his away across the
fourth poorest nation in the world in search of an education. That was until he came to the notice of
Norfolk-based charity Street Child Rescue Tanzania, whose founder Vicky
Robertson paid for a secondary-school education in which he has so far
excelled. Now 21, Sospeter
is about to start his A-levels in Tanzania, runs a boarding house for the
charity where he looks after 10 former street children, and finds time to
play football for a team in the equivalent of the English Championship. ' Nelden Djakababa,
The www.thejakartapost.com/news/2006/12/12/039darwin039s-nightmare039-mwanza039s-reality.html [accessed 28 July 2011] We are then shown a glimpse of the
lives of But more disturbing is the fact
that most of them have to live on the streets because their parents have died
of AIDS. The fishermen's sheer poverty has inadvertently contributed to the
quick spread of the disease. In a particular fishermen's
community with a population of around 300, some 45 to 50 individuals have
died due to the virus within the last six months. We see a religious leader
who says that he does not encourage his flock to wear condoms "because
it is sinful." UNH
Anthropologist on Tanzanian Tracy Manforte, www.unh.edu/news/news_releases/1999/november/tm_19991122lugalla.html [accessed 28 July 2011] The region is destitute and the
government has done little to assist children who have been abandoned due to
poverty or who have lost parents due to disease. In Dar-Es-Salaam, the east coast capital of
Poverty, HIV and barriers to education: street children's
experiences in Tanzania R. Evans, Gender and Development Vol. 10, No. 3, November
2002 At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 28 July 2011] Within
the context of national levels of poverty, ‘cost-sharing’ in health and
education sectors, and the AIDS epidemic, poor families in Tanzania are under
considerable pressure, and increasing numbers of girls and boys are
consequently seeking a living independently on the streets of towns and
cities. Information about Street Children - This report is taken from “A Civil Society Forum for East
and Southern Africa on Promoting and Protecting the Rights of Street
Children”, 11- 13 February 2002, At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 28 July 2011] Background: Children under 15
constitute about 46% of the population. The urban population is estimated at
about 26%. There has been an increase in street children numbers since the
early 1990s due to the impact of poverty on households and the effect of
HIV/AIDS. In a 2000 survey by Mkombozi, 22% of
children migrating to the streets was the result of school exclusion linked
to inability to pay school fees. At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 28 July 2011] Increasing poverty and migration
from the countryside to towns are the reasons for the disbandment of
traditional family structures followed by a loss of support to children from
the extended family. Street children are left alone, undernourished and under
constant pressure to find food and a place to sleep. Theft, robbery and
prostitution are their daily strategies of survival. Strengthening communities producing
street children in the Kilimanjaro Region ChildHope At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 28 July 2011] A mere 38% of children complete
their 7 years of compulsory basic education, while children with disabilities
are excluded from the education system altogether because of stigma towards them
in the community and in school. Amani Children's Home Amani Children’s Home [accessed 28 July 2011] Since its founding by local
Tanzanians in 2001, Amani Children's Home has
rescued over 150 children from the perils of life on the streets, where
children face a high risk of HIV transmission and malnutrition. 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 [Tanzania] [other countries]Street Children in [Tanzania Child Prostitution in [Tanzania] [other countries]