In Search of a way out: Street life
According to statistics, there are more than two thousand homeless children in St. Petersburg, but nobody knows how many there are for sure. In many cases ‘homeless’ children are in fact neglected children who have both homes and families. Life in a Big City Svetlana Yegorycheva, a social worker at the “Child Protection Foundation” supported by UNICEF, said that many street children have similar backgrounds. “Families often come into conflict when a parent marries for a second time and a new baby is born. This can cause strain in relationships with an older child who may look for a way out and find himself living in the street with other abandoned kids,” she said. Children run away not only from their homes but also from orphanages where they often suffer violence by other inmates and teachers. As an escape from hard reality, many street children begin using toxic substances and drugs which dampen the appetite and numb feelings of coldness and pain but also kill them. The majority of street teenagers are HIV-positive, or have hepatitis B and C. Street children live in the present and do not make any plans. They sleep at squats, basements or attics and spend their days begging and stealing for food and drugs. One Boy’s Story Sasha is sixteen years old. Unlike many other boys of his age who look forward to starting adult life, he has already lived through many different experiences. Sasha was eight when he witnessed his mother’s murder and was turned out of house by his father. “I remember pretty well my first day in the street. I was shocked and asked passers-by for help but nobody paid attention to me. I was so afraid,” Sasha said. In Search of Way Out In such a situation social workers are often the only people who care about street children. “One of the main problems is the legislation in Russia,” Svetlana said. “For example, you can’t leave children alone in the street in Finland, but in Russia you are not allowed to take them from the street if they did not break the law”. The social workers’ routine is to travel around the city all day long. They regularly go to see street children, talk to them, give them food and try to persuade them to change their way of living. Sasha, for example, was induced to go to the hospital and a rehabilitation center. Although he has found the regime strict, Sasha now believes that he will succeed and recover to fulfill his dream of moving to the country to become a tractor driver.
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