 Wednesday
at the Prepcom
Promoting and protecting the rights of street children
New York, June 13 - Kenyan children living on the streets are almost
inevitably drawn into a spiral downwards towards criminalization,
a participant said on Wednesday during discussions organized by
the Consortium for Street Children at the third Preparatory Committee
meeting of the UN General Assembly's Special Session on Children.
Isaac Kimathi, a 21-year-old former street-child who now works
as a volunteer with the Undugu Society - an organization that supports
children living on streets in Nairobi - appealed to those present
to provide the children with some kind of alternative. "We
need education to change our lives - education to the highest level
possible. Please give us a chance to change our lives because we
are people too," he said.
"Very young people [in Kenya] face a major struggle every
day to find food. They may beg or pick and sell rubbish but, if
they can't meet their needs, they may well resort to drugs or some
kind of sexual activity. And once you end up in a police station
you will be charged with something - so you end up being called
a criminal," he said.
The Undugu Society has been supplying alternatives to impoverished
children for the past 28 years, providing them with non-formal schooling,
skills-training and community centres.
The organization's Executive Director, Aloys Opiyo Otieno, said
that it gives credit to small businesses, creating a trickle-up
effect by which a rise in family incomes lifts the economic level
of the whole community.
Australian Nathan Stirling described how the organization he runs
- Open Family Australia - supports young heroin abusers. Staff members
are paired with a child living on the streets and are available
to the child 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Karl Dorling of World Vision in Myanmar gave an account of how
they established a drop-in centre for street children in the capital,
Yangon.
Summing up the discussion, Marie Wernham of the Consortium for
Street Children called for universal primary education that meets
the standards of "quality, appropriateness and accessibility."
"Are we really talking about access for all children without
discrimination? Don't forget children at the lowest level of poverty,"
she said.
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