For the Best Start in School

For the Best Start in School

Street Children at Home

Street Children at Home

 

Street Children at Home

© UNICEF/Macedonia/ Ivanovska

Senad shows his drawing displayed on the wall of the day care center for street children in Skopje

Senad is 10 or 12 years old, does not know exactly. He sometimes lives with his mother, sometimes stays with his brother who is married. He has never been at school but has extensive working experience on the street.

“There is a man who comes in our neighborhood with a tractor and gives us 100 denars (2 USD) for a bag packed full with plastic bottles. I go out every day and collect plastic bottles from the garbage. Sometimes, when I am lucky I can fill in the bag in two days, sometimes not. It is dark when I return home.”

Three days per week Senad gets to the center for street children in Skopje. The rest of the time he sticks to the streets of the capital, from the northeast outskirts to the center of the city, or in total Senad walks some 10 kilometers in one direction only. “I prefer being here because of my teacher Ana,” he says.

“Teacher” Ana is in fact a social worker employed in the center for street children. She tells the story of the center almost without taking a breath.

© UNICEF/Macedonia/Ivanovska

“Every day at 8:30 we go by car and take the kids from their homes or from the streets - it depends. When they arrive all of them wash their hands, some take shower and then we start with the educational part: reading, writing, numerical operations. Such fast learners! Obviously all they need is stimulation.”

“Have a look at my notebook – my teacher gives me good grades on each page. Because I am good in writing” says Senad.

Since December 2004 when the center begun to function UNICEF helped the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy to equip the center with furniture, video and IT equipment, educational material, hygiene kits and toys. There are five employees working in one shift: two social workers, two pedagogues and one psychologist.

Besides literacy and basic numeric classes children enjoy role plays. “Yesterday they were teachers and we got the role of children” explains Ana. Around 3 pm they are brought home. The shifts are introduced because of the limited space and staff shortage. Hence, one group comes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday whiles the other one on Tuesday and Thursday.”

The outreach social workers have so far registered 192 children working in the streets of Skopje  – selling, performing services (primarily on vehicles), begging, and collecting stuff from garbage, mainly bottles and paper. Most of them are Roma. They are on the street almost all day but do return home in the evening. Among192 children only 10 were enrolled in formal education for couple of years - afterwards they dropped-out. Only three still attend school. “A medical doctor checked them up. Over 100 kids are not immunized. This is because they are not registered at birth and are consequently excluded from social insurance, health protection and other social services. In one word their basic rights are violated. We are negotiating with the Ministry of Interior to issue birth certificate in a collective manner (a list). The whole process is even more complicated because most of the parents are without any documentation. This is a vicious cycle.”

Some 30 kids attend the center per day , the oldest being Andrijana, 15, while the youngest Nedzmie is only four. Andrijana is Nedzmie’s aunt. Nedzmie’s mother was sent by her own father to Belgrade “to work”. The social workers believe she was a victim of trafficking while Andrijana says:” She went to this …this place to work, to beg on the street. Our own father did the deal; I saw him receiving money from a man just a day before she left.  Nedzmie was one year old at that time. There was no one else to look after her except me. Her father? He is gone, I don’t know where….”

The social worker explains that a photograph of  Nedzmie’s mother was shared with “Open Gate”, a NGO dealing with children and women victims of trafficking. Now they are searching for her. “Open Gate” runs SOS telephone line for victims of trafficking with support from UNICEF and OSCE.

Andrijana completed only first grade of elementary school. Similar to Senad her life out of the shelter is fully devoted to the slow and harmful work in the street. But now she sees new opportunities and has optimistic plans for a brighter future. “I will definitely go to evening school so I can get diploma for completed elementary education. Teacher Ana told me that this can be paid by the center.” When asked what she would like to do in her life the answer is immediate: “A teacher”.

An assessment of policies, situation and programmes for street children undertaken in 2004 with UNICEF support illustrates the arduous life of street children in Macedonia. Over half of them are in the street for more than two years. Children’s health aggravates due to pollution, weather, injures. The survey has shown that children reside in poor houses and that over 50% live in same room with all other family members.  Over 70% of their mothers and 50% of their fathers are illiterate; same applies to the brothers and sisters who are often with them in the street.

This safe haven for street children is not big enough to embrace them all.  UNICEF is in process of negotiation with the Skopje Mayor’s Office for opening of an additional day care center hopefully linked to the system of formal education.  Addressing the issue of street and working children and protecting their rights requires also working closely with their families. In addition it is essential to create employment opportunities for parents so children can return to school where they ought to be.