Violence forces children into a life on the streets
A new report published on Universal Children's Day (20th November 2007) by a consortium of 53 charities including EveryChild, says children’s exposure to violence is the main cause of them ending up living a dangerous life on the streets. EveryChild has long believed that violence is one of the most significant factors driving children onto the streets and deterring them from returning home. This is why we put such an emphasis on supporting vulnerable families and promoting a culture of violence-free households in the communities where we work.
The report is also critical of some charities and governments which use street children as poster pictures of extreme poverty and vulnerability, while failing to help them with policies and aid. It argues that government neglect and apathy has often resulted in the use of violent tactics to cover up the problem or to pretend these children do not exist at all.
Due to street children being separated from their families, not enrolled in school and often not even registered at birth, their true numbers globally will probably never be known. However, they almost certainly run into the tens of millions.
State of the World’s Street Children: Violence – to download the report click here
Genet’s escape from a homelife of violence and her rescue from the streets of Addis Ababa
Genet’s troubles began when she was 14 years old and her mother became too ill to care for her and her younger sister. They were sent to live with a family as domestic labourers. There they were both subject to frequent beatings and were not allowed to go to school. A year later they were taken by their grandmother to live with a distant male relative elsewhere in Addis. They were told their sick mother had died and this would now be their home. Genet had been very unhappy with the family they had been living with before and hoped the new family would be kinder to them now that their mother was gone.
However, from almost the first day in their new home, both girls found themselves subject to violent abuse. Genet was raped repeatedly by the male relative and a woman in the household frequently beat her and her sister. Genet strongly suspected that the man was also sexually abusing her 11 year old sister. After two months of this, Genet ran away but her younger sister was too frightened to come with her. She went to the house of a family friend who took her in but they demanded that she pay her way by working as their domestic servant. After being repeatedly beaten and verbally abused she decided to take her chances on the streets instead. For a few months Genet survived as best she could despite hunger, harassment and squalid conditions.
After two months on the streets sheer desperation drove her to seek help from the Forum for Street Children – Ethiopia (FSCE), a local NGO supported by EveryChild. Other girls living and working on the street had told her about the Drop in Centre for street children operated by FSCE. When the community workers heard Genet’s story they immediately gave her a place in their safe home for girls.
Now 16, Genet has resumed school and is being trained at a local health centre as a janitor so that she will be able to support herself when the time comes to leave the safe home. She is also desperate to be reunited with her sister who has managed to escape from the abusive household they were in and is now living with their grandmother in her home village.
When asked what she would like to do with her life, Genet says: “First I want to find out where my sister is….And then when I grow older I want to help other children in the same situation as I was.”
Click here to read the BBC website's coverage of Genet's story
There are an estimated 150,000 children living on the streets of Ethiopia.
Click here to find out more about EveryChild’s work in Ethiopia.
A girl in a Safe House for girls in Ethiopia like the one that helped Genet. Most of the girls that come here have suffered violence and abuse and have spent time living on the streets.