Street children
Street children are a worldwide phenomenon. That they are in the streets for many different reasons should not discourage attempts to look at their problems as a global responsibility. If you are an adult and you live on this planet, be aware now that many of our children are going to sleep hungry tonight, in the streets, with no adult protection or care. Millions of children are living in the streets, and the number is rising.
Street children, despite living in the worst circumstances, continue to be neglected. In most countries in the world, this is because resources are limited and the governments logically work on improving the health and education of children who are "in the system" - they have parents who vote and they go to school and will ultimately contribute to the society. Everyone agrees that street children are a tragedy but when it comes to allocation of resources, it seems it is not "cost-effective" to spend money on trying to help them.
Large UN Agencies and other large aid programmes, even when child-focused, allocate a disproportionately large amount of their funds to children who need it less than street children. Their expressions of concern consist of holding expensive conventions to discuss street children, funding expensive research to discover how many street children are there, and supporting a few showcase projects that can be used for public relations. Large agencies will never mount a global action to genuinely meet the immediate needs of street children because street children have no representation, no constituency - no power and no access to power. We will continue to see big conferences and task forces and the empty rhetoric that has characterised the dialogue about the growing number of street children in most countries in the world during the last ten years. Large agencies will continue to fund research into the numbers and characteristics of street children because it is cheaper and easier than getting out of their offices and doing something concrete about 100 million or more children in desperate misery. There is something seriously wrong with a system where adults get paid $50,000 or more per year to talk about children's rights while the number of children who are homeless and starving increases.
For this reason you will find that most of the websites here are those of small independent agencies who work directly to assist street children in limited geographical areas. They have small budgets and they raise the money themselves. There are many similarities in their programmes but each has developed its own way of dealing with the problems of the street children in their area. They will welcome your interest and deserve your support and assistance.
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