Street Children Program
What is a street child?
Street children are minors who live and survive on the streets. They often grow up in public landfills, train stations, or under the bridges of the Tanzania’s major cities. Because of conflicts with their family, these children don’t want to or can’t return home.
Why does a child live on the streets?
The phenomenon of street children is multifaceted. The combinations of familial, economic, social, and political factors play an important role in their situation. It is therefore very difficult to single out one or more causes.
However, children who have been questioned say that family, poverty, abuse, war, etc. are often why they left for the streets.
What are the problems encountered by street children?
Street children are confronted by a large number of problems. In fact, growing up in an environment generally regarded as dangerous, they incur considerable risks.
As a consequence, some of their rights are very often compromised.
Right to Food
Street children often don’t have access to a healthy and sufficient diet. Sometimes they don’t even have food, because living on the streets they don’t produce any and don’t have money to buy.
Also, these children don’t benefit from a balanced diet: they eat what they can find. Growth problems are also common with these children.
Right to Health
The health of children growing up on the streets is strongly compromised. In fact, they don’t have access to sanitary facilities: they are often dirty and infested with fleas.
Also, because of their lack of hygiene, street children are exposed to different diseases. Their health is often troubling. Without a family to take care of them, these youth must take care of themselves.
Additionally, street children, to escape their reality, often use cannabis, alcohol, or inhale natural gas. Unfortunately, these very hard living conditions, have a negative impact not only on their physical and psychosocial development, but also on their cultural and economic development.
Right to Education
Street Children are obviously not educated. Because of this, they don’t have the same opportunities as other children. In fact, because they don’t see a future for themselves, and because they have no professional training, they are hindered from finding a job and from finally leaving the streets
What can be done to help street children?
OMAWA works with street children in a way that is best for them, OMAWA staff do talk to the child and know his/her history including family background and arrange a meeting to the relatives, if the child agrees to return home to stay with his/her parents or relatives then OMAWA supports his/her education through the educational support we run and if he/she is older they are enrolled to the vocational training centre, if the child’s history doesn’t lead to their relatives or the child refuses to go back to the family OMAWA looks for people who would like to be foster parents. These foster parents takes care of the children’s other basic needs while OMAWA supports their education and skills. We strongly encourage street children to be raised in their surroundings/communities rather than in an orphanage. We don’t believe orphanage is the best solution to street children.
