According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the concept is used to refer to boys and girls aged 18 years and below whose permanent place of abode has become the street – where they earn their livelihood and are constantly facing insecurities.

Estimated figures according to UN sources suggest there are about 150 million street children in the world. This worldwide phenomenon, among other conditions, is caused by socio-economic collapse as a result of violence, drug and alcohol abuse, the death of a parent, family breakdown, civil wars and natural disasters. 

Plight

Yesterday, April 12 is the day set to highlight the plight of street children worldwide. It is the 7th International Day for Street Children which provides the platform for governments, civil society organisations, non-governmental organisations and international organisations working to protect the rights of street children. 

To mark the event, Chance for Children, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), organised an outreach programme for some street children in Accra yesterday.

The organisation fed 120 street children and played out-door games with them after which they gave a pep-talk to the children, and advised them to take care of themselves to attain a prosperous future.

ISCD

In an interview with the Daily Graphic, the Manager of the organisation’s recreational centre, Drop in Centre, Mr Osman Adam Ibrahim, said the programme was organised to appreciate and recognise the children who were also human beings, but unfortunately ended up on the streets, due partly to lack of proper parental care.

Mr Ibrahim disclosed that the NGO had a centre that catered for 45 street children, and added that they were fed, clothed and taught by volunteer teachers. He said they had shelter homes where some of the children were taken to. Others, he said, had been also reunited with their respective families.  

Law enforcement

He appealed to the government to enforce the law to punish parents and caretakers who left underage children to their fate, exposing them to dangers on the streets, which eventually affected them psychologically and forced them to engage in anti-social acts such as abuse of hard drugs to their detriment. 

He called on the society not to have a negative perception about street children and stigmatise them, pointing out that negative perceptions about street children, such as tagging them as thieves and sometimes concluding that the girls were into prostitution, were very bad ways of treating children because it took their confidence away from them. 

“These children are not thieves, and even if they steal it is not their intention to do it; it is because of the situation they find themselves. I am not justifying what they do but society should accept them. I think most of the social vices they involve themselves in can be curbed,” he stated.