The Streets
There are more
than 10,000 children living on the streets of South Africa.
The reason why these children leave home are complex and are usually the
result of a combination of factors such as poverty, neglect, abuse,
community violence, breakdown of family life and cultural values
due to rapid urbanization, disempowered single parents
increased by migrant labour, substance abuse and alcoholism
and lack of community resources such as adequate schooling and recreational
facilities. For some in rural areas they think that life in the city will
be exciting and that then streets will be paved with gold.
Once they arrive they find another story.
In addition, South Africa now has the fastest increase of HIV
infection in Africa. The likelihood of the increasing number
of children being orphaned because of AIDS and the resulting
skewing of the age distribution of the population could well result in
an increasing number of children ending up on the streets.
On the streets children
are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation by the general
public and harassment by the police. They are often regarded as part of
the grime that needs to be swept off the streets and their needs and vulnerabilities
as children forgotten. This serves to further alienate the children
from the broader community and to exacerbate their distrust of adults.
Experience has shown that the longer children live on the streets the
harder it is to address the problems at home that contributed to them
leaving. For many children life on the streets exposes them to experience
that make it harder and harder for them to face their families again such
as sexual abuse, drug addiction and contracting
HIV/AIDS.
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