Internet-Zeitschrift für Kulturwissenschaften	17. Nr.	April 2010
Section VS 1	The multitude of Theatre of the Oppressed techniques: From Theory to Practice Sektionsleiter | Section Chair: Birgit Fritz (University of Vienna), Matthias Thonhauser (Art in Progress/Austria) Dokumentation | Documentation | Documentation

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Report: The Principles of the Work with Street Children

Mary Vernham | Tekenova Ainura Shamshievna [BIO] (Kyrgyz Republic)

Outreach work

Street children problem didn’t arise yesterday, but due to different circumstances it expanded in its own way. There is no single explanation to the fact that forced some children to work and / or live on the street. However, there are interdependent factors, which explain why more and more children choose this insecure and often dangerous way of living. Street children phenomenon is an indication of extreme social and economic ill-being. Street children, in general, come from the lowest stratum of society.

The reasons – why the children end up in the street, can be subdivided to macro-social and micro-social one

Macro-social are determined by the following:

• The transition period in economy. The transition from commanding way of economy administration to free market economy in countries of Central and East Europe and CIS, led to deep social changes. People found themselves in economic crisis, which entailed unemployment and high inflation. In Central and East Europe and in the former Soviet Union, people eye-witnessed rapid social and economic changes, this plunged many people into poverty and deprivation. When families cannot assert their own interests and rights, small children, beginning from the age of 5, have to work in order to help their families. For some families, money earned by children begging for charity, is the only way to get livelihood.
• State control impairment. In the nineties, street children identification factor became a matter of discussion. Earlier, the presence of children in the street was restricted by government efforts. Children were kept in coercive governmental institutions and their departure could lead to arrest.

Micro-social reasons are determined by:

• Poverty and break-up of family. In a developing world, rapidly growing urbanization led to a fact that many urban families drag out a miserable existence in slums and hovels. Family relations break-up is usually the main reason of leaving the house. If a child suffers from parental neglect and criminal abuse at home, then going to the street becomes for him/her the last means of defence. Children hope that living on the streets would be better, but realize that, in fact, conditions there can be considerably worse.

In Central and East Europe and CIS, children, working and/or living on streets, are in terrible conditions. They suffer a lot, which does not differ too much from the suffering of children of the same age in Africa, Asia and Latin America. However, there are several special features. Cold in winter is a real danger for health and, at the same time, a test of their abilities. Children cannot do without warm clothes. They have to find ways to keep warm: central heating, house cellars, tandyrs (national stoves). Everyday street child activities are dictated by the necessity to survive.

Exposed to the unknown and dangerous, children may be involved into:

• Prostitution - significant number of street children is involved in prostitution all over the world. In some countries, it pertains mainly to female street children, in other countries – to children of both sexes.
  Children prostitution entailes huge risk, namely: youth pregnancy, probability to get infections transmitted through sexual intercourse (including HIV- infection and AIDS), and also social discredit. These affairs may generate negative attitude toward his/her personality. Since a relatively high income is coming from prostitution, as a matter of fact, some families favour such activity, and deprive a child of an opportunity to reject it.
• Trivial crime - trivial crime may also be a profitable activity. Some children pull out wallets or use a chance to steal out cars or houses small things from houses, which can be resold. In some countries street children are crimped by drug sellers to be observers or couriers.
• Narcotics and toxic drugs usage - street children in many countries all over the world use different types of drugs in order to help themselves to meet their basic needs. Inhaling fumes of glue, smeared inside a plastic bag, or cloth impregnated with such resolvents as used for paint, result in weakening, hunger and sense of loneliness. Such children may lose the sense for reality and experience hallucinations. Street children smoke cigarettes, drink alchohol and take pharmaceuticals, for example, cough-mixture.
• Illegal child labor - working for money, food and other vital things is often a determinant for street children. Usually their work is very hard, dangerous and enduring. Children often give the earned money to their family’s budget. Such money becomes their input in their relatives’ well-being. Children earn money by cleaning shoes, scavenging, selling basic commodities, washing cars, selling sunflower seeds, sweets, cigarettes, and flowers, or simply by cadging or entertaining passer-bys.
• Groups’ formation - street children try to get into groups and occupy certain territories of a city. Inside these groups, older boys and girls usually care about younger ones. Younger children, in general, are treated well by other members of a group, because when they go begging they may earn much more than older ones. In many street children groups, almost everything that one child earns is divided among everybody.

Governments of Central and East Europe and CIS learn to react rapidly to such a situation of street children. Coercive maintenance and punitive actions are being replaced by the respect of children’s rights and by providing choices of accessible services. People who work on these issues realize the necessity to respond to the needs of street children. In order to work with street children and their societies, different organizations were created, such as non-profit-making groups and non-governmental organizations (NGO), funds and associations. They make a part of growing voluntary sector, which started to develop in Central and East Europe and CIS.

In spite of the fact, that Kyrgyz Republic ratified United Nations Organization (UNO) Convention on a child’s rights, in reality the rights of street children are violated. For example:

• Right to an appropriate standard of living (Article 27). Street children are the poorest members of a society. Often, even their basic needs are not satisfied: food, clothes, shelter. Support, required for their intellectual and social development, is also, usually, inaccessible. Loneliness, fear and violence experienced by children may lead to their intensive mental exhaustion.
• Right to protection from economic exploitation (Article 32). Children, who work on streets, usually toil for skimpy payment and dangerous work. Children do not complain about low earnings and they do not demand any improvement of working conditions.
• Right to education (Article 28). Many street children are supporters of their own families, and they do not have time to go to school. Even state free of charge schools can be very expensive for those, who have to search for money to buy text-books, stationary and school uniform. Moreover, official educational system is not that flexible to accept again those children, who left school. As for children who got used to freedom on streets, various school frames then seem very strict.
• Right to health and medical care (Article 24). Health of street children always faces danger. Food waste may become a reason of food intoxication; unskilled labor may lead to physical injury. Lack of elementary hygiene turns little scratch into a risk of infection. Sexually active children may catch infections, transmitted through sexual intercourse, and meet problems of teenage pregnancy. Street children and their families do not have money to pay for medical services, and are usually afraid of medical institutions.
• Right to protection from violence, abuse and humiliation (Article 19). Street children usually become victims of violence and abuse in their own families, in circles of coevals and citizens. Street children may suffer violence and persecution from militia, for which they are a symbol of disorderly behavior, and also from shop-owners, who consider them an obstacle to their businesses.
• Right to protection from sexual exploitation (Articles 34). Involving street children in prostitution and pornography activities and sexual abuse in their own families make them, most of all, exposed to sexual exploitation.

The breach of street children rights induced an aspiration of many people from all over the world to help them, and to change the situation in children’s favour. We must take an advantage of the Convention on a child rights not just to determine the points where children’s rights are violated, but also to follow it in our actions. This principle underlies the activity of the Every Child international organization, which realizes several projects in the Kyrgyz Republic. Country program of our organization refers to children, the most vulnerable part of a society. Regarding geographical location, Every Child covers the poorest areas of Kyrgyzstan: Talas and Osh regions. Problem of street children most heavily stands in Osh oblast, where poverty, migration, long distance from the center, unavailability of social services, lack of specialists to work with exposed children, high density of population – aggravate the situation of street children.

In order to solve problems of street children in Osh oblast’, Every Child organization realizes two projecs, focused on needs and rights of street children.

Outreach work methods were approved and applied in the framework of the project on street children. Not only members of the project group were trained in those methods, but also social workers of social protection departments. Outreach – a method of social work, aimed at contact establishment, services approaching to the representatives of the target group, through consultations and information about most usual street children places.

People, who make an outreach work, are called outreach-workers or outreachers. Outreach work complements arrangements, reffered to preventive measures of some negative phenomenons. For example, outreach work may be taken for prevention of child neglect, drugs usage, HIV/ AIDS. In this case, we would talk about outreach work among children, living and working on streets. Outreach work is carried out in places of children’s bunching.

The main objective of the Outreach work is a creation of trust with neglected street children, and to become the adult friend in their life – the one, whom they may talk to. This moment is very impotant! Probably, you will be the only person to give them kindness, to become the one they could imitate and the one they may trust. In addition, Outreach is the first stage for expansion of a possible choice for homeless street children and to connect them with services, so that they have started to improve their lives.

Work with children begins with a contact, which is carried out by forces of "street" social workers. Some key principles of Outreach work are:

• Always remember about recommendations on children's safety
• Regularity (one time and the same person)
• Punctuality
• Constant honesty and no promises, which you cannot execute
• Go to children, instead of force children to go to you
• Think of a child at his / her level and on his / her conditions
• Work in pairs (preferably one guy, one girl)

Outreach work is based on 3 phases:

1. Supervision: observe and listen to children and find answers to questions: where children are, what they do, with whom and how they communicate, etc.;
2. Adjustment of communication: an informal dialogue, not menacing approach, aimed at creation of trust without set of questions;
3. Development of relations with children and the beginning of maintenance of support.

Every Child organization, within the framework of the project on street children, in particular Outreach team of the project, developed the several “gold rules” for members of the team to adhere:

Additional recommendations:

• Listen and be convinced, that you really hear
• Look, observe, write down, and deliberate on what you see.
• Study them and yourself
• Be patient – remember that they can check you on how you are devoted to them!
• Treat them equally – do not define favourites
• Smile and be calm (relaxed)
• Respect them: respect their personal distance, their solitude
• Try to understand, why they have made  this choice
• Give a possible choice for them
• Encourage and support children in their positive choice – but do not make a choice for them! They should do it themselves!

• To force a child to do something
• To build relations on the basis of threat
• To underestimate their mental faculties
• To think that they thieves
• To imagine, that you know about their needs and desires
• To imagine that you know about their values. To impose the values, to teach, preach
• To show disgust concerning their appearance or behaviour, to refuse touching them, to refuse to accept food or drinks from them
• To interfere with their work
• To create dependence by distribution of something (for example, sweets and etc.)
• To try to involve children in the program by distributing something (for example, sweets or other) or promises: they should decide themselves
• To draw attention of the public or militia
• To think of yourself as noble
• To create a difference for children between groups of children
• To destroy their available network and social groups

In the work with a street child, it is useful to take into account his/her connections with an environment. Each street child has his/her own, adjusted, invisible or appreciable network of personal contacts. The closer the contact of a child with its family is, the more these connections are strong. Other connections may also exist, with:

• dealers of a market around which a child works;
• brothers or sisters;
• children, whom a child knows from the street;
• school friends;
• separate areas of city.        

At the very basis of the work with children in the street there should be a complex approach to the problem, and the work of various experts - teachers, workers in the public health services, militia, and social workers – should be involved. The success of the work of experts in the sphere of children protection will depend on the choice and realization of certain methods, based on understanding and comprehension of the specific features of a child. That will also depend on the kind of relation which will be established, and on a sufficient professional knowledge which experts should possess.

References:

• Child labor in Kyrgyzstan. The manual, ILO\IPEC, the final version, Bishkek 2001.
• There are no another's children. The methodical manual for the experts working in sphere of childhood protection./ Editorial board: Toktosunova A.I., Kulevtsova T.I., Dzhakubova N.I., etc. / National commission KR on affairs of UNESCO, Bishkek, 2004.
• Problems of city street youth in Kyrghyzstan, UNESCO, Bishkek, 2002-2003.
• Working and street children. The manual on planning. Save the children, Great Britain, 1994
• Work with street children. The world organization of public health services, 2000.
• Work with children in a street situation. Materials of trainings for social workers. Mary Vernham.
• Results of researches – Lost children of the Central Asia.
• The collection of materials. Position of children in Kyrghyzstan: a reality and prospects, Bishkek, 2005.
• Juvenile technologies. Practical guidance on realization of territorial model of rehabilitation space for minors of group of risk. M.: Russian charitable fund “No to alcoholism and drug addiction”, 2002, p. 352.

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