Nobody Ever Listened to Me - Chapter 9 'Hope'

CHAPTER 9 - HOPE

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 29: “State Parties agree that the education of the child shall be directed to:
a) The development of the child’s personality, talents and mental and physical abilities to their fullest potential;
b) The development of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations;
d) The preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society, in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups and persons of indigenous origins.”

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child celebrated its 20th Anniversary on the 20th November 2009. It is the UN treaty that has been signed and ratified by more countries than any other such instrument. Only two of the 193 nations making up the UN have yet to ratify - Somalia and the United States. There have been a number of events, including conferences, marking the anniversary, and at most similar evaluations have been made - that progress on children’s rights in most countries has been made in the legislative framework, but the implementation is patchy and in some countries woefully weak.

Efforts are being made by some governments to draw up national plans for vulnerable children, including street children. India has put in place an Integrated Child Protection System, which is in the process of implementation and has set up a National Commission for the Protection of Children’s Rights, although the task ahead of that country to ensure all children are afforded their rights is immense. Tanzania is developing a national plan for street children, following surveys and a conference in conjunction with the British Consortium for Street Children and some of its members. The UK has issued in consultation with a number of British NGOs, including a member of the Consortium for Street Children, Railway Children, guidance to local authorities on planning services to support runaway children and address their vulnerability.

There are many international and national NGOs devoted to supporting and improving the lot of vulnerable children, including street children. Some of the larger international NGOs focus on campaigning and channelling their resources through national governments, particularly in the areas of health and education. Such programmes in city slums and rural areas, whilst not directly addressing the issue of street children, are putting in place improvements in protection and child development which ought to reduce the likelihood of children running from their homes and communities from ignorance, fear and abuse. Other smaller NGOs are more clearly focussed to the specific problems faced by street children. Most of these are nationally based and run by local people.

In the mega cities of Latin America and South Asia there are many such NGOs - many belonging to networks which try to co-ordinate their services and share information and good practice. Western European and North American NGOs link up with such national NGOs in partnership providing much needed funds, as well as know-how and exposure to the international context. In the UK, over sixty NGOs, most focussed specifically on street children, belong to the Consortium for Street Children and these NGOs have partners working in over 100 countries of the world.

The NGOs working for street children provide between them, although unfortunately not comprehensively, a whole range of services and development opportunities for the children. Some offer welfare services - immediate emergency help by providing food, medical care and some form of protection which might have a base in a drop-in centre or night shelter. Some provide residential care for the most vulnerable children, which include the education of these children as well as welfare needs. Many provide both welfare services and address the longer term development needs of the child, be it academic or vocational education, the acquisition of life skills and a positive relationship with society. All have to start with recognising the needs of individual children which are unique to each child, although in most cases a child’s experience of being unwanted or rejected has to be faced first of all, and the self-worth, confidence and trust of the child has to be restored.

Street children live for the day, and few give thought for the morrow - they are too busy trying to survive each day, finding food, shelter and friends, and too often seeking refuge from their plight by indulging in harmful or wasteful pursuits. One objective, therefore, for NGOs working particularly with runaway and abused children is to give them hope - a perspective beyond the immediate, so that they will value the opportunities that may be offered to them and cease to give immediate satisfaction their priority.

Many NGOs do not find such support sufficient, even when they are providing development opportunities as well as meeting welfare needs. Increasingly they recognise that they need to lobby governments to provide the necessary infrastructure to meet the needs of the most vulnerable children, provide the community support that makes the abuse and exploitation of such children less likely and provide a safety net for those children who still need special treatment. They can demonstrate to governments the impact of innovative programmes and projects that make a positive difference and encourage the replication and application of such learning by larger NGOs and government ministries on a wider scale.

NGOs specialise as well in the specific groups of children they support, sometimes by geography and also by the nature of the child - some work by outreaching to the newest children just taking to the street and seeking to offer help and possible family restoration before a child is abused, exploited or corrupted on the street. Some work in the slum and rural communities seeking to provide the services and conditions to prevent children taking to the street. Some work with older street youth, with children who have been traumatised by their experiences and sought refuge in drugs and alcohol. Some work with the girls, who - while less obvious on the street - are the most vulnerable of all. Some recognise that children have come to the cities primarily to earn money and concentrate on training these children in marketable skills so that they may be self-sufficient. Some work on income generation with a whole community. Some work with child labourers, with the scavengers operating on the rubbish tips of the world, some work with street children who are disabled or infected with HIV/AIDS or the other diseases that street children are prone to.

Many of the earlier chapters of this book focus on the problems and challenges street children face in their daily lives. Many of us would not give much chance for a successful outcome if we were in the situation these children are. We look at our own children and shudder to think what would happen if they were left to fend for themselves at eight or ten years of age. Yet it has been said several times that many street children have extraordinary resilience that they’ve built up in their determination to survive. They are children who have not been prepared to accept life’s problems passively, but have rebelled against the circumstances of their lives.

Given the opportunity and some real affection and respect from a sympathetic and resourceful adult, whether as an individual or part of a caring NGO, many children not only turn into useful and self-sufficient members of society able to hold down a job, and successfully raise a family of their own, but many have moved on to distinguish themselves in different walks of life. The rest of this chapter will highlight some of the stories of such children which give hope to other children and to those who would inspire them alike.

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Sovann was hanging around in the slums of Sihanoukville. He had dropped out of school four years earlier and didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life. He met a social worker from the local NGO M’Lop Tapang and, after a few weeks, developed a close rapport with him. Eventually Sovann decided to visit the vocational training centre and soon enrolled on the welding course. He was a quick learner and showed real commitment to his work. When the M’Lop Tapang arts centre needed an assistant technician, he was offered the position. After a three month trial he has now been made a full time junior technician. “I am so proud to be part of the arts programme and to be learning from staff who are so skilled. I am very happy as I have a bright future now… I hope to work in this forever.”
Sovann, Cambodia - International Childcare Trust
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Lucy’s mother has long-term mental health issues and misuses alcohol as does her father who physically and emotionally abused the whole family.
“Basically my first memory is of me, my brother and me wee sister jumping on the bed and my dad came in and battered us all. He used to batter us kids and he used to batter my mum.”
Lucy’s father broke her brother’s nose and Lucy told a teacher who contacted social services. Lucy and her family had previously been involved with social services but had ceased to be involved with them:

“We were supposed to be doing really well but we weren’t really; the social work thought we were so we got taken off supervision and then …. we got back with social services supervision and then not long after that, my dad battered my mum. It was really bad.”

After this incident, Lucy and her siblings were placed in foster care for a year and a half. Lucy’s father left her mother and Lucy and her sister returned to live with their mother. However, this did not last long:

“Me and me sister actually asked to be put somewhere else because we couldn’t handle it: my mum started turning against us …. She was being violent; she nearly broke my arm. … she was drinking us and was just depressed about my dad being away and that.”

Whilst living in the second foster care placement, Lucy and her sister wanted to return to live with their mother but social services would not allow them to do so:

“We got supervised visits and we weren’t allowed to be there with my mum on our own. We were allowed to go and see my father; they were alright about that.”

Lucy’s younger sister, who gets on well with their father, then wanted to live with their father:
“She talked me round to moving in with me dad. They [social services] thought it was a great idea and my dad was doing really well: he got the room decorated for us and
stuff like that.”

At first things went well but, after a few weeks, Lucy’s father began to be aggressive and Lucy was forced to care for her sister and father. When Lucy was fourteen, as a response to their father’s aggression, Lucy and her sister ran away for six weeks and stayed with a number of Lucy’s friends. Lucy missed school during this time but there was no enquiry about this absence when she returned to school. This incident of being away ended when Lucy and her sister went to see their former foster carers who contacted social services. Lucy and her sister insisted that they did not want to return to live with their father but social services said there was nowhere for them to go where they could remain together. However, social services set respite care in place and Lucy’s father received support to manage his anger. Lucy recognises that that there have been consequences of her experiences at home:

“Concentration was affected; sleep was affected; stuff like that. …. I sometimes had nightmares …. I still have them now… I have nightmares about my dad hitting my mum and waking up in cold sweat; stuff like that.”

Lucy now lives in her own flat, volunteers at a runaways project and plans to go to university to train to be a social worker. She has very little contact with her father and acts as a carer for her mother. Like so many ex-street children, she is a very resilient girl and now offers much to others.
Lucy, England – Railway Children
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A large crowd of NGO delegates to the 1999 Durban Commonwealth Conference stood spellbound in the exhibition hall when a young voice was heard, singing into the microphone in the clearest possible voice about his sorrow being an AIDS orphan living on the streets of Durban. His father had died, his mother remarried a man who beat him and then his mother died. I was present as a member of the British Parliamentary delegation and was so moved, I went straight to the stand of the BBC World Service and begged them to listen to this 8 year old child with the voice of an angel. They did and were captivated.

Brandon was recorded by them and sang at the World Service New Year concert a song his aunt wrote for him. During the interval I spoke to Chief Bhutelezi of the Zulu tribe and told him of the young Zulu street child, whose life expectancy was so low at that time. The Chief was moved and arranged for Brandon to join his own children for singing lessons with Joseph Shabala, lead singer of the Black Mambazo band. As a result Chief Bhutelezi made an announcement that he was starting a fund in support of musically gifted Zulu children. Joseph Shabala agreed to audition Brandon and subsequently I heard that he had great singing and dancing talent. He had taken Brandon into his own family and taught him with the Chief’s children.

During the Millennium fireworks display, the TV suddenly burst out with the Black Mambazo band performing in the Dome – this was followed by a phone call to me from Brandon, shouting excitedly “I’m here, I’m here, I’m in London!”

Trudy Davies, Co-Founder of the Consortium for Street Children & Parliamentary Lobbyist.
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From infancy Adam was neglected by his parents, spending long periods shut in his room and subject to extreme physical abuse by his father. His parents were involved with drugs and his mother had a mental health disorder. When he was four he was placed in foster care, but when he was nine he and his sister were returned from the caring foster parents to live with his father again who started to sexually abuse the girl and physically abuse Adam. He rebelled and became involved with the police. He was returned to his foster parents but by this time his behaviour had changed drastically and they couldn’t cope.

He then went through four different foster arrangements and finally, aged thirteen, ran to the woods to find his own space. By fifteen he was involved in drinking and committing crimes. When he was sixteen he was placed under the care of a social worker who cared about him. Adam says: “He spoke to you more as a person than a client. He was more easygoing; you could chat to him about anything. He was good. He helped me a lot. He got me off the streets and into a hostel… He helped me to go to college as well.”
While living in the hostel for the homeless, Adam is training to be a sports coach working with children and young people and does voluntary work in an old people’s home and with disabled children. Adam would like to train as a social worker with children and young people and put his experiences to good use.
Adam, England - Railway Children ___________________________________________________

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Mexican based NGO, Juconi, contacted the five Ramirez children, (Laura, Rosaura, Felipe, Juán and Eduardo) working long hours selling chewing gum at a traffic intersection. None of the children were in school though the three eldest had been to school intermittently. Juan and Eduardo did not have birth certificates. Neither parent worked and they lived in a dingy, two room house. Don Luis drank excessively and they fought constantly and Doña Margarita had required medical attention on occasions as a result. Doña Margarita explained her violence towards her children as her only means of keeping them in order so they would not anger their father/step-father. She described the children as being out of control and Felipe had threatened to hit her.

Juconi worked with the Ramirez family for 4.5 years, 2.5 of them intensively, visiting the family in their home every week to provide individual and family educational-therapeutic attention as well as helping them integrate into their local community through accompanying them in building relations with school teachers, health services and employers.

Eight years later, Juconi is in touch with the Ramirez family through the Tracking Programme which follows-up on children and families over 10 years to see what impact Juconi´s services have had. Laura is a single mum and her daughter goes to a local pre-school while she attends a government training course to become a hair dresser. Rosaura and Felipe both finished secondary school and have steady jobs. They bought a piece of land between them and have built Rosaura a 3 room house and are saving to build Felipe´s. Juán is studying at technical college to become an electrician and Eduardo is in secondary school. They describe the family environment as relaxed and say that their parents get along well together. Living conditions are still cramped and money is very tight, but Don Luis no longer drinks and he and Margarita both work. They took their first family holiday together last year when they went to Veracruz to visit Don Luis´ parents.

The Ramirez Family, Puebla - Juconi
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Toybox has been pioneering a child Ambassador’s scheme that enables street living, street working and high risk children to make their voice heard in the areas where they live, and internationally. Each of the indigenous projects that the NGO supports participates in the Ambassador scheme. The children who attend the project hold a democratic election once every two years at which they choose two of their peers as Ambassadors or representatives. These Ambassadors then participate in a range of activities which raise awareness about street living, working and high-risk children in the city where they live. After two years, another election is held so that other children have the opportunity to be Ambassadors.

Every month the Ambassadors in the city network come together to have a meeting and to decide on their aims and activities for the next month. The Ambassadors plan and carry out wide range of activities including plays, debates, conferences, and the expressive arts. They also appear frequently on local radio, television and in the print media speaking about children in their country; including those living on the streets and the issues facing them.

The Child Ambassadors are uniquely placed to speak out about issues facing street children, because most of them have lived or worked on the streets before. They have a real passion for justice and a determination to change the situation of other children. Many of them come from very difficult and deprived backgrounds. The Ambassador scheme develops their confidence and leadership skills. Most importantly, the scheme allows former street children to have a voice and a positive, visible presence in the cities where there are many children still living on the streets.
Child Ambassador’s Scheme, Cochabamba, Bolivia - Toybox
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Street children and children living in difficult circumstances, child labourers, all live and hang out in groups basically to survive and support each other. It’s not the strongest or physically biggest kids that are the leaders of the group, it’s the smartest that are the group leaders. They survive by fighting, protecting their own territory, and on the stations and streets, the children have blades under their tongues to be ready to fight and just survive. Darjeeling is the home to the Sherpa community (Tenzing Norgay who climbed Mount Everest with Edmund Hillary being born here). The huge Himalayan Mountaineering Institute is world famous, and the instructors got very involved with the children and the programmes as so many of them are natural climbers.

The whole philosophy behind the children climbing was that they had to work in teams. If you are climbing a rock face, there is another person holding the rope and ensuring your safety, children who don’t have great relationships or found it difficult to trust people, developed them in rock climbing. Their negative attitude changed to a positive team attitude when they discovered what they could do together, working as a team, instead of constantly being at each other’s throats. The jealousies even disappeared when some children got picked to represent us in the Zonal North East India finals, as they saw us as a group and a team up against other teams and they just cheered everyone on. When 13 of the children in the first year got through to the all Indian finals the excitement was unreal with ALL the children, and when they arrived home with a junior All India bronze medal they were total heroes!!!

One of the girls involved was an eight year old trafficked across the border to Darjeeling. Both her parents were alcoholics and she had been raped and badly abused. She escaped but lived with a woman in a tea garden and was forced to work there by the woman who told her to call her ‘mummy’. One day the woman’s sister, who had grown fond of the child, heard discussions about selling her to a man in the tea plantation, and brought the child to the Foundation’s home. The woman tried to reclaim the child but became frightened when the whole story about the girl was revealed to the police. She became a beautiful confident teenager, took to sports like a duck to water and was one of the first children to enter the North East Zonal competition.

Edith Wilkins Street Children Foundation, Darjeeling
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Matthew ran away from school when he was 14. He lived for a year with older boys in a stored railway carriage in the sidings at Longsight, just outside Manchester Piccadilly station. He became a drug addict and ‘sixties flower child’ and followed the Beatles when they toured India in the late 1960s. He liked India, stayed, leased a tiny flat in Bombay and started talking to the street children. He began to help them and when too many attached themselves to him, moved to Pune where he had a larger flat and the children followed him. He sought the help of a social worker, Bhakti, set up a project for street children there and was lured to Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh by the local mayor who promised him land for his project if he would help the hundreds of street children around the major railway junction there.

His programme developed into an emergency shelter and Boy’s Village on the banks of the River Krishna, and funded by his parents who had found him again and set up a charity, SKCV, to assist him, the UK NGO Railway Children and the department store, Selfridges, started an emergency shelter and later, a Girls’ village for the streetgirls round the station and in the slums where they were at risk of being trafficked. In 1994 Matthew (now called Manihara in India) established a Management Committee made up of senior boys – the ‘Future Group’. These young men have already proved their ability to triumph over adversity, many have university degrees and have chosen to use their talents in the service of the charity to which they feel they owe their lives. When Matthew tragically died in 2009, these young men, with Bhakti, assumed the responsibility for continuing to run the Vijayawada programme for street children

SKCV, Vijayawada, India
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Working with street children can be both a frustrating and rewarding experience. Children whom you thought were settling down and showing positive signs will suddenly get ‘wanderlust’ and disappear. Children nursed back to health from injury or illness will one night wave goodbye and not be seen again. Children you’ve helped painstakingly to come off drugs will spend one night back on the street with their former friends and next time you see them they’re high on solvent once again. A child will come in one night beaten up from a fight with an older youth or an encounter with an insensitive policeman or vicious drug dealer or trafficker.

But for all this frustration there are many rewarding signs of hope. A withdrawn child will suddenly respond to the care and affection shown to them and beam a broad smile at you and begin to talk. A child will one day finally confide in you the truth about their situation and you can begin the healing process. You will see a boy you’ve provided with a vocational skill proudly show you his first week’s wages from the job you helped him get. A former child whom you helped will return after two or three years to show off his young wife and new born child, now off the street and with a modest home. A policeman or a government official will suddenly one day express appreciation for what you are doing.

Back in 1998, I met a young seven year old girl in a tiny classroom in Howrah on the banks of the Hooghly river opposite Kolkata city. She was one of thirty young girls aged between four and thirteen found sleeping rough on the vast Howrah railway terminus - most had been raped or sexually molested, several were HIV+. We funded a local NGO to hire two social workers as ‘aunties’ for these girls and a private school who let us use their classroom as a night shelter. Each evening the girls would arrive around 6pm and find a hot meal, a wash and clean clothes awaiting them. After the meal the girls would get health counselling, some basic education, an opportunity to enjoy themselves - they loved dancing - and a safe night’s sleep, then at 8am they were back to the street, as the school needed its classroom again.

Eventually we leased a home for them and some opted to go to school. Babli, the seven year old, used to survive by fetching water eight hours every day for local slum families and got paid a rupee a day on which she had to survive before our partner project rescued her.

Suddenly ten years later I received a treasured e-mail. It simply said “Thank you for giving me my childhood back. Love from Babli.”