Essay About Street Children

1347 Words6 Pages
Narratives of Long-Term Street Children in Moshi, Tanzania There is an estimated 100 million street children worldwide (Office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, OHCHR, 2011) with a further estimate of 600 street children in Mwanza alone, Tanzania’s second largest city (Lockhart, 2002). Some attempts have been made to monitor the increase in numbers. For example, estimation of numbers sky rocketed from 200 – 300 street children in 1991 in Dar es Salaam to 3,500 in 1995 (Bamurange, 1998). These can only be educational estimates as the exact number is difficult to determine due to socio-economic, political and cultural conditions, including growing inequalities and patterns of urbanization. With the enormity of this population it is surprising…show more content…
Street children carry many negative connotations or popular misbeliefs due to engagement in early substance abuse, early sexual activity, delinquency, and either being labeled as orphaned or abandoned. These stereotypes reflect public attitudes towards street children more than the reality of individual children’s lives. Such representations are problematic because they fail to capture diverse realities of these children’s lives. These representations of children can have enormous consequences on the treatment of these children and how they are viewed by the community. Children seen as “victims” are more likely to be treated as passive objects of welfare rather than as rights holders, while children seen as “delinquents” are more likely to be subjected to violence and to end up in the penal system (Consortium for Street Children, 2013). Therefore it is fundamental to determine the true experiences of street children in an honest and accurate manner to provide evidence-based programs aimed at improving their quality of

More about Essay About Street Children

Open Document