[Ugnet] US Congress Cites Growing World Problem of 'Street Children

Allow me engage this people in Critical thinking: The fact that there is a growing problem of Street Children in a country such as Yoweri Museveni's Uganda is because of the US support IMF policies Implemented by Museveni and his Goon The US State department us telling us mbu they are concerned about street children in places like Uganda!!!!.. really very interesting you mean you did not know that encouraging you stooge Yoweri Museveni to implement harsh economic policies in Uganda would lead to this phenominon of Sreet Children??????

More than 100 million children worldwide are living hand-to-mouth, bereft of family and homes, and are "particularly vulnerable to abuse" in countries as wide-ranging as Uganda, Zimbabwe, Brazil and the Philippines, Representative Christopher Smith, chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Africa Subcommittee said September 13.

Smith, a Republican from New Jersey, told fellow lawmakers at a hearing conducted by the subcommittee, "This is a plague that has reached epidemic proportions because it is too often left ignored."

And he warned: "As the number of street children worldwide grows each year, the stability of their respective governments is jeopardized. This is not just a humanitarian crisis, it is a security crisis as well."

David Denehy, director of strategic planning and external affairs in the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, told the panel his agency's "Country Reports" survey "suggests that children end up on the streets for a variety of reasons, including conflict, poverty and HIV/AIDS. Some are exploited in prostitution or are subjected to other forms of human trafficking, and others face abuse by security forces and citizens."

For example, he said, between 32,000 and 52,000 children known as "night commuters" travel from war-torn areas of Uganda "each night to urban centers to avoid abduction by the Lord's Resistance Army," a rebel movement that has battled the central government for more than 10 years.

Next door in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Denehy said, "between 25,000 and 50,000 child refugees, war orphans and other children, widely perceived to be street thugs, are accused of witchcraft or sorcery. They live on the streets throughout the country, and engage in petty crime, begging and/or prostitution."

In Angola's capital, Luanda, he said, the State Department estimates "approximately 1,500 street children shine shoes, wash cars, carry water, beg, prostitute and often resort to petty crime to survive."

The good news is that at a time when Americans are faced with spending hundreds of billions of dollars to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has dedicated funds to work on the growing problem of street children worldwide, says Larry Feinberg, manager of USAID's Displaced Children and Orphans Fund (DCOF).

He told the Africa Subcommittee that DCOF now provides financial and technical support for street children programs in more than 19 countries. "We have programmed more than $160 million since the fund's inception in 1989," he said, and in 2005, DCOF is providing $14 million.

Feinberg said successful programs aimed at protecting and providing housing and care for street children are operating in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, the Dominican Republic, Georgia, Liberia, Indonesia, Ukraine, Sri Lanka and Zambia. He added that DCOF also has "supported excellent and innovative street children's programs in the Philippines and in Thailand."

In Brazil, he told lawmakers, DCOF "recently completed a 10-year investment in a major street children's program called POMMAR [PrevençÃ£o Orientada aos Meninos e Meninas em Risco/Prevention Oriented to At-Risk Youth] in the impoverished northeast sector of the country. That program is now being followed up with a highly innovative Youth Employability Strengthening project."

Turning back to Africa, Feinberg, a former Peace Corps volunteer, said, "One of the most heinous and objectionable phenomena that I have encountered [and USAID is addressing] is the widening practice in Angola and the two Congos of accusing children of witchcraft and then subjecting them to cruel 'exorcisms' that are tantamount to torture."

Britain's Lord David Alton of Liverpool, member of the House of Lords and long-time champion of children's rights worldwide, also spoke before the House panel on the global plight of street children.

He noted that the "Jubilee Campaign," established more than 10 years ago to lobby for children's rights, began after Brazilian police fired on a group of street children in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. But the organization also operates programs in other countries, such as India, where as many as 11 million children may be living on the streets.

For Africa, Alton gave the following figures for street children: Kenya, 250,000; Ethiopia, 150,000; Zimbabwe, 12,000. And he said that many street children have been forced to serve as child soldiers, suffering death or terrible wounds. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), he said, the United Nations estimates that 30,000 children under the age of 12 are under arms, making up 10 percent of the armed groups in the region.

At the same time, Alton said, "20,000 children are believed to live on the streets in the DRC capital, Kinshasa."

Father Shay Cullen, a Catholic missionary priest from Ireland who has worked on development issues for more than 30 years, also testified before the House panel about his work protecting children and campaigning for human rights. He was joined by Teresa Cristina Belchior dos Santos, who is working with the nongovernmental organization (NGO) Viva Network to help young people living on the streets in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro.

Smith acknowledged that "local governments often have limited programs and resources to address the special needs of street children." However, he added, "developed democracies can assist, certainly with direct material assistance, but perhaps most of all through institution building."

The lawmaker promised: "USAID and our NGO communities will discuss what they are doing and what more can be done" to aid street children worldwide.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

[Ugnet] US Congress Cites Growing World Problem of 'Street Children

Reply via email to