Due to poverty, abuse, and HIV/AIDS there are thousands of children living on the streets in the region – an estimated 450,000 children in Ethiopia and 35,000 in Khartoum, northern Sudan. Once children are forced into the streets, it is very difficult to reintegrate them back into society. Therefore, our main intervention is to prevent children from going into the streets. In Sudan and Ethiopia, we support NGOs to provide alternative education to marginalised and displaced children. By providing them free schooling, that also allows them to work to support themselves and their families, children choose education over life on the streets.
In Ethiopia and Sudan, we support children who have ended up on the street as they are subject to a wide range of abuses by one another and other adults, and we support drop-in centers, temporary shelters and outreach programmes where children receive counselling, food, health care, vocational training, recreational activities, education and information on sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS. In addition, meeting sessions between police and children are organised, with the objective of building a good relationship. The national NGOs also try to broker dialogue between the children and their families with the hope that they will return to live with their families.
We make a concerted effort to help girls on the streets as they are susceptible to physical and sexual abuse, and we support an NGO in Ethiopia that is providing girls involved in sex work with skills, health education, counselling, non-formal education and a safe space so they become strong and confident enough to change professions. We also support a hospital in Ethiopia that provides psychosocial and physical care to sexually abused children.
In Kenya, we support child protection units, operated by the Kenya Police Department. The child protection units are pecialised units trained to handle cases involving children – both as victims and perpetrators, and we also provide legal aid to children in conflict with the law, and partially funds presence of social workers in courts in Khartoum, northern Sudan, for care and support to the children.
The information obtained from all these projects is used to open the eyes of the government to the severity of the problem of street children, and to foster dialogue between street children, police and the government.
For more information about our regional focus, please contact the Regional Programme Officer for Children’s Rights, Mr Thomas Chege.