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Send the Durban Declaration to your MP!

The Durban Declaration is a call to action from street children to governments. It distils the discussions of street children at the Street Child World Cup, highlighting the issues that they identify as important, and amplifying their voices.

We want to make sure it is heard at every level – and you can help.

Please write to your MP with a copy of the Durban Declaration, and ask them to send it onto Andrew Mitchell, Secretary of State for International Development.

It’s easy to do:
1) Find out who your MP is by typing in your postcode at WriteToThem.com
2) Send an email straight from the Write to Them site – sending this link: http://streetchildworldcup.org/files/2010/06/The-Durban-Declaration-to-download.pdf

Or, better still, write a letter to your MP at House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA, enclosing a copy of the Durban Declaration. Download a copy to print here.

Points you may want to include in your letter:
- Ask your MP to send the Durban Declaration onto Andrew Mitchell, Secretary of State for International Development.
- Tell your MP that this is an issue you care about – and why.
- Street children are perhaps the most vulnerable and marginalised people in the world. If you believe UK aid should reach the poorest people, ask your MP how the Department for International Development (DfID) can guarantee that our aid reaches these children.
- The Durban Declaration springs from discussions with street children from eight countries. Street children are the experts on why children live on the streets. DfID should listen to the experts in order to ensure programmes are designed and supported to reach them.
- Pick out the key headlines from the Durban Declaration and emphasise them for your MP.

Please tell us when you write to your MP, and when you receive a reply, by emailing info@streetchildworldcup.org or forwarding copies of letters to Street Child World Cup, Amos Trust, 83 London Wall, London, EC2M 5ND.

You can help amplify the voices of street children. It only takes five minutes to do so now.

Published on: 25. 11. 2010 | Read more »

A piece of the Street Child World Cup for Christmas

Street children like Victor are often forgotten and ignored.  At the Street Child World Cup in March 2010, they were listened to in a new and powerful way as they discussed their lives and experiences, played football, and created artwork reflecting on their stories. 

The work of the Street Child World Cup continues, ensuring that street children’s voices are heard by policy makers, including at UN level.  With the European Football Championships and the Olympics in 2012 and the 2014 Brazil FIFA World Cup in our sights, we are making plans to build on the success of the first Street Child World Cup with future events.  We want to give more street children the chance to feel they can fly.

You can buy a piece of the future for a loved one this Christmas. Help us invest in these street children and ensure their voices are heard. 

Make a £15 gift to the Street Child World Cup.  We will send you:

The perfect package to show a loved one what your gift means to street children.

Your ‘virtual gift’ will enable us to invest in the future of the Street Child World Cup, ensuring that the voices of street children are heard at the highest levels.

Published on: 24. 11. 2010 | Read more »

The Durban Declaration

A call to action from the Street Child World Cup

Download the Durban Declaration and implications for government and civil society here

In March 2010 street children aged 14-16 from South Africa, Brazil, India, Nicaragua, Ukraine, the Philippines, Tanzania and a team from the UK took part in the inaugural Street Child World Cup. This included a youth participation conference at which they discussed their experiences and rights.  The Durban Declaration distils their discussions and the key points they raised.     

Listen to us:  we have the right to be heard

“The government don’t do anything for children on the street, they don’t even think about them. When they see those children they do not even make a case for them. They should take them by the hand and say: I am going to support you, I am going to help you, you are not alone. But no – they look at them as they would anything else, like any other rubbish.”

Governments and civil society need to listen to street children to understand             

• why they are on the streets and what their right to a home means to them
• how to end the abuse they experience and realise their right to protection from violence
• how to develop services and realise their right to education and health care.

These children believe their voices need to be heard so that negative perceptions of them change. They want it to be understood that “we are people like them”. 

Listen to us: home means family

“A house doesn’t give me advice, food, love or care – the family offers you this.”

Governments and civil society need to understand – “we do not want to stay on the streets. It is not a good thing for children to live on the street”.  These children spoke of leaving homes due to:

• neglect, sexual abuse and violence at home (often connected with alcohol and substance misuse);
• family breakdown and conflict, often involving “step-parents”; 
• economic pressures, leading some children to seek to earn money on the streets.

Most of these children wanted to return home, and felt that if families could be given more support children would not have to run away.

Listen to us when we say we are abused:  we have the right to be protected.

“When a child is beaten, nothing happens to the perpetrator.” 

The children described incidents of violence and sexual abuse at home, on the streets (from gangs or members of the public), within institutions (including schools and orphanages), and from police and security guards. The children did not see the perpetrators of this abuse brought to justice.

Governments and civil society need to ensure that children can have confidence that they can report violence and abuse, and that steps will be taken to ensure that perpetrators are held accountable.  

Listen to us so that we can have a future.

“Police and legal systems do not work.  [These street child] projects work well.“

The children spoke of how projects in which they were involved had enabled them to leave the streets, access education and healthcare, and stop substance misuse. These projects took the time to understand why they were on the streets and the barriers and prejudice which prevented them from accessing services.  They heard that the children wanted to return home and understood the difficulties involved in this process. These projects also understood the importance of sports and arts programmes to the children. “When I’m playing football, I don’t think of those bad things that happened to me”

 Governments and civil society need to work together to understand why children do not access services, to ensure that investment is targeted toward those services that work, and to safeguard children’s rights. 

Published on: 23. 11. 2010 | Read more »

What do policy-makers need to hear from street children?

The Street Girl’s Manifesto was aired yesterday at the All Party Parliamentary Group on Street Children. 

This was probably the first APPG to feature a live video input from Zimbabwe and from South Africa.  Bulelwa Ngantweni-Hewitt, founder of Umthombo, and Nosipho, who played in the South African team at the Street Child World Cup, were interviewed by Russell Brown MP, who chaired the meeting.  It demonstrated what’s at the heart of the Street Child World Cup – that the voices of street children need to be heard.

The Street Girls’ manifesto came out of the girls only workshop which was facilitated by Plan International at the Street Child World Cup. 

In creating this manifesto, this group of girls were exercising their right to be heard.  It points to some important issues which will be brought out further when we launch the full Durban Declaration, from the Street Child World Cup, at our conference on 24 November.

 What do policy makers need to hear from this?  A few suggestions :

The girls said:  Step-parents should love all children. 

Problems in families lead children to the streets.  This needs to be heard and understood by policy makers so that street children are not blamed for being on the streets.  Street children are often treated first by the police, as ‘law-breakers’ – their first encounter with the state implies a sense of blame.  If we fully hear that problems in families lead to the streets, then appropriate interventions can enable communities, families and children to keep children in safe homes.

 The girls said:  Community leaders should punish people who abuse children

Policy makers need to hear that street children see their abusers – family, police, teachers, passers by – go unpunished. The girls – and the boys – at the street child world cup – reported staggering levels of violence from home to institutions to the streets.  This is not good enough.  It sends a message to children that violence against them is OK – or even that they have deserved it in some way.  Discussions at the street child world cup revealed a level of self-blame for violence.  It’s urgent that street girls, and street child organisations, are supported to challenge those who abuse street children through whatever is the most effective mechanism – the courts, the community, or internal police procedures.   

 The girls said:  Adults should know about child rights

What should policy makers hear from this?  They should hear that street children know their rights are being violated, they know it’s wrong, but they don’t see adults on their sides as bearing responsibility for children’s rights.  Adults need to challenge adults on child rights violations, not only being aware of children’s rights, but bearing responsibility for them.

 The girls said:  There should be good lighting on the streets

This specific practical issue points to something wider – the need for integrated city strategies created with street children – street girls – and street child agencies. Street children know the practical issues that make a difference to their safety so it’s vital to listen to them.   Street Child World Cup partners told us and showed us that where they could work with local government in approaching street children together, not as ‘a problem to clear away’, but as people to engage with, that’s what’s effective at enabling children to leave the streets sustainably.  From Durban and Umthombo – where city-wide strategies are helping end police round-ups – to Kharkiv and Depaul International, where local government is working with NGOs to create environments in state institutions from which children will no longer want to run away.  City-wide, cross sector strategies, hearing children’s voices.

 Street children should be treated with decency and respect

All girls have that right.  The decency and respect with which the girls at the Street Child World Cup treated one another -  their dignity and the respectful, enthusiastic and open way they engaged with one another shows how this is possible.

Published on: 28. 10. 2010 | Read more »

“We, the girls, living on the streets…”

Up to 30% of children living on the streets around the world are girls. Their gender makes them particularly vulnerable to some abuses, and street girls can come up with distinctive survival strategies.  Some of these are ultimately damaging.

 At the first Street Child World Cup, we were delighted to welcome a group of bright, resilient, powerful young women, all between 14 and 16, from seven different countries.  They shared their stories with each other and with us, and came up with a manifesto for change.

Today, this manifesto is being published as part of Plan International’s Because I am a Girl report.  The report says:  “Projects with adolescent girls need above all to listen to what the girls themselves have to say, and to use existing legislation to ensure that protection means they are protected rather than abused yet again.  We owe this and more to [the girls in this report and others like them]. We have seen their strength, energy and resilence in the face of adversity.  Their is no excuse not to match this with our own, and to ensure that during the next decade of the 21st century, no girls will have to live on the streets of our cities.”

“We, the girls living, and who have lived on the streets, and those of us in shelters from seven countries [the UK, Tanzania, South Africa, the Philippines, Ukraine, Brazil and Nicaragua] met during the Street Child World Cup conference which took place 20-22 March 2010 in Durban, South Africa.

We, the street girls, have the following rights and we want them respected:

• The right to live in a shelter and home
• the right to have a family
• the right to be safe
• the right to be protected from sexual abuse
• the right to go to school and get free education
• the right to good health and access to free health services
• the right to be heard
• the right to belong
• the right to be treated with respect and dignity
• the right to be treated as equal to boys
• the right to be allowed to grow normally.

We identified the following ways to be safe in our communities:

• step parents should love all children
• community leaders should punish people who abuse children
• adults should know about child rights
• there should be good lighting on the streets
• street children should be treated with dignity and respect

We identified the following factors that make us safe at national level:

• training for police to keep children safe
• tough laws on child abuse
• good relations between government and children
• put money into support workers who can pay detailed attention to children
• governments should build homeless shelters for street girls to feel safe in
• give us access to education – there should be better security in schools
• there should be more social projects
• get rid of corruption.

We declared that the following actions at a regional and global level will motivate our governments to protect street children:

• the whole world should recognise and protect street children
• all countries should have good child laws
• girls should be allowed to speak and be heard
• there should be awareness campaigns about street children
• there should be more awareness of the problem of violence”

Today, Plan International launches its latest Because I am a Girl report.

Published on: 27. 09. 2010 | Read more »

Street children failed by Millennium Development Goals

Millennium Development Goals Summit, New York, 20-22 September 2010

As the world’s political leaders gather in New York to monitor the progress of the Millennium Development Goals, we’ve heard street children from eight countries show how progress towards MDGs still fails some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world.

Earlier this year, at the first Street Child World Cup, street children from across the world identified areas in which they are being failed by their governments and communities. Now their discussions are being presented in a unique exhibition in London.  The exhibition, at the Foundling Museum, Bloomsbury, until 9 October, shows work created and inspired by street children who have created artwork around themes of shelter, protection, health and education.

Today, we identify key areas within the MDGs in which street children are overlooked.  Street children from South Africa, Brazil, India, Nicaragua, Ukraine, the Phlippines and Tanzania discussed issues of importance to them, reflecting on their experiences of leaving homes for the streets.  In doing so, they show that the MDGs, without specific reference to street children, will fail this most vulnerable group.

Goal 1:  End poverty and hunger

Children at the Street Child World Cup identified how poverty and hunger can create stress on families which can lead to children being forced onto the streets. The Philippines team, organised by a network of Manila-based organisations, identified hunger as the fifth most significant reason for children ending up on the streets, and called for more support for parents and their children to grow their own food in urban settings.  

Goal 2:  Universal primary education

When children fall out of school, they lose touch with a critical network of support, and become more vulnerable to being drawn into life on the streets.  Conversely, if former street children are reintegrated back into schools, this will provide a further ‘anchor’ to secure home life.  However, street children at the Street Child World Cup identified considerable barriers to street children reentering education, including:

• Some poor families have a level of dependence on children bringing in income through work on the streets, meaning mainstream education cannot fit into a child’s day.
• Fear of sexual harassment or bullying from teachers – this was identified as a reason for a number of the participants at the Street Child World Cup leaving school.
• Lack of transport.  This was associated in many cases with vulnerability to abuse in travelling to distant schools.

Governments seeking to achieve universal education must listen to the voices of the most vulnerable, street children, in order to challenge the reasons why school does not meet their needs and to overcome the particular barriers to them reentering education.  Without this specific focus, this MDG will not be achieved.

Goal 3:  Gender equality

In a special session facilitated by Plan International, the girls at the Street Child World Cup separately explored their different vulnerabilities on the street. These girls-only discussions identified widespread experience of sexual violence and exploitation.  Not only did these girls find little or no protection from the authorities, a number of them had experienced sexual abuse from the state including police and educational figures.  Their perception is that girls on the street are too often sexually abused with impunity.

Street children identify this as a particular and shocking manifestation of gender inequality.  States must address child protection issues in order to fully achieve MDGs.

Goal 4:  Reduce childhood mortality

Violence is one of the most significant causes of ill health and death for street children. Children at the Street Child World Cup had, without exception, experienced violence.  In many cases, this occurred at many levels – within families and institutions including schools, and on the streets from both police and public.  Their experience is frequently of complete powerlessness in situations of violence as perpetrators go unpunished.   States must support street children and street child organisations in prosecuting perpetrators of violence and strengthen child protection in order to address this cause of preventable ill-health and death. 

The Street Child World Cup exhibition currently at the Foundling Museum includes an exhibit commemorating the lives of four children who have died on the streets – in 3 out of four cases, as a result of violence.

Ill health among street children is frequently exacerbated by inequitable access to healthcare – street children reported being turned away from state healthcare providers because staff refused to treat street children, or give cursory treatment at best. 

In making recommendations, children at the Street Child World Cup recognised the place of healthy lifestyles– inexpensive interventions from the state, promoting sport, for example, can bring health benefits including countering addictions.

Goal 5:  Maternal health

One Voice: Street Child World Cup at the Foundling, contains an exhibit commemorating the lives of four children who have died on the streets. One is a girl from the Philippines who died following complications in labour.  As a young girl, living on the streets, she did not receive appropriate treatment from the hospital.  Access to maternal health care is, for street girls, reduced by discrimination as much as by cost or proximity. 

Goal 6:  Combat HIV/AIDS

Street children, both boys and girls, are vulnerable to sexual abuse and exploitation on a massive scale.  At the Street Child World Cup, a large proportion of participants identified personal experience of abuse.  States must include a concerted effort to prosecute perpetrators of the abuse of street children in order to protect this vulnerable group from the spread of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases as well as the long-term trauma associated with such abuse. 

Goal 7:  Environmental sustainability

Children at the Street Child World Cup, especially the team from India, identified insecure and inadequate housing as a contributor to children leaving home prematurely and ending up on the streets.  This included access to sanitation.  Asked to identify five main problems for their community, the India team placed “No electricity, no hygienic food or proper water sanitation” as the most significant.

Jenny Dawkins, Street Child World Cup project manager says “progress towards the achievement of the MDGs should benefit the world’s poorest people –but at the moment, street children, who too often fall to the bottom of society, are missing out.  Governments need to specifically address how their measures will benefit street children.”

The Foundling Museum is holding a series of workshops for children around the themes of children’s rights and the experiences of street children on Saturday 25 September, 2 and 9 October.

Published on: 22. 09. 2010 | Read more »

Guardian taster of unique exhibition

One Voice:  Street Child World Cup at the Foundling opened yesterday, and it looks fantastic!  Vibrant, interactive, intriguing, challenging, and enjoyable -we’re delighted with how this artwork, created and inspired by the street children who came together in Durban back in March, captures something of the eclectic, joyful, inspiring atmosphere of the DSCWC. 

We’re delighted to see the Guardian carry a taster here.

Do visit the exhibition until 9 October.  The Foundling is open Tues-Sat, 10-5pm, Sun 11-5pm, and it has a great cafe with more artwork on the walls.  A perfect autumn afternoon out in London!  (the Museum is at 40 Brunswick Square, WC1N 1AZ nearest tubes Kings Cross/Russell Square)

Published on: 15. 09. 2010 | Read more »

August Bank Holiday and the SCWC

This August Bank Holiday, there are two opportunities to enjoy a Street Child World Cup experience. The only difficult part is deciding where to go.

Cheltenham:  for the Greenbelt festival, where Amos Trust will be featured in numerous ways, including a DSCWC tribute in the form of a human table football tournament.  For your chance to play for Brazil, South Africa, India, Ukraine, Tanzania, Nicaragua, the UK or the Philippines on the Monday of Greenbelt, 2pm – 4pm, drop a line to info@streetchldworldcup.org. 

Bedfordshire:  Hinwick Hall, for the Brazilian vibed Festinho, with music, games and a laid-back festival feel all raising money for ABC – the Action for Brazil’s Children Trust, originators of the DSCWC Brazil Team.

Published on: 6. 08. 2010 | Read more »

Will you be at Greenbelt at the end of August?

If so, you could fulfil a possible childhood ambition, cultivated through the Pele years, to play football for Brazil.

OK, there will be a few adaptations you’ll have to make to your dreams. Firstly, you’ll be playing human table football. The FIFA rules have not yet been drawn up for this adaptation.  Secondly, there’ll be no Jules Rimet trophy awaiting you at the end.

On the plus side, however, you don’t have to be Brazilian, nor to have any particular talent in football.

What is this all about? 

At Greenbelt this year, we will be holding a tribute to the Street Child World Cup in the form of a human table football tournament (2pm – 4pm on the Monday of Greenbelt – August Bank Hol).  Eight teams of 5 (add substitutes as you wish) will play to represent the eight teams who played at the inaugural Street Child World Cup this year.  The good news about human table football is that it evens out differences of height, age or ability, so teams should be truly mixed and the outcome genuinely unpredictable.  It should be great fun, and prizes will be given to the winners.  And to other participants too, no doubt.

Email info@streetchildworldcup.org to register a team of you and your mates to represent Brazil -  or India, the UK, South Africa, Nicaragua, Ukraine, the Philippines, or Tanzania. 

see you there!

Sec

Published on: 3. 08. 2010 | Read more »

‘Escape’ print celebrates SCWC

Wilf Whitty, Amos Trust designer and photographer extraordinaire, has created a print inspired by his time at the Street Child World Cup.  The print has been selected as part of an exhibition in Bristol, “Escape“, at the Howie’s shop.  It uses a photograph he took of a gorgeous strike from one of the Tanzanian team.

Bristolians – take the opportunity to visit and check it out!

The pleasure is not just limited to Bristol folk – limited editions of the print are available to buy online - and Wilf is very kindly donating all profits from sales of the prints to Umthombo Street Children, SCWC hosts and Amos Trust partners.

Published on: 15. 07. 2010 | Read more »