CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
by Sylvestre Tetchiada, Cameroon, August 1999
THEME = CHILDREN
The street children are between 10-13 years old.
They scour the streets looking for the wherewithal to live.
The Ministry of Social Affairs has now decided
to find a solution to this disturbing situation
Nicolas Fenton is director of the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Childhope (Great Britain). He defines "street children" as: "children or young people who live or work in the streets and other urban areas including empty buildings and open spaces". For some time now, the average traveller arriving in Yaounde has been amazed by the sight of these scavenging children - an everyday spectacle for the local inhabitants. These children are everywhere, especially alongside the main roads running through Yaounde. They're dressed for the most part in ragged jeans and they live by scavenging around the dustbins and doing small jobs. They wash cars, act as pimps, sell drugs, beg for money, etc.
A recent inquiry among such children revealed that 2.4% of them are less than 7 years old; 19.8% - 7-9 years; 39.7% - 10-12 years; 23.1% - 13-15 years; 8.3% - 16-18 years old. Most come from north Cameroon where the illiteracy level is the highest in the country. When asked how they managed to travel to Yaounde, they'll say: "Oh, I jumped onto a train for Yaounde" (their Eldorado), but usually they're pretty vague about how they journeyed or where they come from. Some of the children move on from Yaounde to Douala, Cameroon's economic hub - and vice versa.
The 1998 Report on Social Development in Cameroon, published on 10 June 1999, talks about: "...illiteracy, the acute shortage of education facilities, rampant juvenile delinquency linked to the nonstop economic downturn in recent years", as being reasons for the existence of the street children. Also, many families in rural areas are extremely poor - the result of an ever- growing economic insufficiency and an unequal distribution of the national revenue. In most poor families, at least one child has to find some kind of employment if the family is to survive; the other children may be left to fend for themselves on the streets.
In May 1999, a number of children were taken back to their own areas by the Minister of Social Affairs. This has never happened before. The children explained they'd left home because of pressure placed on them by local custom. They would have preferred to have gone to school rather than being forced to look after the livestock in the bush. Children coming from the southern provinces arrive in the streets fascinated by life in the large towns. But why are the children there in the first place? In spite of the government's efforts, the education system leaves much to be desired; there's not enough schools or they are too far from where people live; there's not enough teachers. Moreover, families don't see much relevance between what their children are taught and the necessity of finding the "necessary" with which to live. Hence, they won't send their children to school.
In the streets, teenagers learn all sorts of perversions. The street provides an "education" in stealing, drug-taking, drunkenness, indulging in sexual and homosexual practices. The young people are exploited by shady characters. Police sources say they are exploited as drug-pushers and go-betweens in drug- trafficking. Others act as pimps, paedophiles and often end up in jail.
The Archdiocese of Yaounde defines the problem of street children as: "a social irregularity calling for an urgent solution. The nation's authorities must consider finding a solution to the presence of these children "on the streets" as a priority policy". A United Nations Childrens Emergency Fund (UNICEF) report indicates that in 1998 alone, more than 140 children living on the streets in Yaounde were attacked because they had been caught committing crimes (anything from simple theft to armed robbery).
One evening in February 1999, politicians were invited to see an amateur documentary film dealing with the problem of street children. "Children Also Have Rights" is a combined UNICEF-French Cooperation production, and explains in dramatic form, what is meant by life on the streets for those children left on the fringes of society.
The authorities have recently taken a number of decisions to reduce the number of children roaming the streets. This follows various reports produced by the Archdiocese of Yaounde which has been working for a long time to integrate the children back into society. Similar work is carried out by national non-governmental organisations and local UNICEF representatives. In April 1999, following its project "Advancing Childrens Rights in Difficult Situations", UNICEF published a report in which was stated: "The number of street children, left to fend for themselves, is growing every day, and is an obstacle to Cameroon's social development". The report ends by outlining: "necessary measures to be taken to check this thorny problem, measures which include taking care of the children and training them to play a constructive role in the socio-economic life of the nation. For older children, this can be achieved by seeing them through an appropriate apprenticeship so that eventually they can earn their own living. The younger ones must be re-integrated into the main-stream education system".
The Ministry of Social Affairs (MINAS) has just completed the first drive to return street children back to their own areas, and the Minister says she hopes this will continue. During the first two weeks of May, together with about thirty street children, she took the train for the north. The children had come from Adamaoua Province, some 1,000 kilometres from Yaounde, and that was their immediate destination. Special Centres have been established here, providing the children with education appropriate to their needs, and helping them to reinsert themselves into society. Following on this wide-ranging campaign, MINAS organised a conference from 3-5 August 1999 for those in charge of its various departments. The aim was to draw up a national plan for dealing with the problem, and to open information files on matters concerning street children in all the major urban centres. Hopefully, this will enable those responsible to zoom in on the most important needs and take necessary measures.
At the same time, MINAS has just refurbished specialised Centres called "Cameroonian Institutions for Children", for juvenile delinquents. These children left home following the upheaval in the country towards the end of the 1980s. Furthermore, the State wants to ensure that it has a sufficient numbers of well- trained personnel available, who can work with the children and young people placed in their care. To this end, the number of people following the training course for the last two years in the National School of Administration and Law has been increased. MINAS states this is to ensure they are "properly trained for looking after the education of young boys and girls who have been outside the education system for some time; also, to care for juvenile delinquents". On this point, it's especially a matter of providing these young people with such skills as arts and crafts, carpentry, agriculture, animal husbandry.
From 8-10 July 1999, an inter-ministerial committee, widened to include UNICEF experts, NGOs and the civil society, discussed the whole matter. The committee then recommended to the government's national planning committee, that the issue of street children with all its consequences, should be part and parcel of the government's priorities in its crusade against eliminating poverty.
NGOs have zeroed in on the topic of the role of education in development. In a Declaration given to Members of Parliament in their June 1999 budget debate, the NGOs underlined the importance of a clearly defined processus in encouraging the children and young people off the streets. This is achieved in a number of steps: The child must abandon life on the street for more secure surroundings; the child must have a safe place in which to live; the child must have the possibility of returning to his/her family or failing that, be provided with the necessary skills and means to realize an independent and productive way of life. NGO leaders said: "The State and NGOs must complement each other in this work".
Yes, much can be achieved by the NGOs, as they are close to the problem. But they will only succeed if other individuals and groups work alongside them in rescuing the street children from what is best described as an "appalling situation".
END
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PeaceLink 1999 - Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgement