I'm a child
A street child
The pavements were my cradle,
now they are my bed
The street is my mother,
my life,
my everything,
good and evil
Though I hate her
I can't live without her
With all my heart and soul
I'm a street child

Street children usually have ambiguous feelings towards their life on the street. On the one hand their life is tough and the children are exposed to many dangers and problems. They often undergo aggression and violence and have to cope with many strenuous circumstances in their continuous struggle to survive. On the other hand they cling to the street: they enjoy their freedom and they live an adventurous life with friends of their age. Moreover, the street is all they have left. It's their life, their home, their family. They created their own little world, which is quite often miles away from the society it was created in. This society often does not care about them anyway. This is why street kids should not be considered as helpless miserable victims. They manage their own lives and their own environment. They are independent and able to take care of themselves, which makes them capable of surviving one day after another, sometimes using all the inventiveness they possess.


Independence

One of the main reasons why street kids stick to the streets is the sense of freedom. Street kids are used to this freedom, since quite often it is all they have and therefore the one thing they really don't want to lose.

Apart from addiction to drugs, this addiction to freedom is one of the main reasons why street kids find it difficult to adapt themselves to a more structured life, like an orphanage or refuge centre. To leave the life in the streets for a life in a home is not easy: the child is not used to living within a limited space, surrounded by four walls, with strict rules, regulations and timing. It often considers this kind of life as a loss of its sole possession: freedom. It is one of the many reasons why the child often goes back to the streets and why many children cannot cope with a stay in a centre.


Health

Living on the streets is devastating for one's health. First of all, the effects of drug abuse are of great importance, but street kids have much more health problems. An irregular, unbalanced and inadequate food supply and lack of hygiene make these children very sensitive towards infections and mildew. Many street kids have flees and lice. Through sexual abuse and prostitution, many children become infected with HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases.


Education

As was already mentioned, street kids usually fall through the cracks of the social system set up by the society to protect its children. Street kids often did not grow up within a family structure and do not attend school. Street children often consider school as being important and regret that they cannot obtain a proper education, but it is hard to combine the life on the streets with education within the structure of the educational system. There are some children that manage to combine a job with attending school or work on the streets in order to be able to pay for education. Still, attending school usually becomes increasingly difficult for children who have to work, since being at school also means losing a part of the time to obtain the income they need.
The main problem in this situation at this time is the inadequacy of the school system concerning the flexibility towards the destitute children. Since schools are usually not concerned about the situation the children are living in, this often leads to the exclusion of these children from the educational system. It is clear that street kids do not fit within the current educational system… or we could say that the current educational system is not suited to the reality of the street kids. Therefore, adapted and mobile education is an alternative that deserves further effort.


Street gangs

Street kids are rarely alone. It is extremely difficult to survive on the streets when you are on your own; even more so at a very young age or as a girl. Belonging to a street gang can offer an important mechanism for survival in a hostile environment. Moreover, street kids only have the solidarity between children as a replacement of the secure environment offered by a family. The street gang ensures protection, support and companionship and teaches the newbies how to survive on the streets. The members of such groups take care of each other and provide amusement, adventure and exhilaration. The gang develops its own system of moral values and the children, who did not belong to any group any more, are once again becoming part of a society: the society of the street. They have their own regulations and rules and quite often develop their own language (dialect). Thanks to their common adventures, the members of such a gang become very close. In contrast to this, street gangs can provide a harsh environment to live in. Many gangs developed violent rites for the initiation of newbies and members who act against the particular gang's rules are often punished with brutalities. Older members usually ask for obedience in exchange for protection and there is a strict hierarchy. Moreover, various gangs are often in conflict and fight each other.


Sexual exploitation

Quite often the only way to obtain some money or food for young girls that are living on the streets is going into prostitution. These cheap prostitutes sell themselves for a hamburger or a night in a cheap hotel. They are often victims of sexual abuse within their gang, on the streets or even by the police. Many street kids have been sexually abused within their family and left their homes for this reason. But also boys are victim of sexual violence or sell their bodies in order to at least obtain some income.


Drugs

In order to cope with the hunger, the cold and their fears, many street kids use drugs. It might seem to be a paradox, but the survival on the streets is even harsher without drugs. Drugs have many purposes for street kids and can be considered as being part of their strategy for survival, an evil they cannot live without. Glue can be used to allay your hunger; the cold feels less painful and sorrows and pain are alleviated. In the mean time these drugs are slow killers. Street kids cannot afford expensive quality drugs, but only the cheap ones like glue. They sniff the glue through their nose and mouth and this is very harmful for ones health. The end result is often permanent damage to amongst others lungs, kidneys and the nervous system.


Violence

After they have experienced violence within their family, children are often confronted with extreme violence and aggression on the streets. There is the usual violence in the cities and quite often within their own gangs. Violent conflicts between gangs occur frequently. The most distressing form of violence however is the one coming directly from society and which is aimed explicitly towards these children. Many citizens of a society wish for the removal of street kids: they are considered a nuisance by vendors, since they could hinder shoppers and spoil the pleasant atmosphere of shopping streets. Street kids are kicked, beaten, abused, raped and murdered. Sometimes children are beaten or murdered “officially”, by for example the military or civil police.

Their only crime is that they are street children.

Street kids are not pitiful! On the other hand they do have to cope with many problems and are subjected to many dangers. The streets offers a harsh environment to live in and growing up on the streets is a constant struggle for survival.