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The needs of children working and living on the streets of Johannesburg were amplified at a one-day summit at which they were given a platform for the first time. And the City realised giving shelter and food is not enough.
Johannesburg's junior mayor, Thandeka Shongwe (Photo: Enoch Lehung, City of Johannesburg)
VULNERABLE children living on Joburg's streets and in city shelters shared their deepest traumas - but also their biggest dreams - at a one-day summit for vulnerable children. In turn, childcare workers and City officials listened carefully and made comprehensive notes.
The City of Johannesburg, its partners and about 180 children from 12 shelters put their heads together to find solutions to children working and living on the street.
Held at the Metro Centre in Braamfontein, the summit helped to find out more about the needs and circumstances of these children, and to consider the role the City and its partners could play in furthering and improving their prospects.
The summit was an expressed outcome of the Inner City Regeneration Charter. Most homeless children come from traumatic personal and family circumstances and either run away to live on the street, or voluntarily seek shelter in homes and institutions.
Junior Mayor Thandeka Shongwe opened the summit, held on National Children's Day on 3 November. She said the City's Student Council wanted programmes to be extended to the many children living with their families in deprived and abusive circumstances.
Most of the children who participated in the summit – 70 percent – live in shelters. And a report coming out of it noted that there was a lack of representation from children living on the street without any institutional help. This group still needed to be reached. The children from this group who attended the summit were all boys.
It is estimated that about 1 000 children live on the street or in shelters. But, says Dikeledi Mashigo, the operational manager of the City's childcare and development unit, growing numbers of people, both young and old, are living on the streets, showing that homelessness is increasing among all age groups.
Non-physical needs
The message that came out of the summit was clear - giving shelter to these children was not enough. Many of the children in shelters seemed to receive adequate physical care in the form of shelter, clothing, food and schooling. But their emotional and vocational needs were not being catered for satisfactorily.
Two breakaway sessions took place: in the first the children spoke freely about their experiences. All made "similar comments about their situations, and identified [similar] difficulties and shared aspirations for future improvements". Difficulties included being subjected to further abuse by so-called caregivers, constantly facing danger, being bored because of a lack of recreational facilities and peer pressure to use drugs and alcohol and engage in prostitution.
It also emerged that they found the term "street children" stigmatised them; they, in turn, saw themselves only as "ordinary human beings".
Despite the difficulties they experienced, the majority indicated that they preferred living in shelters to their own homes. "Many children acknowledged that the shelters were safer than their homes and that they were receiving an education," the report noted.
A small minority of the children came from loving but poor families or had terminally ill parents, and they felt unable to return home. These children indicated the need for education and skills training as they wanted to return to their families.
The second session consisted of practitioners from shelters and other delegates made up of City councillors, Johannesburg metro police, members of the Student Council, the provincial government's social development department, faith-based organisations, emergency management services and libraries.
Strengthening partnerships so that identified goals could be achieved was discussed. The City committed itself to improving its database of vulnerable persons; the shelter forum of the inner city would be strengthened so that shelters could share learning and support each other; and the City's housing plan would look at accommodating vulnerable children on a more permanent basis.
The City also intended to introduce at shelters a range of capacity building and step-down programmes in consultation with social organisations.
Dreaming of a brighter future
Like children the world over, these youngsters have dreams and aspirations, but given the many adversities they have to overcome, they often lose all hope. In addition, almost all the children seem to have issues with trust and struggle with poor self-esteem, expressed in different ways - mistrusting their families, childcare workers, teachers and even other children.
Helping them emotionally and psychologically would be a priority, the report noted.
But while everyone had a different sad story to tell, they shared a common vision: they wanted pocket money; they wanted to play sport and participate in typical teenage fun; they wanted to live ordinary lives.
More so, summit delegates heard, "they all express great ambition to transcend their circumstances through educational and work opportunities".
A number of recommendations were adopted during the summit. "Some things are already being done [by the City] but [they need] to be improved," Mashigo confirmed.
For the children:
- Ongoing group therapy sessions;
- Access to recreational facilities;
- Access to information about child-friendly City resources;
- Vocational counselling and training;
- Monitoring of schools attended by these children; and
- Assisting with transport difficulties.
For councillors, childcare workers and parents:
- Careful childcare worker selection;
- Support groups and training for caregivers;
- A monitoring system to stop abuse by these people; and
- A support structure for stressed parents.
The report cautioned that continued commitment was needed "so that this summit day does not become part of the trauma of these vulnerable children, opening up their feelings, raising expectations and [then] not delivering, thereby entrenching a sense of cynicism and a sense of being unimportant and not seen or heard".
The summit was organised by the City's human development unit, in partnership with inner city shelters, the Johannesburg Association for Street Children and the Gauteng Alliance for Street Children.
Participating shelters were Home Of Hope; Usindiso Shelter; Emmanuel House; The House; New Life Centre; Khakibos; Othandweni; Igugulesizwe; New Ventures; Siyophila; Twilight and Christian Care Centre.
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