street childrenunfinished Essays - Street Children, Childhood

A street child is a young person, under the age of fifteen, who lives and sleeps in the streets, whose family ties are broken and who can't or won't return home. Street children live in the streets without their families. Each child has to learn how to survive alone, since no adult takes responsibility of them. Often they are very young and completely ignored by their families. These children don't like to be called as "street children". They live, or rather struggle to survive, they are usually in the downtown area, near stations and shopping malls, places, which are lit up at night or in garbage dumps, in railway stations or under bridges in most major cities of developing countries around the world. To avoid being caught, street children are the last to go to sleep and the first to get up: that's why they're often worn out, and can be found sleeping during the day. They group together at night. Amongst children in the street, there are; children who work, children from slums, runaways and delinquents. Other children may spend most of their time in the street, but maintain certain link to their families. The distinction between these two categories is not always clear, but it is important. Two separate social groups definitely exist. Some countries even deny the existence of the phenomenon, in order to minimize the problem or simply because the society is sincerely ignorant of this, hidden issue. Frightened of institutions where they are poorly treated, children don't want to be known or recognized. However, this is an inevitable phenomenon that there are lots of children working and living in the streets and it has been a major concern for most of the countries in the world. It is an universal phenomena. In order