They think we are children with a ‘street-mind’: Report on participatory workshops with children living on the streets of Durban

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They think we are children with a ‘street-mind’: Report on participatory workshops with children living on the streets of Durban

Thousands of children live on Southern Africa’s city streets. These children have commonly been referred to as ‘street children’. Although South African NGOs and human rights organizations asked for this phrase to be rejected as negative labelling during revision of the Child Care Act it has been retained but a specific description has been appended.1 The children arrive on the streets due to a perceptible array of social problems, most of which tend to be directly or indirectly attributed to poverty. However, social research and especially studies on child labour, have shown that families do not necessarily collapse under the stress of undefined ‘poverty,’ nor are children from poor families inevitably abused, abandoned or discarded; cultural understandings have been little explored in relation to this phenomenon (Ennew and Swart-Kruger 2003).

The African report on child wellbeing: How child-friendly are African governments? - Zimbabwe

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The African report on child wellbeing: How child-friendly are African governments? - Zimbabwe

The African Report on Child Wellbeing provides an insight into the wellbeing of children in Africa and assesses the extent to which governments meet their obligations, through a ground-breaking Childfriendliness Index – developed by The African Child Policy Forum (ACPF). The Government of Zimbabwe ranked 37th in the Child-friendliness Index out of the 52 African governments covered in the assessment. This was mainly for two reasons: first, as a result of the Government of Zimbabwe not putting in place appropriate legal provisions to protect children against abuse and exploitation; and secondly, because of lower commitment in allocating adequate share of the national budget to provide for the basic needs of children. However it did show some success in achieving relatively favourable wellbeing outcomes as reflected on children themselves.

Home truths: Facing the facts on children, AIDS, and poverty

Home truths: Facing the facts on children, AIDS, and poverty

Final report of the Joint Learning Initiative on Children and HIV/AIDS (JLICA)

The global fight against hiv and aids has changed the nature of public health action and the world’s expectations of what such action can achieve. But the aids fight has short-changed children. For more than a quarter-century, affected children have remained peripheral to the aids response by governments and their international partners. This report makes the case for redirecting the response to hiv and aids to address children’s needs more effectively. Drawing on the best body of evidence yet assembled on children affected by aids, it shows where existing approaches have gone off track and what should now be done, how, and by whom.