All My Children

Getting started in a town

To state the obvious, one needs to identify the whereabouts of street children in a town and to try and establish how many there are. The usual places to find them during the day are the supermarkets where they will volunteer to push trolleys, the taxi ranks where they will wash taxis, parking areas where they will offer to wash cars, etc. It is important to remember the five `categories’ because, for instance, although part-time working children are street children, their situation differs from runaways or abandoned children. Part- time working children who attend school and sleep at home in the evenings are not a ‘problem’ as such, although care needs to be taken that they do not become full-time working children or runaways.

`Real’ street children are usually found in town in the evening, around cafés that have video games, in parking areas, the market place or parks where they seek shelter for the night, etc. As their whereabouts are identified, it is important to have one or two active street animators’ to reach the children, preferably young people who are given a basic training combined with in-service training. Their first task is to move around town, to observe the children, to establish personal contact with them and to build a trust relationship. Beware of the temptation to move around with pen and paper since the children could easily become suspicious of your intentions! Street animators should mentally record whatever they observe as well as any other information they feel would be useful and write it down as soon as they reach home.

Ideally, the street animator should become a ‘big brother’ to various groups of children and listen to their problems, joys and needs. As he deals with the children, the street animator must resist the temptation of becoming a ‘Father Christmas‘ to them by organising food, clothing and shelter (despite their obvious needs). A good way of becoming involved with them outside their ‘working hours’ is to facilitate some recreational activities such as soccer among the various groups. A friendly match with a local church youth club in the township could follow. Prior to such an encounter, however, it is important for the street animator and one or two adults to meet with the youth club and to explain the plight of the street children they will be playing against. Such an encounter has the advantage of providing a forum for youth education and prevention programmes.

At the end of the friendly match, the street animator and one or two adults (too many people could make the children feel overpowered) should organise to meet with the street children in a conducive and friendly atmosphere. Since many of the street children come from poor backgrounds, it is preferable that the meeting place be in surroundings familiar to them, such as a house in an African township. Finishing the meeting with a ‘pap en vleis’ meal and some cold-drink usually helps to relax the atmosphere and results in the children coming up with various questions and comments. After the meal, all children are brought back to town where they usually live.

The purpose of the meeting, which should be very informal (without note-taking!), is to listen and to try and identify who the children are:

• What are their names?
• How old are they?
• Where is their home?
• What work do they do?
• What do they eat?
• Where do they sleep (at home or on the street)?
• How far have they reached at school? etc.

The ‘questioning’ will depend very much on the atmosphere prevailing at the meeting. One can also speak about their lives on the street: What are their needs? What is the most difficult part? etc, and other topics as well. Usually, the schooling issue emerges and allows for quite a bit of discussion about their futures. It is not unusual for children to give false information about themselves; it is not that they wish to lie, but it is a protection mechanism for them. As one runaway lad put it to me later: ‘I could not tell you my real name and where I came from, otherwise you would have brought me back to my mother.’ There should be no moralising (`you must go to school’) or advising ( ‘why not go back home?’) — only listening and an unconditional acceptance of the situation of the children as they narrate it.

The next step depends on the objectives one has in meeting the children, besides knowing them better and establishing a first relationship with them. In our situation, the project first concentrates on the younger ones (up to 13-14 years of age) who said they want to carry on with their schooling. The street animator will follow up on these children by inviting them (either two or three at one time) to come and stay in the township for a few days. Subsequently, it is not unusual for other children to ask for help, even though they were not part of the group that visited the township; the ‘good news’ simply spreads by word of mouth.

For want of a better word, the children are brought to what the project calls a ‘transition home‘. Basically, all that is needed is a room to accommodate them with bedding (pillow and blanket), a toilet and shower/bath facilities, and a face towel.

The room can either be in the home or in the yard of the home of the person who will care for them. It needs to be simple but clean and inviting.

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