The celebration of the first International Day for Street Children on Tuesday (April 12) should provide an important opportunity to bring to light the need to address the plight of these homeless, vulnerable children around the world, says the director of a U.K.-based non-governmental organization focused on helping street children.
“Street children have been discriminated against for too long, and we have an opportunity to change this if we listen to them and those working with them, and adopt integrated approaches to tackle their needs and to share good practice,” Joe Walker, director of Street Action, writes on the Guardian’s “Poverty Matters” blog.
Walker notes that international policy priorities and programming continue to exclude the rights and protection of street children. He suggests that governments, NGOs and policymakers accord the same importance to the protection and right to care of children as they do to the right to survival, health and education.
He adds that local practitioners, activists and former and current street children also need to take actions as they are the “real agents of change.”
Walker also dismisses a Eurocentric approach to addressing the problems of street children.
He explains: “I believe that partnerships between NGOs in the global north, greater co-operation and collaboration, and – most important – empowering those in the south to drive the agenda is the only way to see fundamental and constructive change. Our part is to partner and work with those on the ground, to help provide guidance for constructive and meaningful responses that might prevent the repetition of mistakes and misguided actions we have all experienced.”
Read more development aid news.
