As dusk fell on the northern Chinese city of Zhengzhou, a
13-year-old boy huddled against the February cold on a steam grate,
waiting for another aimless day to break. Without a place to call
home, Zhou Ning made a bed out of a cotton quilt spread out on the
pavement in front of the Henan provincial capital's railway
station.
When the street crept back to life amid the first horns of
passing vehicles, Zhou got dressed, folded the quilt into a corner
and relieved himself a few yards away in full view of the public.
He then dodged the traffic and made his way towards a back alley
foodstall for what he called breakfast a bowl of watery soup spiced
up with chilli and soy-sauce and two deep-fried dough sticks, all
at a cost of one yuan (US$12?cents). Seemingly content with
the meal, he swiftly fished out a pack of cigarettes from his
pocket, lit one and puffed his way into another desperate,
purposeless day.
This was a snapshot of a street child's life as captured by a
CCTV news programme on the plight of homeless children.
Zhou Ning is one of 150,000 homeless children roaming the
country's urban streets, according to a Ministry of Civil Affairs
estimate.
Children leave their homes for different reasons. Poverty is
presumably the greatest single cause of homelessness, with children
of rural and migrant families escaping from the harsh conditions in
the rural areas. Others are survivors of dysfunctional families,
domestic violence and traumatic abuse.
Street children are exposed to violence, abuse, exploitation and
poor sanitation. Many resort to crime like Zhou Ning, who survives
on petty theft.
The traditional approach to managing street children has been to
pick them up, place them in a shelter for a while and then send
them back to their families. But many children end up on the
streets again because their families are devoid of either the
financial ability or sense of responsibility to care for them.
Assisted by the United Nations Children's Fund, China has
devised a comprehensive rehabilitation model for street children
that comprises drop-in centres, university student volunteers'
out-reach programmes and residential and foster care projects.
Zhengzhou is one of the first few Chinese cities to introduce
foster care families that house and feed street children and
provide them with counselling and healthcare.
But to enable these children to grow up to become contributing
members of society, we need to go beyond what we are now doing. The
ultimate answer to the social integration of street children lies
in education.
Every child on the street has the same right to education as
every other school-age youth in this country. That is their
fundamental right.
Given the developmental delays experienced by street children
when compared to their peers in a normal schooling system, we
should strive for an alternative regime that will create a
nurturing environment in which street children could receive their
education along with counselling, mental and physical health
services and maybe even meals, clothes and other supplies.
Such schools could help reduce the stigma of homelessness seen
in mainstream institutions, too, and prevent taunts and teasing
from classmates.
Education may have different purposes for different people. For
street children, the purpose of education should be to heal the
wounds inflicted by homelessness, give them the knowledge and
skills they will need in adulthood to earn a living, and instil in
them moral and cultural qualities that are essential for them to
become contributing members of society.
(China Daily March 3, 2006)