DROP-IN CENTRES IN BASRAH & NASIRIYAH, IRAQ
In the cities of southern Iraq, there are thousands of children who have dropped out of school, and who support themselves and sometimes their families by a combination of selling fruit and lollies, petty criminality and begging. There are also children living on the streets.
These youngsters, mostly boys but often girls too, are from homes broken by the first Gulf War, or orphaned by the second, or cast out because of the economic pressures of sanctions. Education does not feature in their lives, and the law preventing under-age working was abandoned in 2003 because of the desperate economic climate.
Furthermore, a day in the life of a child on the streets offers the brutal reality of crime, bloody violence, sexual abuse and widely available narcotics.
What is War Child doing to help?
War Child has just launched drop-in centres in Iraq to offer these street children another way to get off the street and to get the street out of their lives. These centres in Basrah and Nasiriyah are safe havens for these children and are being run in conjunction with a local Non-Government Organisation Nidaí il-Tifl (Call of the Child) and co-funded by UNICEF.
In these drop-in centres children can play sports, exercise, develop practical skills such as mechanics and learn about the dangers of the street. Children with addiction problems can receive counselling and children deeply traumatised by their experiences can benefit from the centre's staff who have been equipped with psychosocial training.
War Child Australia has donated $18,000 towards the running of these centres. These funds were raised from the Australian children's music CD, Hand in Hand CD released by Shock Records in October 2004.
"It's important to reach beyond the politics of the conflict in Iraq,
and to realise that there are five-year-olds there approaching motorists and
begging to dip rags into their petrol tanks so they can take them away and
sniff them," says War Child Australia Chair, Nick Earls. "There are childhoods
in crisis, and no one's war is with these children. 'Hand in Hand' is allowing
us to make a difference in their lives."
WORKING WITH CHIDREN IN DETENTION IN AFGHANISTAN
The situation for children in Afghanistan remains highly problematic even two years after the cessation of full hostilities. In Western Afghanistan, continuing insecurity and lack of economic development is creating a narco-economy into which children - particularly those from poorer rural families - are drawn. For many of these children, the outcome of involvement is arrest and detention. There is still no juvenile justice service in Western Afghanistan and such children are routinely held in a detention centre (within the adult prison) where they are subjected to considerable risk of abuse. Those children whose release from detention is secured are often rejected by their families and return to a semi-criminal livelihood, which leads to continuing marginalisation and abuse.
It is evident that the issues facing this particular group of vulnerable children are closely linked to the continuing impacts of the conflict in Afghanistan and the continuing insecurity and uncertainty that besets it. In particular the exponential growth of the opium trade, the lack of appropriate services and, perhaps most damaging, the collapse of social networks that formerly would have provided these children with support, guidance and opportunities can all be traced back to the consequences of years of conflict and its attendant displacements and dislocations.
What is War Child doing to help?
"No family but the wolves, no home but the street" is a War Child program that will see staff working with these children to identify effective ways of supporting them, and to build a network of supporting partners and institutions with which it will advocate for systemic changes that will see their rights as children respected.
War Child Australia has committed approximately $24,000 to the first phase of this project.
"These children are becoming criminalised in order to survive in a world that offers them few alternatives," says War Child Australia Chair, Nick Earls. "They are highly vulnerable, and detention is a step that can lead to them becoming marginalised and abused. We want to work with them and with local authorities to see the development of a system that recognises them as children first, and takes their needs as children into account."
ABOUT HAND IN HAND
Hand in Hand is a CD for kids! It features songs donated by many of Australia's best-loved children's entertainers including Hi-5, Nikki Webster, Rolf Harris and Peter Combe. Hand in Hand was released by Shock Records on 11 October 2004. $5 from every Hand in Hand CD goes directly towards War Child's fieldwork.
Shock Records is immensely pleased with the public reaction to Hand In Hand,
as well as the artists' support for the project.
Read more about Hand in Hand.
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