Street Kids
Life on the Street
50% OF THE POPULATION OF UGANDA ARE AGED 14 OR BELOW. (UNICEF)
71% OF CHILDREN ARE OUT OF SCHOOL AND NOT RECEIVING ANY FORM OF EDUCATION. (UNICEF)
Death is a scar that never heals.
Uganda's Background
- Around 37.6 million people live in Uganda. At present most of them live in rural areas, but cities are growing fast. The capital, Kampala, is home to 1.9 million people.
- Nearly 20 per cent of people still live in poverty.
- 38% of children under the age of five suffer from chronic hunger.
- Many families lack access to health care.
- There are 19.5 million children under the age of 18; around 2.7 million of them have no parental care.
- The country has suffered years of violent conflict and political instability. Although in general terms, the economy has improved in recent years since the discovery of oil and gas, it is still volatile, and the distribution of wealth remains very unequal.
Root Problems
Kids Population
Pop. ages 0-14
Population: 37,6 million
Under 5 Mortality Rate
Life expectancy: 58,7 years
Poverty
- In Uganda, more than a third of all inhabitants live below the poverty line.
- In the Eastern region the number of people living in poverty has increased by over 25% in the past few years. This area is home to small-scale subsistence farmers who have not benefited from the boom in cash crops seen in other areas of the country.
- Nearly 20% of people still live in poverty. Many of these live in rural areas. They mostly survive off farming but are affected by climate changes and they often produce less food than they need to feed their families. Malnutrition is therefore a problem.
- While many families cannot afford health care others have a lack of adequate medical care that remains a problem for many families in Uganda, especially in rural areas. Families may have to travel hours to see a doctor, sometimes even on foot because there is no public transport and they can't afford the cost of a private car to get there. A long journey will often make the illness worse – by the time they reach a doctor it may well be too late.
War & Conflicts
- The Northern and West Nile regions of Uganda are still recovering from 20 years of conflict involving the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Around two million people were displaced because of The conflict , the breakdown of rule of law, massive destruction of infrastructure, economic deprivation and widespread human rights abuses, including the use of child soldiers.
- Since the LRA was forced out of Uganda in 2006, there has been positive progress towards peace and stability, but recovering from the legacy of conflict has many challenges. Many communities depended on aid during the conflict and now face high levels of poverty, low levels of literacy, and have few vocational skills or experience of earning their own living. Currently 49% of people in this region live in poverty – more than double the national average.
- Uganda is now the largest refugee hosting nation in Africa, with over 1 million refugees.
AIDS/HIV
- HIV infections reached epidemic proportions in the 1980s
- Back in the 1980s more than 30% of Ugandans had contracted the HIV virus.
- In the 1990s there was limited access to treatment in the form of anti-retrovirals for those who were HIV positive.
- Around 130,000 Ugandans were infected with the HIV virus every year, according to the Uganda Aids Commission.
- Seropositivity rates rised by about 25%-30% per year since 1988
- By 1996 approximately 1.5 million Ugandans were infected
- In many areas half of adult deaths were caused by HIV.
- Around 400,000-450,000 Ugandans died by 1996 from HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS is associated with the death of about 50% of adults in some areas of Uganda.
- Uganda's virus prevalence has rate from 15% in 1991 to 7.3 percent today.
The Most Vulnerables
War
AIDS/HIV
Education
Poverty
HealthCare
Marriage
Hunger
Diseases
Being Invisible
Schooling
We are feed up of...
coldness,being beated,hunger,getting sick and not being able to go to doctor,neither buy medicines.Being dirty,people not even staring at us and when they do it many times is to mistreat us,begging,working soo hard for food or little little money,dissapearing.....
Those are the most common answers to "why do you want to leave the streets?" question.
Those are the most common answers to "why do you want to leave the streets?" question.
Challenges on the Street
Street children become extraordinarily resourceful and resilient in order to survive. They form and function to satisfy a much needed sense of ‘belonging’ for children without families or other support systems, and are accordingly trapped in cycles of criminal activity and violence. At one point or another, many turn to substance or drug abuse in order to endure the harshness of the streets, whether that be starvation, threat of violence, sex trafficking or hazardous weather conditions (extreme cold, rain storms, etc.).
Street children are lovely blossoms just dropped from the tree after a heavy storm. Now they need to be put together with a needle and threads of security and shelter to live into a beautiful circle of life’s garland.
Overlooked by society, street children are at best disregarded and at worst dehumanized. Because they lack identification documents, street children are often targeted in ways that perpetuate gross abuses of human rights. Most street children are subjected to, or at a minimum have witnessed, unreported brutality (shootings, chain whippings, sexual violence). Others have been forcibly removed from the streets by police officers in ‘round-ups’ and taken to ‘youth detention centers’.
In order to feed themselves, many children will work in unsafe and exploitative environments that expose them to the dangers of child labour, sex slavery and human trafficking.
In Uganda, the prevalence of witchcraft also makes street children targets for kidnappings and child sacrifice rituals.
For ‘unregistered’ children (those lacking proof of birth or identity), all are susceptible to abduction in one form or another because there is no proof of the child’s existence before their disappearance.
Thousands of children are living on the streets of Kampala and the number increases every day. These children are abandoned, rejected, segregated and socially excluded by the society. Still, they have goals, ambitions and dreams in life.
When no one else believes in them, our ambition is to empower, encourage & support them.
These children are our next generation,the most resilient and powerfull a country can have if we give them the option just TO BE
In order to feed themselves, many children will work in unsafe and exploitative environments that expose them to the dangers of child labour, sex slavery and human trafficking.
In Uganda, the prevalence of witchcraft also makes street children targets for kidnappings and child sacrifice rituals.
For ‘unregistered’ children (those lacking proof of birth or identity), all are susceptible to abduction in one form or another because there is no proof of the child’s existence before their disappearance.
Thousands of children are living on the streets of Kampala and the number increases every day. These children are abandoned, rejected, segregated and socially excluded by the society. Still, they have goals, ambitions and dreams in life.
When no one else believes in them, our ambition is to empower, encourage & support them.
These children are our next generation,the most resilient and powerfull a country can have if we give them the option just TO BE