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INTRODUCTION
A great deal has been written defining street children, but the primary difficulty is that there are no precise categories, but rather a continuum, ranging from children who spend some time in the streets and sleep in a house with ill-prepared adults, to those who live entirely in the streets and have no adult supervision or care. The intent of this paper is to provide an overview of street kidism as an emerging issue. To achieve the above objective; the paper will set out to define the concept street kid, give a brief history, the causes ,effects, stakeholder interventions (Government and Non-governmental organizations-NGO’s), challenges met, the achievements scored and further give recommendations.
The definition of ‘street children’ is contested, but many practitioners and policy makers use United Nations International Children Fund’s (UNICEF) concept of boys and girls aged under 18 for whom ‘the street’ has become home or their source of livelihood, and who are inadequately protected and supervised (UNICEF, 1985).
UNICEF further combines the two categories and says, “Street children” is a term often used to describe both children who work in the streets and markets of cities selling or begging and live with their families and those homeless street children who work, live and sleep in the streets, often lacking any contact with their families.
According to the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services, a street child is any person aged less than 21 years who spends time, day, or night on the street to earn a livelihood or for material gain. Street children live in junk boxes, parts, or on the street itself.
HISTORY OF STREET KIDISM IN ZAMBIA
Street Kidism is not a new or modern phenomenon. Orphaned and abandoned children have been a source of misery from the earliest times. Street kidism in Zambia has been there even before independence but it became pronounced only in 1992 after the Movement for Multi Party Democracy (MMD)
A great deal has been written defining street children, but the primary difficulty is that there are no precise categories, but rather a continuum, ranging from children who spend some time in the streets and sleep in a house with ill-prepared adults, to those who live entirely in the streets and have no adult supervision or care. The intent of this paper is to provide an overview of street kidism as an emerging issue. To achieve the above objective; the paper will set out to define the concept street kid, give a brief history, the causes ,effects, stakeholder interventions (Government and Non-governmental organizations-NGO’s), challenges met, the achievements scored and further give recommendations.
The definition of ‘street children’ is contested, but many practitioners and policy makers use United Nations International Children Fund’s (UNICEF) concept of boys and girls aged under 18 for whom ‘the street’ has become home or their source of livelihood, and who are inadequately protected and supervised (UNICEF, 1985).
UNICEF further combines the two categories and says, “Street children” is a term often used to describe both children who work in the streets and markets of cities selling or begging and live with their families and those homeless street children who work, live and sleep in the streets, often lacking any contact with their families.
According to the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services, a street child is any person aged less than 21 years who spends time, day, or night on the street to earn a livelihood or for material gain. Street children live in junk boxes, parts, or on the street itself.
HISTORY OF STREET KIDISM IN ZAMBIA
Street Kidism is not a new or modern phenomenon. Orphaned and abandoned children have been a source of misery from the earliest times. Street kidism in Zambia has been there even before independence but it became pronounced only in 1992 after the Movement for Multi Party Democracy (MMD)