Informative paper on street children in Brazil. Check out the other posts to get a better understanding. Or just read this one. :)
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/arhipgeo86
Don't fear the length. Just engulf yourself in it. :)
B. Psychological/Mental Problems
As mentioned above, psychological problems also affect street children. “Brazilian street children live in daily fear of the police, state children’s asylums, anonymous kidnappers, death squads, and (more fantastically) imagined child-and-organ stealers. In all, their lives are characterized by a profound sense of insecurity,” (Scheper-Hughes, & Hoffman, 1994). This continuous sense of fear and insecurity leads to a restless lifestyle characterized by substance abuse, which helps children leave the realm of reality and numb the pain, and by violence in order to survive. Stigmatization by the public is a contributor also. “Adults’ negative interpretations of the lifestyle and hostile, condemnatory response to street children would seem to make it almost impossible for them to retain healthy self-esteem” (Roux, & Smith, 1998). A low self-esteem makes it hard for anyone to move forward, let alone street children who lack the social support, education, and any monetary allowances to fall back on.
C. Physical Problems
1. Nutrition/ Common Diseases
There is an abundance of physical problems associated with being a street child. One physical problem arises from a lack of adequate nutrition. Some street children do in fact get enough food (quantity); however, the food is not nutritious (quality). Malnutrition, anemia, and vitamin deficiencies are rampant among street children. One study finds that “street children were developmentally behind their peers [non-street children] with regard to body mass and physical growth indices. The foregoing findings support the prevalent notion that street children lack adequate nutrition in early childhood and that the deficiency manifests itself fully in adolescence,” (D’Abreu, Mullis, & Cook, 2001). This study shows the contrast between the have and the have-nots at a nutritional level.
Common diseases, which could easily be prevented if basic needs were met, also are abundant among street children. These include tuberculosis, skin diseases, dental problems, and parasitic diseases. (Working with Street Children, 2000). These problems could easily be avoided if the public took into consideration the needs of street children when making decisions in the community.
2. Sexual Related Physical Problems
“Food and affection exchanged for sex is common among Brazilian street kids, the majority of whom are initiated into sex by nine or ten years of age in the big cities”,(Scheper-Hughes, & Hoffman, 1994). The street girls, who are victims of a lack of education and of men who refuse to use condoms, “enlarge the statistics of the two million girls and adolescents who get pregnant each year. They are forced to use the most rudimentary forms of abortion. Or they become child-mothers, without the means to educate their children”, (Soares, 1996). Sexual intercourse with different partners brings on sexual and reproductive health problems for street children and for the public. Sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS, unwanted pregnancies, and unsafe abortions are a few of the physical problems associated with sex. These physical problems are more abundant among street children since they are usually the victims of sexual predation. Children having children of their own brings on even more problems, enlarging the population that is living in poverty and whose needs are not being met. In just a few years, those babies will become street children themselves and endure the same physical, psychological, and social problems that their parents are facing, if nobody decides to help them.
3. Violence/Physical Abuse
If sexual abuse is not bad enough, the street children have to deal with physical abuse as well, which sometimes leads to death. “Because of their drug use, predatory crimes, and general unacceptability on urban thoroughfares, street children have frequently been the targets of local vigilante groups, drug gangs, and police “death squads”,”(Inciardi, & Surratt, 1997). As stated before, the public view of street children in many countries, including Brazil, is overwhelmingly negative. The public has often supported efforts to get these children off the street, even though they may result in police round ups, or even murder. (“Street Children,” 2006). An example of one of the most notorious death squad killings of street children occurred in 1993 in Rio de Janeiro. Fifty homeless youths were sleeping in the grounds of Candelia Cathedral in downtown Rio de Janeiro, when a group of gunmen drove up and began shooting. Eight children died in all, and eight others were shot, but survived. Three members of the military police were arrested for the crimes, and it is said that the shootings occurred due to an earlier incident in the day in which the children had allegedly thrown rocks at the police after one youth was arrested (detained) for drug use. (Inciardi, & Surratt, 1997). This was a case of “private justice”. Private justice is what respectable citizens and police officers call the killing of street children. They believe that they are acting to protect themselves and society because they believe that they are under assault from violent and dangerous juveniles. (Jensen, 1996). This shows that the public and even authority figures, who should be trustworthy, are one of the reasons why street children encounter physical problems.
Brazil’s Protective Child Statute holds that children under the age of eighteen may not be arrested unless they are caught committing a crime at that time. This makes the ideal scouts for the drug gangs. However, drug gang members often kill street children because they may end up knowing too much or getting in the way of crossfire. (Inciardi, & Surratt, 1997). This is yet another way that street children face physical, psychological, and social problems.
It seems that violence is a way of life for many street children: a life from which escape proves to be difficult. Living on the streets would be challenging for anyone, but when a child lives on the streets, psychological, physical, and social problems could take a much harder toll on them. Regardless of these ailments, street children learn to deal with being on the streets in many different ways: good and bad.
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