Day care centers for street children First Children’s Embassy in the World “Megjasi” says that day-care centers are with temporary nature and that although they mean much to the children, they are not the solution to the problem of street children.
Outside from the raising process, all day on the streets, insufficiently fed, without health care and with no real child's play. This is the picture of those kids that we meet daily on the streets of cities in the country. According to estimates of non-governmental organizations around the state, about 2.000 children every day are begging, washing car windows and sell in the open. Experts say it portrays the miserable life of the Gypsy population and the general public doesn’t see that it is child trafficking. Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs over the years is trying to improve the situation and to establish centers for children on the street in which they will be cared for, receive educational services, receiive counseling work, entertainment and recreational services.
Since the First Children Embassy in the World Megjashi say that day care centers have a temporary character, and that although they mean much to children, they are not the solution to the problem of street children.
- In day care centers children adopt basic hygiene habits, are literated and are encouraged to start primary education. After leaving the center they are again left to the street and are pressed by the existential needs and demands by their parents, so they have to work, sell sundries or beg, which violates their fundamental rights - explains Dragi Zmijanac, Director of the the First Children’s Embassy in the World Megjashi.
He added that if the street children are included in school process, they will be part of the educational process and will have other habits and needs, which means that they will have to meet school daily duties. But as Zmijanac considers, these centers are not solution to their problems.
Dusko Minovski, former State Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy says that in these day care centers is one type of prevention of labor or sexual exploitation.
- During the day in these centers are cared between 30 and 50 children and are taught basic hygiene habits, as well as basic educational principles. There they receive two meals a day and watch movies. In the future we plan to include the families of these children, which would impose parental responsibility to them. Ninety percent of children we find in the streets are Gypsy children. There is no doubt that for a day care for about 2,000 street children in the country more centers should be established, involving local authorities in the process- Minovski added.
He says that for a children day care center to function normally it takes four or five teachers.
Ministry of Labour and Social Policy one month ago in Bitola opened day care center for street children, a project realized with the support of the Italian Embassy, UNICEF Office in Skopje and Bitola municipality. This is the third day care center for street children that is opened in Macedonia. The other two centers are located in Skopje, in areas of Avtokomanda and Kisela Voda.
Mr. Xhelal Bajrami, Minister of Labour and Social Policy, said that such centers will be opened in other cities throughout the country, as Prilep, Ohrid as well as new transit center for street children in Skopje.
- In Skopje soon shall be opened twenty-four-hour transit center for street children. Children who will be caught on the street will be placed in the transit center and with their parents we will discuss the reasons for their constant presence on the street. If it happens that they are again on the street, legal measures will be taken against their parents, including revocation of parental rights - Bajrami pointed at the opening of the center in Bitola.
Street children are extremely vulnerable and are often subject to the people who use them for begging, for sexual exploitation, forced labor or organs removal. In Macedonia there is no real assessment of this phenomenon, yet.
The street children are spending most of their time on the streets. In the literature there is a distinction between children on the streets and street children. Children on the streets spend most of the time on the streets during day-time and in the evening they are returning home to spend the night. Street children are those who constantly live on the street and spend all the day and night there.
These street children are working all sorts of things that can be legal or illegal. Under legal things it means selling items, washing windows, car keeping. As work of these children is often forced it represents clear child labor exploitation. Illegal things are begging, selling drugs, prostitution, theft and other crimes.
Children who are left to the street are divided into several groups such as orphans, children with one parent, children of divorced parents and children with disturbed family relations. In Macedonia street children are from all ages and nationalities, but the most are Gypsies and are represented by about 58 percent at age 7 to 14 years, 58.5 percent manifest socially unacceptable behavior, and 11.5 per cent have a tolerant behavior. Abuse of child labor means children that are working under the age determined by Law. Child labor is not just physical work but is also commercial sexual exploitation such as prostitution and child pornography, child trafficking and child soldiers.
The state has committed to provide conditions for respecting rights and protection of children on the basis of signed and ratified international documents on human rights and freedoms.
Translated by Tamara Koljozova,
volunteer at First Children’s Embassy in the World Megjashi
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