Joe Walker’s Postings

Empowering street children for 2010 and beyond

One of the misconceptions people hold about working with street children is that by building relationships with them and investing in their lives while on the streets you begin to normalise street life and culture for them. This is simply not the case, and this is being demonstrated by the pioneering work of Umthombo Street Children. Children come to the streets from chaotic and destructive back grounds. To choose to live on the streets rather than at home with family and community is not only an inditement on the social system, but shows that children and young people often have little choice but to escape from the harsh realities of poverty, abuse and violence. Umthombo is leading a revolution in providing alternative solutions to street life for children in Durban. Umthombo empowers children to be able to leave street life and return to community life, but through a strategy of building up trust and relationships on the streets with an array of therapeutic programs developed to bring these children through the process of rehabilitation. On my visit to Umthombo this week I've focussed a lot on the impact of 2010 and the World Cup on street children and the work of Umthombo. The 2010 World Cup is a key moment to ensure that a good citywide strategy for street children is being followed in Durban. As I've written in previous entries this week, Umthombo advocates against the use of 'enforcement' strategies such as round-ups by police. Umthombo argues that street children are a social development issue due to the hight level of trauma that children experience while living on the streets. Therefore, Umthombo's Safe Space, a therapeutic drop-in centre for street children, offers specialist mentoring and psycho-social support through a range of programmes to prepare them to return to community life. As part of our partnership with Umthombo, Street Action is investing in Safe Space and committed to continuing supporting the growth and development of the programmes they run to ensure that street children are empowered to seek a way out of street life and are geared towards reintegrating children with their families and/or communities.

I return back to London tomorrow. This has been a short trip but an important one. 2010 is an important moment, but Street Action's partnerships are about long-term relationships. Its a privilege to be here and to be connected to a group of dedicated street children activists here in Durban. Ultimately, its the children who call the streets their home that are the true inspiration and educators, and the reason why I and others continue to stand in solidarity with some of South Africa's most marginalised children.