'Street cleaning' with one eye on the World Cup

As I write, I'm preparing for another journey to South Africa to visit Street Action's partner Umthombo Street Children. I hope this blog will inform, encourage debate, educate and give readers more insight into the development of our partnerships that are based on relationships and trust. My journey will begin in Johannesburg. There I shall be meeting with some of the people who worked on the ground-breaking research which we'll be launching this year. I shall then travel down to Durban to re-connect with friends and colleagues in the Umthombo team in Durban to experience and learn about the many changes, challenges and developments that have occurred over the past year.

Only this morning was I reminded of the urgency of Umthombo's work as an article published in South Africa's Mail and Guardian describes the ongoing practice of 'street cleaning' exercised by eThekwini metro police who argue that street children are a safety and security issue rather than a social one. Clink on the link to read the article: http://bit.ly/86S9Wp

I hope you'll follow the daily updates of stories and video diary as we stand in solidarity with our partner Umthombo in this World Cup year that could either be an opportunity or crisis for Durban's street children.

About

Joe is co-founder and director of Street Action ( www.streetaction.org ). Street Action was established in 2007 in the UK to support and work in partnership with pioneering street children organisations in Africa. Joe has worked alongside street children activists since 1996 when he first traveled to South Africa. Since then he has worked with a number of pioneering street children projects and activists in South Africa as well as traveling to other Southern and Eastern African countries. Studying a degree in Politics and obtaining a Masters in Development Studies and African Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), he has worked in the field of international development and also local community development in the UK. In 2010 he was made a research associate at the The University of London's Centre of African Studies, based at SOAS. Joe is co-author of Including Street Children (2011), a research report looking at the situation of street children in Durban, South Africa. His work has taken him to a number of countries in Southern and Eastern Africa, as well as India. He's also spent time in the United States traveling to San Francisco as well as New York and Washington DC to expand Street Action's advocacy, policy and research work. Joe currently lives in London, United Kingdom.

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