17 June 2011
AFRICAN governments should strengthen support systems that provide the basis for a more protective environment in families and communities to keep children safe, said the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).
Marking the 21st annual Day of the African Child celebrated yesterday, Unicef executive director Anthony Lake said everything must be done to address the reasons why so many children are separated from their families, and invest in new efforts to protect them, no matter where they live.
“These children have already been forced from the protection of their homes, only to be subjected to even greater risks on the streets,” Lake said.
There is an estimated 180 000 orphans in Namibia that have lost both parents mostly from HIV-AIDS, and 2 300 children living on the streets, of which 800 are in Windhoek.
Reports are that these Namibian children come from families with whom they have almost daily contact.
The conclusion Unicef has arrived at is that these children are driven to the streets by poverty, alcohol abuse and parental neglect.
“The issue of children working and living on the streets in African towns and cities is only the visible face of large-scale violations of rights,” commented Agnès Kabore Quattara, chairperson of the African committee of experts on the rights and welfare of the child.
“It is a consequence of socio-economic factors such as poverty, demographic expulsion, rural-urban migration, political crises, as well as inter-personal problems such as the violence and rejection at home in dysfunctional families,” she said.
Unicef said the role of families and communities must be strengthened, and that governments must invest adequate resources in the disadvantaged rural or provincial communities to reduce regional and group disparities.
The organisation said Namibia has made important gains in the implementation of the child rights framework and is among the first countries in Africa to ratify the Convention of the Rights of the Child, setting out the rights that must be realised for children to develop their full potential, be free from hunger, neglect and abuse.
“We need to strengthen the interventions that the government and non-governmental organisations are running to ensure that if children are living on the streets, hopefully only for a short period of time, they are protected from abuse and exploitation, protected of the impact of HIV and AIDS, and they have shelter, access to adequate food and nutrition and to basic healthcare,” said Unicef’s Namibian representative, Ian McLeod.
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