Street Children

Quote 1: “Children aren't colouring books. You don't get to fill them with your favourite colours.” (Hosseini 23)

The book “With No Direction Home: Homeless Youth on the Road and in the Streets” written by Marni Finkelstein refers to the homeless youth. This book describes the lifestyle of the teenagers with no home and explains with detail about what consist in their everyday lives in the streets of New York City. The purpose of this book is to explain to people who these kids are and to see life in their point of view. It explains the difference between street kids and the kids that live on the street. We need to understand that the kids that live on the streets have their own culture and their own way of surviving. Learning their point of view would be a great eye opening experience for everyone and to also understand their struggle. This book explains a study that was done to 50 street kids and life on the streets.

the children violence will increase because of the absence of their mothers. Their health will be affected in a bad way because the bad food which they eat from the street and rubbish. They also may fight with each other every day to have food, water and clothes which will reflect on their physical health. They will catch mental illness because of seeing the other children who have mother, father, good brothers and good sisters. In other words, the children who have someone to look after them, someone to give them a healthy food, someone to give them money, someone to play with them, someone to give them good education and good future, will make them feel with sadness. The number of homeless children should be decreased by any positive way.

During early modern Europe, children were viewed in many different ways which changed how parents chose to raise their children. During the 1500’s, the mortality rates for children were high, therefore children were viewed as if they were adults and very precious if they survived, many people believed that they needed to treat children harshly to make them strong. In the 1600’s, children were raised tenderly as they were rational beings that could use reason. Children were viewed in many ways during early modern Europe to be rational, precious, and in need of guidance where these views determined the parents’ choice in child rearing to behaving harshly to kind guidance.

In every community, boys and girls are left to find their own recreation and companionship in the streets. An

In every city there are neighborhoods that struggle with the issue of violence, crime and aggression. These neighborhoods have also taken on the names of slums and ghettos. The same areas where children are faced with growing up too fast because of the violence, crime and drug trafficking that has taken over these communities. Not only do these children and young adult face with these issues, they are also faced with the reality that in these disorganized neighborhoods, there is a breakdown of the traditional family therefore they must learn and master the code of conduct and or the rules of the streets in order to survive. Not to mention learning the demands of socially regarding displaying appropriate behavior when they are outside of the disorganized community.

Throughout the history of childhood development poor social and economic conditions contributed to the many hardships and poor treatment of children. During the early Middle Ages the "paternalist" family concept evolved and the father had authority and control over family matters including the welfare and safety of his wife and children. Discipline was severe, young children both poor and wealthy were subjected to strict rules and regulations and often beaten if disobedient. Children took on the responsibilities of adults at an early age, sharing in the work of siblings and parents. Girls from affluent families were educated at home and married in their teens. Some males were educated at a monastery and others became apprentices to

Throughout numerous areas around the globe, the reality of children living on the street has become a significant issue. This problem is mainly due to the family’s inability to provide adequate care and resources for their child, “Children end up on the streets for a number of reasons, many of which are rooted in family instability and poverty,” (The Children of the Street). Instead of worrying about what games to play or who to play with, these adolescents have to worry about what they will eat for the day or where they will sleep for the night. Children who have ended up on the streets are forced to fend for

“Orphans, Foundlings, waifs, half-orphans, street Arabs, and street urchins were terms used to describe abandoned children” (DiPasquale). In New York City alone, there were 30,000 homeless children in the 1850’s (The Orphan Trains). Children averaging from six to eighteen lived very homeless and neglecting lives and had little to no hope for a successful life. Children’s lives, orphanages, and Orphan Trains changed the way children lived during the 1800s.

Malinowski and Finklestein used similar concepts in their field study to acknowledge the depth of their study rather than using the “armchair approach” (12, 2014). Moreover the ethnographic methods used by Finklestein in approaching the youth of New York are also displayed in Kristina E. Gibson’s’ Street Kids: Homeless Youth, Outreach, and Policing New York’s Streets. Both being women researchers, their approaches were similar in wanting to seek the emotional perspective on the youth’s lives and experiences. Despite that both are women, Gibson uses a more feministic perspective in her ethnographic approach and she spends a longer duration of time in her study than Finklestein (2011, Gibson). Marni Finklestein uses methods such as interviewing and approaching the youth as a professional researcher, on the other hand, Kristina E. Gibson uses the methods of volunteering as a “street outreach”(2011, Gibson) worker. Gibson created her analysis based on the human geography, whereas Finklestein based her study on the basis of Anthropology. Although they both conducted their study by approaching the street kids of New York City, the concepts and the reasons for their research are different. Finklestein wants to provide information, about how the youths got on the street and what their

To maintain relationships – Each time we talk to a child we are maintaining our relationship with them.

Parents shape so much of our early lives and we rely so heavily on them that a strong bond is created

to make them happy and in order for them to like the child. For example, Children must not disturb their

Most mothers and fathers love their kids with all their heart. As a child begins to age, parents begin to influence their kids and will mold them as they mature. However, parents without much care for their kids will leave a long-term effect on their children and in this study, the main impact is the father.

Homelessness is the condition of people that do not have a permanent place to live, like a house or an apartment. The issue of homelessness is not subjected to one area, but it is a worldwide problem. Homelessness can result by depending upon a countries economy, and their government because the officials often ignores the issue. Manila, Philippines has 22.8 million who reside in the slums, and 1.2 million of those people are children who live by peddling, or begging on the streets, (Castillo). The Philippines is not the only country that has many homeless children that beg to live or peddle. The number of homeless children in the world is unnatural, and by being internationally intertwined we should put an end to homelessness, especially