Monday, April 4, 2011
Governmental approach to fight the poverty situation among children is disgustingly decreasing
John Eter, director of the Home of Hope orphanage in Kahale, on the mountains east of Beirut complains of decreasing governmental aid to institutions that help poverty-struck children.
Eter opened the Home of Hope orphanage, run through contributions to the Lebanese Evangelical Society (LES), in 1999.
The centre has accommodation for up to 150 boys and girls of any age - usually up to 18 - who sleep in dormitories, take three meals a day, play sports and receive schooling and counseling, including check-ups by a psychologist.
“These children are brought up in homes where it is normal for them to be beaten or even raped. Some have advanced drug addiction. We have a psychologist always here, but the best therapy for kids is other kids,” said Eter.
However, the Home of Hope is facing a drastic funding crisis. Eter said that since 2004 the government had reduced its support to the centre by 80 percent, meaning the budget of around US$500,000 has shrunk to around $30,000, just enough to feed and clothe the 64 children currently resident.
Two thirds of the teaching and support staff have already been laid off, with the remainder receiving letters announcing their dismissal by the end of August, when Eter said the centre would have to close in the absence of extra funds.
“I have made many appeals for money from the British and French embassies and from the European Union and USAID [US Agency for International Development], but they are not interested because the kids are not Lebanese. There is money for political activities but not for humanitarian,” said Eter.
Minister of Social Affairs Naila Mouawad, who herself runs a foundation which helps working children in Tripoli, north Lebanon, told IRIN that the Home of Hope had been awarded $200,000 from the government this year, but that payment had been severely delayed by the ongoing political deadlock.
IRIN. (2007, July). LEBANON: Government could do more to tackle child labour . Retrieved April 2011, from IRIN Middle East: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73288
Eter opened the Home of Hope orphanage, run through contributions to the Lebanese Evangelical Society (LES), in 1999.
The centre has accommodation for up to 150 boys and girls of any age - usually up to 18 - who sleep in dormitories, take three meals a day, play sports and receive schooling and counseling, including check-ups by a psychologist.
“These children are brought up in homes where it is normal for them to be beaten or even raped. Some have advanced drug addiction. We have a psychologist always here, but the best therapy for kids is other kids,” said Eter.
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| Image from IRIN Middle East: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73288 |
However, the Home of Hope is facing a drastic funding crisis. Eter said that since 2004 the government had reduced its support to the centre by 80 percent, meaning the budget of around US$500,000 has shrunk to around $30,000, just enough to feed and clothe the 64 children currently resident.
Two thirds of the teaching and support staff have already been laid off, with the remainder receiving letters announcing their dismissal by the end of August, when Eter said the centre would have to close in the absence of extra funds.
“I have made many appeals for money from the British and French embassies and from the European Union and USAID [US Agency for International Development], but they are not interested because the kids are not Lebanese. There is money for political activities but not for humanitarian,” said Eter.
Minister of Social Affairs Naila Mouawad, who herself runs a foundation which helps working children in Tripoli, north Lebanon, told IRIN that the Home of Hope had been awarded $200,000 from the government this year, but that payment had been severely delayed by the ongoing political deadlock.
IRIN. (2007, July). LEBANON: Government could do more to tackle child labour . Retrieved April 2011, from IRIN Middle East: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73288
International Labor Organization and Lebanese child beggars
According to Dr. Nabil Watfa of the International Labour Organization, there are roughly 100,000 children currently working in the country, including those on the streets.
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| Logo catched from ndphs.com |
Some of these children are the victims of coercion an organised crime. “Many children are forced to work as beggars, and even prostitutes, by organised gangs, which pay them with cigarettes or drugs,” said Jannot Sanah, a psychological supervisor at the Lebanese Evangelical Institute for Social Work and Development.
The institute is one of very few in Lebanon devoted to the issue of street children and the only one working in cooperation with the social affairs ministry.
According to statistics, the institute sheltered 239 children in 2004 and 172 last year. From the beginning of 2006, the centre has received around 90 children, 60 of whom have chosen to remain at the centre. Sanah attributed the drop to “the security situation and tightening security measures on the Syria-Lebanon border, where many of these children and gangs come from”.
Despite its good work, however, the institute – which is financed primarily through donations – is facing hard times. Promised monies from the social affairs ministry have been several months late, said Sanah, which has resulted in a major funding shortfall.
IRIN. (2006, July). LEBANON: Street children - victims of organised crime. Retrieved April 2011, from Web Archive: http://web.archive.org/web/20070214065729/http:/www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54357&SelectRegion=Middle_East
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Young beggars of Beirut must be helped!
Not only do the Lebanese police not take these young beggars off the streets, but they actually harass them.
I conducted two separate interviews with child beggar, a 9 year-old boy who sells flowers on the street of Bliss and an 11 year-old girl who begs on Hamra. Both children complained from police harassment and/or brutality.
While the girl complained from the day she had to run from a policeman who called her very offensive names as he chased her out of Hamra, the boy complained from more than one incident where he was physically bullied.
He never really hurt him, he stated, but they would fancy picking on him and shoving him around.
These two represent the struggles of many people who will never see a helping hand as long as they are regarded a little less inferior than human beings.
I conducted two separate interviews with child beggar, a 9 year-old boy who sells flowers on the street of Bliss and an 11 year-old girl who begs on Hamra. Both children complained from police harassment and/or brutality.
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| Image from All Voice Website: http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/8409170-2-us-marshals-1-police-officer-shot-in-st-louis-police-say/image/66368558-a-lebanese-police-officer-patrols-in-beirut |
While the girl complained from the day she had to run from a policeman who called her very offensive names as he chased her out of Hamra, the boy complained from more than one incident where he was physically bullied.
He never really hurt him, he stated, but they would fancy picking on him and shoving him around.
These two represent the struggles of many people who will never see a helping hand as long as they are regarded a little less inferior than human beings.
Statistics concerning child labor/begging in Beirut
In 1995, Medical students at the American University of Beirut interviewed a total of 69 street boys and four street girls working in Beirut.
The work of these children ranged from selling cigarettes, newspapers, chewing gum, collecting or scavenging garbage, and begging.
Of those interviewed, 67 percent started working between 7 and 15 years and came from the outskirts of Beirut or from the northern district of Tripoli (50.7%) or from shacks or camps (49.3%). 49 percent were identified as gypsies, 33 percent as Syrians and 18 percent as Lebanese.
Around 73 percent of those interviewed in the AUB study came from families with two parents, 5 percent from divorced parents and 18 percent were orphans. They worked 10-11 hours per day, and their take-home earnings amounted to about 69 percent after a trafficker’s cut.
RUSSEAU, S. (2011). Child labor in Lebanon: A breakdown. Retrieved April 2011, from Menassat Website: 2011
The work of these children ranged from selling cigarettes, newspapers, chewing gum, collecting or scavenging garbage, and begging.
Of those interviewed, 67 percent started working between 7 and 15 years and came from the outskirts of Beirut or from the northern district of Tripoli (50.7%) or from shacks or camps (49.3%). 49 percent were identified as gypsies, 33 percent as Syrians and 18 percent as Lebanese.
RUSSEAU, S. (2011). Child labor in Lebanon: A breakdown. Retrieved April 2011, from Menassat Website: 2011
The number of young beggars in Beirut is rising
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| Image from Sietske's blog http://sietske-in-beiroet.blogspot.com/2009_12_01_archive.html |
Zeina, with her green eyes, taps on a car window wither dirty little hands, begging to sell her chewing gum before nightfall. "So please buy one, I have to sell them all in order to buy bread for my family," Zeina pleads, with tears in her eyes.
The little blonde girl said she has mainly lived on the streets since she was eight to help her family survive.
"I have been begging, selling roses, chewing gum, or washing windows since I was eight," she said. "My father left us because my mother got sick."
Zeina is only one of thousands of children who try to eke out a living on the streets of Lebanon’s cities these days. A few of the street children are forced to beg by their parents, while the rest are victims of some notorious gangs who push them towards flesh trades and slavery.
Deutsche Presse-Agentur. (2008, March). Street children becoming a new problem on Lebanon's streets . Retrieved April 2011, from EarthTimes Website: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/193007,street-children-becoming-a-new-problem-on-lebanons-streets--feature.html
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