Name: Wendy Pisco Course: 2nd IB “C”

Running Away & Homelessness

If you're thinking of running away from

home, you need to get the facts first - it's
cold and scary out there.

Being homeless is scary, cold and

dangerous

Running away is my only way out

Before you do it, talk to someone about

your options. You can speak to people
anonymously and for free by calling
theNational Missing People Helpline.
Being homeless is scary, cold and
dangerous. Wouldn't you rather find out the alternatives before giving it a go?

I just can't stay at home

OK, these are your options:

If you're 16 or 17, homeless and in danger, Social Services have to provide you with
accommodation, usually in a hostel sharing with other homeless people.

If you're under 16 and leave home, your parents are still legally responsible for you. If you're
staying with another adult, they can apply for a residence order for you to stay with them if
there's a clear reason why you can't return home.

If you're under 16 and don't have another adult to stay with, you need to talk to someone about
your options. Remember that by law you've got to go to school, you can't claim benefits and you
can't work full-time. Many young people in this situation end up sleeping rough on the streets.
So before you do anything, talk to social services.

There are also services aimed at preventing homelessness, by helping families sort out the
reasons why teens want to leave home.

You may think that running away will make things better, but sometimes things can get a lot
worse. There are risks from other people on the streets, and you are vulnerable. You could also
get ill with hypothermia or pneumonia, especially in colder months. You still need to eat and
sleep. So it's worth talking to social services before making any decisions.

Source:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2pJWJ2LqcNkJFyW9QbP5yLb/running-away-
homelessness
NRS Statistics on Runaways
 

All statistics listed on this page come from peer-reviewed journals and federal studies. 

Prevalence of runaways
Between 1.6 and 2.8 million youth run away in a year. 

Youth aged 12-17 are at higher risk for homelessness than adults.  

Motivations for running away

47% of runaway / homeless youth indicated that conflict between them and their parent or
guardian was a major problem. 

Over 50% of youth in shelters and on the streets reported that their parents either told them to
leave or knew they were leaving but did not care. 80% of runaway and homeless girls reported
having ever been sexually or physically abused. 34% of runaway youth (girls and boys) reported
sexual abuse before leaving home and forty-three percent of runaway youth (girls and boys)
reported physical abuse before leaving home. 7

Childhood abuse increases youths' risk for later victimization on the street. Physical abuse is
associated with elevated risk of assaults for runaway and homeless youth, while sexual abuse is
associated with higher risk of rape for runaway and homeless youth.

Commercial Sexual Exploitation Of Children

Nine percent of runaway youth in a non-random sample of over 1,600 youth reported engaging
in survival sex at some point in their lives.

Approximately 10% of shelter youths and 28% of street youths report having participated in
survival sex. Survival sex includes the exchange of sex for shelter, food, drugs, or other
subsistence needs.

Source:

http://www.1800runaway.org/learn/research/third_party/
What about the throw away child?

By Tammi Pitzen, Director of the Children’s Advocacy Center of Jackson County

Recently I spent time learning about child sex trafficking in the United States. Sex trafficking is
the most common form of modern-day slavery.

Estimates place the number of  domestic and international sex trafficking victims in the
millions.
Most of the victims of sex trafficking are females and children. It is the fastest growing business
of organized crime, and the third-largest criminal enterprise in the world.
It is a complicated issue. It is an issue that we are not, as a country, prepared to recognize as a
problem. We rest easier at night thinking that it happens in other countries or third world
countries.

In early June I sat in a plenary session at a national leadership conference in Washington DC

and was surprised to learn that Portland Oregon has one of the highest populations of child
sex trafficking victims in the country. Right here in my own backyard! I also learned that a
very high number of these child sex trafficking victims are coming out of the foster care system
as run aways, aging out of the foster care system, or connected to the foster care system in some
other way. When I heard that, I have to say, my heart filled with sorrow.
I learned that many of these young victims are forced to have sex with multiple partners in a day
— making upwards of $1500 dollars a day — but go to sleep hungry because they are not
allowed to keep any of the money.

I have spent many hours sitting and listening to how big a problem child sex trafficking is. I
have heard these victims referred to as invisible victims. And I have learned that they are
invisible only because we refuse to see them.

These children, many times, are on the streets for years. Missed by no one. Never searched for.
For all intents and purposes — thrown away.

We may refer to them as child prostitutes, but there is no such thing as a child prostitute.
Children cannot consent legally to any sexual contact. They are not complicit in their own
abuse.
Many groups have begun to tackle this problem, but I am afraid we are not equipped to meet
these young victims where they are. We need to adjust our traditional interventions to meet their
needs in a better way.

I am the first to admit that I don’t know what the answer is, but I am hopeful that the answer is
out there waiting to be discovered.

You may be asking what you can do now to help. My answer is simple: Do not close your
eyes.
• If you see a child living on the street — make a report to your local authorities.
• If a child in your life runs away, please report it to the authorities.
• Educate yourself on the scope of the problem. Become part of the solution.
• Do not excuse the adult perpetrators of these crimes by blaming the child or by calling this a
victimless crime.
• Remember this no matter what: A child is a child and an adult is an adult. The adult is always
responsible for anything that is between the adult and a child.
• Let your legislators know that this issue is important and deserves to be part of our work to
protect children.
• If you see or hear of children being abused in their home — report it. Most child sex
trafficking victims become run aways because they are running from something and sometimes
that something is abuse in their home.

Do not “throw away” these children. If you do, someone will “rescue” them, and it may
not be someone who has pure intentions doing the rescuing.
Source:

http://throughtheireyescac.com/tag/throw-away-children/

Street Children in Colombia

In Bogota, the capital of Colombia, the street children are known as “gamines”. But this is the
polite name. More frequently they are referred to as “throwaway children”.

Colombia is a country which has been shattered

by civil war for many years. Poverty is rife.
Unemployment, a shortage of housing and a
complete lack of social welfare threatens the very
existence of much of the country’s population. It
is often the children who suffer most in this cycle
of poverty and family disintegration. They are
left to their own devices and sent out on to the
street to work, beg and steal. Parents, struggling
to survive themselves, often have very little
interest in the fate of their children. The gamines,
orphans and outcasts form street gangs to protect
one another and counter their loneliness. They
steal to survive, work as drug runners, take drugs themselves and sniff glue to mitigate the
hunger, cold and misery.
In some areas these small hungry thieves and their criminal activities drive customers away
from local businesses. The disadvantaged traders devised a solution that is almost unbelievable.
They hired “death squads” to clean up the streets, and during the 1990s thousands of street
children were just murdered.

Something to smile about at last?

More recently numerous individuals and voluntary organisations have launched programmes
which aim to wean the children away from their lives of street crime and re-integrate them into
society.

SOS Children’s Villages set up its “Nueva Vida”

Social Centre in the San Vitorino district of
Bogota as early as 1990. The Centre provides a
place where the gamines can sleep and be fed.
But it is not always easy to persuade the children
to give up their previous existence. Street life is
basic, harsh and unpleasant. But the gangs to
which the children belong become substitute
families and provide them with a basic level of
comradeship and security. They do not adapt
easily to the requirements of a more ordered and
social environment. However, the staff there are
now loved and respected by the children as you
can see.

“Nueva Vida” found that its success rate in

rehabilitating street children was improved by
involving mothers in the work and activities of
the center. Increasing the awareness among
women and children that they can actively shape
their own lives, and that a life away from the
street is possible, is a process of many small
steps. But with care and perseverance the Centre
is helping many families, who used to be outcasts of society, to find their way back to a life

Source:

http://www.street-children.org.uk/south-america/colombia